Turnitin

Description

"Turnitin is an academic integrity tool that is integrated with Canvas at UW-Madison" (UW-Madison, 2023). It gives instructors and students similarity comparisons for work submitted through Canvas's Assignment tool. Turnitin compares assignment submissions to websites, publications, other students' work, and more.

Access

For InterPro's purposes, Turnitin should only be accessed through Canvas, not using Turnitin's website. Turnitin - Using Turnitin with Canvas [UW-Madison]  explains how to:

• Configure Turnitin with a Canvas assignment
• Access the Turnitin Similarity Report (via Canvas Gradebook or SpeedGrader)
• Interpret the Similarity Report

Application

At UW-Madison, we use the Turnitin Canvas Integration. InterPro has the option to use this tool when requesting students to submit reports, research, and other types of original writing. This encourages students to practice academic integrity and learn how to cite sources properly. For more on academic integrity, see Professional Development University Policies.

It is recommended that InterPro instructors use the following settings when using Turnitin for assignments:

• Store submissions in: Institution paper repository
  • This is required to compare submissions against other UW-Madison students' work. However, there may be scenarios where "Do not store the submitted papers" is a better option (e.g., to protect a student's original work).
• Compare submissions against: Student repository, Institutional repository, Website content, Periodicals, journals, and publications (check all boxes).
• Similarity Report: Leave all boxes unchecked.
• Show report to students: Immediately
  • This allows students to check their work and reflect on their citation practices.

Limitations

The similarity score on Turnitin's Similarity Report does not automatically tell instructors whether or not the student plagiarized their work. "The similarity score is a percentage of a paper's content that matches to Turnitin's databases; it is not an assessment of whether the paper includes plagiarized material." (Turnitin, 2023).

Copying or importing a Canvas course will preserve an assignment's Turnitin settings (Turnitin, 2023). However, duplicating an assignment will cause the Plagiarism Review field to default to None, and the Turnitin settings will need to be reconfigured (Turnitin, 2023).

Currently, Turnitin capabilities can only be accessed through the Assignment tool in Canvas. They are not available for discussion forums or essay questions in quizzes (Turnitin, 2023). Additionally, assignment submissions must conform to the accepted file types and sizes in order to generate a Similarity Report (Turnitin, 2023). The Turnitin Canvas integration also has some accessibility barriers, as discussed in Turnitin - Accessibility & Usability Information [UW-Madison].

Resources

Turnitin Setup and Settings

• Creating an assignment with Turnitin
• Submission storage options
• Choosing comparison repositories
• Customizing the Similarity Report
• Setting Similarity Report availability

Navigating the Similarity Report

• Understanding the Similarity Report
• Accessing the Similarity Report
  • Viewing similarity matches
  • Viewing sources
• Paper View Requests (used for managing high similarity matches)