Turnitin (Tii) is a “similarity check” tool that you can enable in Canvas assignments. Tii identifies text in student papers that matches against the text in websites, publications, and other student papers in the Tii database. This document shows you how to enable Tii on your assignments and what you will see when your student has submitted a Tii-enabled assignment and how to view the Tii similarity scores.

Enforcement Tool or Learning Tool?

Concerns over the use of Tii have to do with it being used as a plagiarism detective. Critics are quick to point out that plagiarism checkers can be fooled and can be inaccurate in what they identify (or fail to identify) as matched text. And, that’s at the heart of it—Tii matches submitted text to text in a database; it can’t identify student intent. What appears to be cheating may actually be a lack of knowledge on how to write in an academic setting and how to cite a source properly.

Consider this scenario in which Tii is used as a learning tool. You’ve assigned a final project and told your students they must submit original work and cite their outside sources. Draft and final assignments have Tii enabled and are set up to allow students to see their similarity reports. You let students know how to locate and interpret the report. If they disagree with the report or have questions about it, they can make an appointment with you or the writing center on their campus for help in preparing their final submission. In this scenario, Tii is a learning tool. You can use Tii to help your students understand more about their writing and how to incorporate outside information in support of their theses or arguments while giving proper credit to outside sources. The rest of this document focuses on using Tii as a learning tool rather than as a policing device.

Best Practices

Here are some tips we’ve learned from working with different instructors and courses:

Always review the similarity report. The % of similarity isn’t meaningful on its own – reading the report is essential to identify if plagiarism is actually occurring. For instance, students may have copied the question prompt into their paper, resulting in high similarity within all the papers in the assignment.
Be clear in your expectations. Let students know that outside sources should be cited. Sometimes visual images or infographics can be useful in explaining what constitutes plagiarism. Refer students to the Academic Integrity policy in your Syllabus, and to the Code of Conduct they agreed to at the beginning of the course.
Point students to a source(s) that can help them with citation and writing (e.g., Purdue Online Writing Lab, Business Writing & Business Presentations Studio).
Tell students where to find the similarity report and how to interpret it. By default, students see their similarity report, so they may be concerned if they encounter it and they do not know what it means.
Because student work may be saved into a repository, advise students not to put their names in the text of their document in order to protect their privacy.
Don’t single out students. Enable Turnitin for all student submissions for a given assignment. Using this each term will also help you build a history of student submissions within the Tii database. Here is some example language you can use in your syllabus regarding the use of Tii:
- Student papers in this course may be submitted to Turnitin for text that matches websites, publications, and other student papers in the Turnitin database, potentially indicating plagiarism. Students have the right to remove their names from papers before uploading to Turnitin-enabled assignments to protect their privacy. If you have concerns about submitting to the Turnitin repository or have other questions about Turnitin, please contact me. If you would like more information about academic misconduct, please review the Code of Conduct and the Academic Integrity policy in the Syllabus.
Select the setting to show the report to students immediately. This allows students to view their similarity report, make corrections, and resubmit their work.
Tell students how to interpret their similarity report and how to click through the matched text.
In addition to the above, please read 20 Best Practices for Using Turnitin Feedback Studio.

Tii Assignment Settings

Be sure to let your students know when you have enabled Tii on an assignment, when they will be able to access their report, and how the similarity report will be used in relation to their grade (if at all). For example, let them know what percentage of similarity is acceptable/unacceptable and what you would like them to do in response to the report.

To use Tii as a learning tool, set up a draft assignment and a final assignment.

To Set up the Draft Assignment

When setting up the draft assignment you will elect to not store the submitted drafts. This is so that when final assignments are submitted, they will not be matched against the draft.

Click in to the assignment.
For Submission Type, select Online.
For Online entry options, select File Uploads.
For Plagiarism Review, select Do not store the submitted papers.
For Compare submissions against: select all three options: Student repository, Website content, and Periodicals, journals and publications.
For Show report to students, select Immediately.
Optionally, select Enable grammar checking using ETS e-rater technology. This will highlight common grammar issues with the student’s submission in the similarity report.

If the assignment is a group assignment, for Group Assignment, select This is a Group Assignment. Each student will have access to the same similarity report for that submitted assignment.

To Set up the Final Assignment

When setting up the final assignment you will elect to store the submitted assignments in the standard paper repository so that they can be compared to other submissions.

