Category:Turnitin
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Why use Turnitin instead of the normal Assignment function?
Turnitin is an online service that is integrated as a Building Block with our Blackboard installation. Like SafeAssign, it enables institutions and staff to carry out electronic comparison of students' work against electronic sources including other students' work. This tool helps staff to detect plagiarism easily. Plagiarized content comes from three main sources:
- the Internet
- published works
- other student papers
Search engines do not have access to either published works or student papers, so no amount of Googling will help in these cases.
However, it is important to note that electronic plagiarism detection cannot solve the problem of plagiarism. Detection should be used as part of a wider approach to prevention. It should be used in connection with the Blackboard module "Avoiding Plagiarism" to which staff and students can self-enrol.
Turnitin also enables online and anonymous marking (see below).
More information:
- Turnitin movies and manuals - see the ones for Blackboard 8.0+.
Please note that when creating a Turnitin assignment in your course, it is worth adding an explanatory note as the look of the tool and process followed is slightly different from the normal Blackboard Assignment function. Students will browse to upload a file as usual but then be shown a preview of the file they have uploaded, which shows only the text - this is so they can confirm they have uploaded the correct file. Therefore it may be worth adding a note such as: When you have uploaded your assignment, you will see the a preview box showing only the text of your document. This is just so you can confirm that it is the correct file. The formatting of your document will not be affected. In addition students will receive a reference number confirming their submission.
See also: information for students.
If you are concerned about legal issues regarding data protection please read the Data Protection Fact Sheet.
For advice on setting up a Turnitin Assignment in your course please see: Creating a Turnitin assignment
Online Marking
The online marking function within Turnitin is known as GradeMark. Please see the separate page about GradeMark.
Anonymous Marking
It is now possible to change the settings for Turnitin online submission of assignments to anonymous marking. This new anonymous marking feature provides tutors with the ability to view and mark students' work without knowing the identity of the author.The approach adopted will allow tutors to hide students' names from their assignment inbox and also from the Originality Report and GradeMark view to allow for unbiased marking. Once the post date for the assignment is reached student names will then be shown. It will also be possible to reveal student names prior to this date if necessary, however the tutor will be required to provide an explanation of why he is overwriting this setting, and this change will be notified to the central institutional account Administrator, to ensure that the integrity of the anonymous marking system is maintained.
Downloading Turnitin assignments
There is a different process to follow in order to download the assignments which have been submitted via Turnitin instead of through the normal Blackboard assignment. (Regarding the normal ones see Category:Assignments.)
Turnitin assignments are accessed via the special TurnitinUK Assignments link in the Control Panel > Course Tools area.
- Within the relevant module, go to Control Panel, and click on TurnitinUK Assignments.
- Select the required assignment (click on >> View).
- If you tick the box next to where it says author you can select all the students shown on that page. (You will need to repeat if the student list goes on for multiple pages.)
- Click the download box and save the compressed folder to your computer (ideally on to a network drive).
Supported internet browsers:
Please read the latest information regarding supported browsers on the Turnitin Help Centre.
Also, make sure the following browser settings are enabled:
- SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0
- javascript
And if your browser has a section for trusted sites, please enter these two URLs:
If you are behind a firewall or have a spam filter configured, make sure you add the following to your whitelist:
- turnitin.com
- lists.turnitin.com
- hd.turnitin.com
