Turnitin Instructor Guide

Request and set up a Turnitin account

1. To use Turnitin for the first time as an instructor, you will need to request an account from us in the LT Hub using our contact form.
   • If you have a teaching assistant (TA) who has already been appointed and will need access to your Turnitin class, please send us your TA's name and UBC employee email as well.
2. After your account is created, you will receive an email from Turnitin. It will contain a link to set up your account using your email address and last name.
3. To finish setting up your account, you will receive a second email with a link to set up your password and security question. Note that your password must be at least eight characters long.
4. After you receive an email that your account setup is complete, you will be able to log in to Turnitin from turnitin.com.

Create your Turnitin class

Get started with Turnitin by creating a class. Then you can add students and assignments.

1. Log in to Turnitin at turnitin.com using your email address and Turnitin password.
2. Click Add Class.
3. Enter the required information (marked with a red asterisk) to create a new class, including the following:
   • Class type - There are two types of classes in Turnitin: standard and master. The main difference is that a master class lets you create sections and add TAs. If you will use sections and/or want to provide a TA (or a co-instructor) access to your course, please choose "Master".
   • Enrollment key - Fill in this field with the code that you will give your students to verify that they can enroll. This field will only appear if your class is a standard class; for a master class, enrollment keys will be set later for each section.
   • Class end date - Once this date has passed, students can no longer enrol in the class or submit assignments. The default end date for classes is twelve months from the start, but you can extend the end date at any time.
4. Click Submit to add your class.
5. You will see a pop-up window with your class ID and enrollment key. Copy these down so you can share them with students later, then click Continue.
6. If your class is a master and you want to add sections and/or give TAs access to your course, follow the steps to create a new section for your class.
   • Turnitin will need your TA's information for this process. Please note that only one TA can be assigned per section.

Manage student enrollments in your Turnitin class

We recommend that you let students self-enroll, rather than enroll them yourself. Self-enrollment allows students to decide how they want to share their personal information with the tool.

Note that, to ensure your use of Turnitin complies with UBC privacy requirements, students must also be offered an option to use an alias. This step is included in the process below.

Set up an assignment in your Turnitin class

In Turnitin, you can collect written work that can automatically be reviewed by Turnitin for potential plagiarism.

1. Log in to Turnitin at turnitin.com using your email address and Turnitin password, and click the class name.
2. Click Add Assignment.
3. Enter the assignment title and select the start date, due date, and post date. The post date is when your marks and feedback are released to the students. Optionally, you can also enter a point value for the assignment.
4. Click Optional settings. Optional settings let you add instructions, allow late submissions, and customize how the initial check for potential plagiarism will be run. These plagiarism-checking settings are under the "Similarity Report" heading:
   • Generate Similarity Reports for submissions? - Select "Yes" to have the initial plagiarism-checking report run.
   • Generate Similarity Reports for student submission? - Select when you would like the initial report generated: a) immediately upon submission and the student cannot resubmit, b) immediately upon submission and the student can resubmit (and a new report will be generated), or c) after the due date of the assignment.
   • Exclude bibliographic materials from Similarity Index for all papers in this assignment? - Select if you want to exclude checking the text that appears in the bibliography, works cited, or references sections of student submissions.
   • Exclude quoted materials from Similarity Index for all papers in this assignment? - Select if you want to exclude checking the text that appears within quotes in the student writing.
   • Exclude small sources? - Select if you want to exclude seeing matches that have a small amount in common with a student's writing. You can set the match length as a total word count or as a percentage, and you can change this setting for individual submissions later.
5. Click Submit to create the assignment. Students will be able to submit work during the start and due dates that you set.

Check for plagiarism in a Turnitin assignment

In Turnitin, you check for potential plagiarism by running what's called a similarity report. Similarity reports tell you the outcome of comparing the text of the student writing against Turnitin's sources. These reports are initially run on each student's writing according to the preferences you set in the assignment settings. But the settings can be adjusted and the report run again at any time.

1. Once students have submitted assignments, log in to Turnitin at turnitin.com using your email address and Turnitin password, and click the class name.
2. From the "Assignments" tab for the class, click View next to the assignment you wish to review.
3. Click the assignment title for any individual student to launch the Feedback Studio window. The Feedback Studio allows you to view and run similarity reports, as well as add marks and feedback to the writing.
4. In the Feedback Studio, you will see a toolbar on the right-hand side of the assignment. The red part of the menu relates to the similarity report. Each icon corresponds to a different piece of information from the report:
   • Flags for Review - The first numbered icon in the toolbar will flag any abnormalities that the Turnitin algorithm has found in this writing. A flag does not necessarily mean a problem, but rather a specific area that you should review.
   • Match Overview - The second numbered icon in the toolbar will report the percentage of the document where the text was very similar or a match to other Turnitin sources. Again, a higher number here does not necessarily indicate a problem. How much text you can expect to match will depend on the report settings you've selected (i.e., what text you include or exclude) and the particulars of your assignment.
   • All Sources - The third icon in the toolbar will show the sources where similar or matching text was found, such as in websites, other student papers, or published articles. You can use this interface to exclude sources from the report, if you decide that they are not problematic.
   • Filters and Settings - The fourth icon in the toolbar will let you adjust some of the similarity report settings, overriding the defaults that you set for the assignment. When you are ready to run the report again, click New Report.
   • Excluded Sources - The final icon in the toolbar will show you any sources that you've chosen to exclude from the report using the "All Sources" interface. You can restore any sources here to add them back to the report.
5. When you are finished reviewing the report for this submission, you can click the arrow icon in the top right corner to advance to the next submission.
6. When you are finished reviewing reports, you can close the Feedback Studio window.

Grade a Turnitin assignment

You can mark and provide feedback on student writing directly in Turnitin. However, please note that no grades are sent from Turnitin to Canvas, as no integration is available at this time.

1. Once students have submitted assignments, log in to Turnitin at turnitin.com using your email address and Turnitin password, and click the class name.
2. From the "Assignments" tab for the class, click View next to the assignment you wish to review.
3. Click the assignment title for any individual student to launch the Feedback Studio window. The Feedback Studio allows you to add marks and feedback to the submission, as well as view and run similarity reports to check for potential plagiarism.
4. To enter a mark overall, enter a number in the box at the top of the assignment. It will save automatically.
5. To directly annotate the submission, click or highlight any part of the document. A menu will pop up with options. Depending on whether you clicked or highlighted, you may see options for adding QuickMarks (reusable feedback), comments, strike-throughs, or plain text.
6. You will also see a toolbar on the right-hand side of the assignment. The blue part of the menu relates to the instructor feedback options. Each icon corresponds to a grading option:
   • QuickMarks - The first icon in the toolbar gives you access to reusable feedback. Explore and apply options from the existing libraries, or build your own by adding comments as you write them.
   • Feedback Summary - The second icon in the toolbar lets you summarize your overall feedback for the student in audio or text.
   • Rubric - The third icon in the toolbar lets you add specific marking schemes to the writing. Click the cog icon at the top right of the panel to explore and apply rubrics and grading forms from existing libraries, or build your own.
7. When you are finished marking the report for this submission, you can click the arrow icon in the top right corner to advance to the next submission.
8. When you are finished marking reports, you can close the Feedback Studio window.