Click in to the assignment.
For Submission Type, select Online.
For Online entry options, select File Uploads.
For Plagiarism Review, select Turnitin.
For Store submissions in, select Standard paper repository.
For Compare submissions against: select all three options: Student repository, Website content, and Periodicals, journals and publications.
For Show report to students, select Immediately.
Optionally, select Enable grammar checking using ETS e-rater technology. This will highlight common grammar issues with the student’s submission in the similarity report.

If the assignment is a group assignment, for Group Assignment, select This is a Group Assignment. Each student will have access to the same similarity report for that submitted assignment.

Excusably High Similarity Report Scores? Adjust Some Assignment Settings

If you find that your students are receiving high similarity scores for common issues, such as quoted material, modify the following settings for the draft assignment and/or the final assignment.

Click in to the assignment.
In the Plagiarism Review section, under Similarity Report, click to turn on the following options:
- Exclude bibliographic materials.
- Exclude quoted materials.
- Exclude small sources.
- Choose Words.
- For Set source exclusion threshold, enter a 5.
- Click Save.

Availability of the Tii Similarity Report

As an instructor, the similarity report is available to you immediately after a student submits an assignment (see the section called Viewing Similarity Report below).

We recommend that you select the setting to show the report to students immediately as well.

If you elect to show the report after the assignment is graded, the report will be available to your students as soon as you enter a grade regardless of the grade posting policy in effect. That is, they will be able to see their similarity report, not necessarily their grade.

If you elect to show the report after the due date, the report will be available to your students once the due date passes regardless of whether the assignment has been graded or the grade posting policy in effect. That is, they will be able to see their similarity report, not necessarily their grade.

Viewing the Tii Similarity Report in SpeedGrader

These steps are the same regardless of whether the assignment is an individual or group assignment:

Click into the assignment.
Click SpeedGrader.
Select the student whose submission you want to grade.

Their submission appears in the main window

To the right of the main window, the submission details are shown.

If the report is in progress, you will see a small clock . Allow some additional time and then check back for the report.

If the report is ready, a colored icon appears with the file. The color signifies the level of similarity as does the percentage inside the icon.

Click the colored icon, to go to the similarity report. You may first have to click an End User Agreement.

For information on interpreting the report, see the section called About the Similarity Report below.

Viewing the Tii Similarity Report in Grades

Once a student has submitted a file, you can go to the Grades area to see which submissions have completed Tii reports.

If the report is in progress, you will see a small clock . Allow some additional time and then check back for the report.

If the report is ready, a colored icon appears with the file. The color gives some indication as to the similarity score. The icon is not clickable; you must access the report from SpeedGrader.

About the Similarity Report and Tii Feedback Studio

When you click to see a similarity report, you leave Canvas and are taken to Tii’s Feedback Studio. The assignment submission appears in the main window.

Similarity/Originality. Passages that were matched to other sources are highlighted and numbered. Clicking a number reveals the source where matching text was found.

The color of the icon indicates the similarity score of the paper, based on the amount of matching or similar text that was uncovered. The percentage range is 0% to 100%. The possible similarity ranges are:

Blue: No matching text
Green: One word to 24% matching text
Yellow: 25-49% matching text
Orange: 50-74% matching text
Red: 75-100% matching text

Spelling/Grammar. Although you may have enabled ETS handbook checks for spelling and grammar, this mark-up is not shown for the instructor. Students will see passages highlighted and marked with an abbreviation signifying the type of error. Students can click the abbreviation to reveal a brief description of the error.

NOTE: Students can download their similarity report from the Tii Feedback Studio. They may want to do this especially if they decide to revise and resubmit their assignment.

Running an Individual Paper through Tii

It is possible to submit an individual paper to Tii. However, we recommend against this for at least a couple reasons:

an individual student could feel that they are being unfairly singled out, and
you miss the opportunity to build a set of papers in the repository to check against in future assignments.

So, what if you strongly suspect plagiarism, but didn’t set up Turnitin on the assignment? First, talk with your student. If the student denies it, ask if they would consent to their submission being run through Tii.

You can either submit the paper to an assignment as a test student, or use the instructions below to submit directly to Tii.

Setting up your Turnitin account

If you have created a Turnitin-enabled assignment in Canvas then you already have an account. You just need to reset your password to access the account.

Go to https://www.turnitin.com.
Choose “Login:” from the upper right.
Select “Forgot Your Password”.
Fill out the Email address (use your home campus email address) and last name dialogue boxes.
Choose the “Submit” button.
Check your campus email, you should have an email from Turnitin. If you do not immediately see the email please check your spam folder.
Click the reset password button in that email.
Choose a new password.
Submit button.
Choose a new security question and answer combination.
Submit button.
Now test your new login and password combination.

Use the following instructions for using quick submit: