With the semester well underway we thought it would be useful to share helpful advice for common Turnitin queries. Staff are welcome to contact us at TEL tel@worc.ac.uk, for any technical assistance with Turnitin issues. Whether you need a hand with settings, information about rubrics and grading, or if your students require help with a problem.
5 Staff Turnitin Problems and Solutions:
- How to Check or Change the Settings:
Ahead of students submitting their work, we recommend checking your Turnitin settings for individual submission points. If you are a newer member of staff, you can refer to our Submission Point guidance. New or existing staff can contact the TEL Unit for any Turnitin training needs.
- Changing the due date and time:
Certain Turnitin settings are greyed out once a submission point has been created. It is possible to change the due date and time in Blackboard instead: Checking or Changing the Settings
- Anonymous Marking:
Anonymous Marking is an optional setting which can be applied up until the first student submission attempt. Unfortunately, after students have begun to submit, it is then not possible to add this setting. If there is time, you could instead create a new submission point to allow students to resubmit anonymously.
If you need to reveal a student’s name in an anonymous assignment, please see our Turnitin Guide: Academic Integrity
- Turnitin Rubrics:
We have the following instructions for creating Rubrics and for Exporting and Importing Rubrics: Exporting Rubrics. Once created rubrics belong to an individual user’s account, so the only way to share a rubric is through exporting them as a .rbc file. If Rubric (.rbc) files need to be available for different staff members to use in Turnitin, these could be saved in a central location to store securely, and make them easily accessible to course teams. (Such as a SharePoint site – in case of staff absence, or if a staff member later leaves the University.) Please be aware that .rbc files will not open in other applications; just Turnitin. So, the files can only be stored, but not opened or viewed elsewhere.
- Similarity Report Queries:
We have guidance for Similarity reports in Turnitin, Submission Point – which includes our recommended ‘Similarity Report’ settings, the default ‘Compare against’ settings and how to ‘Exclude assignment template’ (if you have used one) from similarity matches.
‘Optional Settings’ in Turnitin allow you to choose to store papers in the ‘Standard paper repository‘ if this is a summative assessment, or ‘Do not store the submitted papers‘ if it is for formative use. When papers are stored in the ‘Standard Paper repository’, this means they are held in the ‘Global Turnitin Repository’. With the recommended assignment settings, students can view their similarity reports after each submission attempt, however, on the fourth submission they will need to wait 24 hours for the next similarity report to generate. Shortly after the due date and time has passed, Turnitin will run an additional ‘collusion check’, comparing all students’ submissions for the assignment.
For interpreting Similarity matches our TEL Turnitin guide gives an overview: Originality Report. This includes how to:
- Use the ‘Exclude sources’ button,
- Re-add sources back in
- Or how to alter filters for an assignment by adjusting thresholds to run a ‘New Report’ – if needed.
The Turnitin integration in the VLE uses the Feedback studio, ‘Classic’ similarity report view: Turnitin Online Guide: Navigating the Similarity Report – Turnitin Guides.
Please feel free to contact TEL tel@worc.ac.uk if you have any questions about similarity report anomalies. If required, TEL can also contact Turnitin UK directly.
*A note about Self-Plagiarism matches in the VLE: Turnitin is designed to find matches for self-plagiarism for Turnitin assignments held in different Blackboard modules, but self matches are normally automatically filtered out for different submission points within the same Blackboard module.
Our main TEL Turnitin resources and support pages are:
Staff:
- TEL Turnitin Guide: Turnitin for Online Assessment
- Turnitin enabled Blackboard assignments: Turnitin Originality Reports in Blackboard Assignments – Technology Enhanced Learning Unit
Students:
We will send out a follow up Turnitin Blog post later this semester, which will focus on common student queries that academic staff may encounter. It will include extra troubleshooting fixes and information about where to sign-post students for further technical advice from TEL. Please continue to contact TEL tel@worc.ac.uk with any staff or student Turnitin problems.
