Adding a Turnitin Assignment in ISU Canvas

Description

This article provides instructions on how to add a Turnitin assignment in ISU Canvas at Idaho State University (ISU). 

 

Turnitin assignments allow instructors to collect work from students and have that work checked against other student papers, the Internet, and journals, periodicals, and publications. Each student submission receives a Similarity Report with the results of those checks. The Turnitin database includes billions of web pages of both current and archived content from the Internet, a repository of works other students have submitted to Turnitin in the past, and a collection of documents, which comprises thousands of periodicals, journals, and publications.

Guide Navigation

Adding a Turnitin Assignment to a Course

  1. From the course you wish to add the assignment to, open the Assignments folder.
  2. At the top of the page, next to the + Assignment button, click on the Assignments Settings button (3 dots).
  3. Select Turnitin.
  4. Fill in the assignment details:
    1. Title: The name of the assignment.
    2. Instructions: An optional space to provide a description or instructions for the assignment to your students.
    3. Max Grade: The maximum number of points that can be awarded to a submission.
    4. Start Date: The date that students will be able to begin submitting to the assignment.
    5. Due Date: The date when students can no longer submit to the assignment.
    6. Feedback Release Date: The date that any grading and feedback is visible to students.
    7. Submit papers to: Submission repository options
    8. Enable PeerMark: Attach PeerMark to the assignment for students to peer review each others' work. See Creating a PeerMark assignment and questions (external link).
  5. Further customize your assignment with optional assignment settings (external link) relating to the Similarity Report, grading, providing feedback, and attaching a rubric.
  6. Note: The Turnitin assignment that you created can only be accessed in the Assignment folder until you add it into a module. Once you have created the Turnitin assignment, go to the Modules page and in the module you wish to add the assignment to, click the Add Item button, select Assignments from the drop-down menu and select the Turnitin assignment you just created.

Turnitin Frequently Asked Questions

Q: Does Turnitin check for plagiarism?

  • A: No. Turnitin does not check for plagiarism. It compares student submissions against the Turitin database and highlights wherever their writing is similar to one Turnitin's sources.

Q: What information is in the similarity report?

  • A: The similarity report provides a summary of details, including the sources matched to a student's submission and uses as a tool for determining if the matches are acceptable. The similarity score is the percentage of matched text that a submission contains which is calculated by dividing the total words in a submission by the amount of words matched to outside sources. For more information, see: Understanding the similarity score for students (external link).​ 

Q: Can I copy a Turnitin assignment from a Moodle ISU course?

  • A: Yes. You can copy a Turnitin assignment from a previous Moodle ISU course by following these steps:
  1. In your ISU Canvas course, open the Assignments folder in your course.
  2. At the top of the page, next to the + Assignment button, click on the Assignments Settings button (3 dots).
  3. Select Turnitin.
  4. Click on the Copy Assignment(s) from previously created assignments and a list of courses in which you used the tool in Moodle will display. Note: If you used the same assignment in a Moodle ISU course over multiple semesters, each of those iterations will be listed in the selection menu.
  5. Select the Turnitin Assigment you wish to copy from your Moodle ISU course and click on Copy at the bottom of the page. The settings and rubric for that assignment will be copied into your ISU Canvas course.
  6. To update the settings, click on the Turnitin Assignment and then on the Settings gear. Click Submit to save any changes.

Additional Resources

ITRC Resources

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