What is it?
Turnitin Assignments are a way to collect student work that is private between the student and the instructor, while simultaneously checking the document for plagiarism. The instructor creates the Turnitin Assignment area, which also creates a column in the grade center. The student then attaches their work to the assignment so it can be checked by Turnitin and viewed by the instructor.
Features
- Allows instructors to collect work directly through Brightspace
- Checks work for plagiarism
- Generates an originality report to show instructors (and students, depending on setting choices) what parts of the document are not original
- Most file types can be viewed directly in Brightspace
- Student submissions can be downloaded and/or printed, as necessary
- Automatically creates a column in the grade center
- Instructors can provide grades and feedback through Turnitin/Brightspace
- When an assignment is graded, the grade is automatically added to the grade center
- Availability dates can be set to control when students can submit work
Best Use Cases
- Collecting student work that doesn't need to be shared with other students
- Collecting work that requires plagiarism checking
- Word documents, PDF documents, PowerPoint files
Considerations for Use
- Plagiarism reports can take some time to generate depending on volume (i.e. during high volume times, such as near midterm or finals week, turnaround may be slower than normal)
- Students cannot upload files larger than 40MB
- Students should make sure they receive a submission confirmation number and they should retain this number so that in the rare case where a document is not received, Turnitin can track the file
- Instructors should advise students in the syllabus that Turnitin retains student work (anonymously) in a database for comparative purposes
For how to use the Brightspace Turnitin Integration see our own video tutorial and Brightspace's Documentation
Notes
When creating a Turnitin Assignment, there is a section called Optional Settings. You can use the settings in this section to customize your use of Turnitin; make sure to read descriptions and use cases thoroughly to ensure your assignment operates as you wish.
Important:
Pay careful attention to the Repository Options. The repository is where Turnitin stores student submissions as part of its cross-referencing database. If you have students submit more than one draft of a paper, be sure only set the final draft to save to the repository; otherwise, later versions of the paper will be cross-referenced against earlier versions and will return inconclusive originality reports.
TurnItin FAQ
What is the difference between “Manually sync grades as Draft in Brightspace” and “Automatically sync grades as Draft" in Turnitin settings?
Always use "Automatically sync grades as Draft". There is no good reason to use the manual option because it adds more work with no apparent benefit. Rather than being able to publish all Turnitin grades/feedback at once, you'd have to manually set grades one by one using the "use grade" for each submission.
Is it possible to automatically transfer grades/feedback from Turnitin to Brightspace, without the instructor publishing results?
No, Turnitin always requires the instructor to publish results in order for students to see grades/feedback.
Can instructors show students Turnitin feedback before assigning them a grade?
It is possible but with drawbacks. In order for students to see any results of a Turnitin submission an instructor must publish that submission's results. An instructor could choose to publish the results when only feedback has been entered, but no grades. However, once results have been published, further publishing for a student's submission will not update the Brightspace grades area. The result is that if an instructor publishes feedback, but no grades, they would be unable to publish grades in the future, and would need to either go student by student selecting "Use this grade", or they would need to manually enter grades in the Brightspace grades area.
Brightspace Ticket: Support and Services
The associated support ticket form covers all types of BrightSpace requests, including questions about the migration and training materials.