Turnitin is integrated with Canvas assignments allowing you to check your students’ work for originality. Turnitin generates an Originality Report that shows matches from the internet, journals, previous JHU student submissions, and student papers from around the world.
Important
- Review the Report: Turnitin provides a score on originality, but it is important to review the full report before drawing any conclusions on whether student work was plagiarized.
- Drafts and Final Submissions: If an assignment in Canvas has drafts and final submissions and all of those assignments are checked by Turnitin, care must be taken to avoid “self-matching”. If the drafts are stored in the Turnitin repository, then subsequent drafts and the final submission may show very high percentage matches to the original submission. This can be avoided by changing the draft assignments setting “Submit papers to:” to the option of “no repository.”
How does Canvas differ from Blackboard?
Turnitin is more integrated and easier to use in Canvas. In Blackboard, Turnitin assignments were a different item than regular assignments. In Canvas, Turnitin Plagiarism checking is an option built into Canvas assignments that have an “online” submission type. In Canvas, you create an assignment with an online submission type and select the “Text Entry” and/or “File Uploads” options, and then Turnitin becomes available in the Plagiarism Review section.
In Blackboard, Turnitin supported markup and commenting on assignment submissions. In Canvas, all assignment feedback and commenting are done using the Canvas tools. Turnitin only provides the originality report.
What Canvas Roles Work with This Tool?
| Possible Course Roles | Access Level |
|---|---|
| Teacher | Can add to an assignment, can see similarity reports, and submit assignments in Student View |
| Student | Can submit an assignment, can view similarity report if allowed by the Teacher or Leader |
| Waitlisted Student | Can submit an assignment, can view similarity report if allowed by the Teacher or Leader |
| TA | Can add to an assignment, can see similarity reports, and submit assignments in Student View |
| Grading TA | Can add to an assignment, can see similarity reports, and submit assignments in Student View |
| Designer | Can add to an assignment; however, cannot see similarity reports |
| Observer | No access since they cannot submit assignments or view the grade book |
| Guest Facilitator | No access since they cannot submit assignments or view the grade book |
| Leaders (Community Sites Only) | Can add to an assignment, can see similarity reports, and submit assignments in Student View |
How to use
- Review this video guide on how to configure an assignment with Turnitin and check the originality report.
- Read this in-depth guide from Turnitin on how to use the Plagiarism Framework (the version installed in Canvas).
Best Practices
- Let students know that Turnitin will be used to set expectations and build trust.
- Recognize that Turnitin can show false positives (meaning it looks like a lot of text was plagiarized but it was not). It is important to review the report, not just the originality percentage. Sometimes if students submitted a draft earlier in the term (and it was added to the repository) or if they submitted it on their own to Turnitin, it might show as plagiarized.