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.
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 to the class.

1. Log in to Turnitin at turnitin.com.
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 master lets you create sections for the class. If you will use sections and/or want to provide a teaching assistant (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 enrol.
   • 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 six 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 type 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 enrollments in your Turnitin class

Although you can enrol students yourself in Turnitin, we recommend that you let students self-enrol instead. 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 privacy requirements, students must also be offered an option to use a pseudonym. 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 and click the name of the class.
2. Click New Assignment.
   • If this assignment is not your first assignment in the course, you will be prompted to select your assignment type, then click Next Step. Please choose "Paper Assignment". The "PeerMark Assignment" is not recommended for use at UBC.
3. Enter the assignment name 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 submissions.
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 submission against Turnitin's sources. These reports are initially run on each student submission according to the preferences you set in the assignment settings, but they can be adjusted and run again at any time.

1. Once students have submitted assignments, log in to Turnitin at turnitin.com and click the name of the class.
2. From the "Assignments" dashboard of the class, click View next to the assignment you wish to review.
3. Click the title of any individual student assignment to launch the Feedback Studio. The Feedback Studio allows you to view and run similarity reports, as well as add marks and feedback to the submission.
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 inconsistencies that the Turnitin algorithm has found in this submission, compared to the other submissions. A flag does not necessarily mean a problem, but rather a specific area 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, student papers, or published articles. You can use this interface to exclude sources from the report, if you decide 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 as a whole. When you are ready to run the report again, click New Report here.
   • Excluded Sources - The final icon in the toolbar will show you any sources 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.

Grade a Turnitin assignment

You can mark and provide feedback on student submissions 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 and click the name of the class.
2. From the "Assignments" dashboard of the class, click View next to the assignment you wish to review.
3. Click the title of any individual student assignment to launch the Feedback Studio. 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, highlight any part of the document. A menu will pop up with options for adding QuickMarks (reusable feedback), comments, and strike-throughs.
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 to the QuickMarks library as you write them.
   • Feedback Summary - The second icon in the toolbar will let you summarize your overall feedback for the student in audio or text.
   • Rubric - The third icon in the toolbar will let you add specific marking schemes to the submission. 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 reviewing the report for this submission, you can click the arrow icon in the top right corner to advance to the next submission.