Turnitin Feedback Studio
Distance Education provides access to Turnitin Feedback Studio (opens new window) for APSU faculty to use in their courses. Turnitin Feedback Studio, often abbreviated
to Turnitin, provides instructors with the tools to deter plagiarism and provide personalized
feedback using rubrics, drag-and-drop, voice, and/or text comments. Turnitin use
can help
streamline the grading and feedback process for written assignments, improve student
writing skills, and encourage original work.
Turnitin is integrated into the online classroom as an option within D2L. D2L course shells are issued for all courses at APSU including face-to-face sections making Turnitin available to all. This integration ensures ease of access through single sign-on for faculty and students, creates the opportunity to link Turnitin Feedback Studio to the D2L Gradebook, and allows students to easily see when feedback is available for them.
Turnitin access is made available through D2L as described above and in the directions provided on the resource pages. Distance Education cannot provide support to faculty or their students that use Turnitin through the www.turnitin.com website. APSU's use of Turnitin is solely through single-sign on in D2L. We highly encourage faculty to discontinue use through the www.turnitin.com website and begin using Turnitin through D2L. Directions and resources are provided through the tabs above and Distance Education staff are available to assist you.
Faculty, please consider Turnitin's strong recommendation that the course syllabus of each course using the service carry a notice to the effect of the following:
“Students agree that by taking this course all required papers may be subject to submission
for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com for the detection of plagiarism. All
submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference
database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. Use of the
Turnitin.com service is subject to the Usage Policy posted on the Turnitin.com site.”
If use of the service is instituted after distribution of the syllabus, then consider
timely and equivalent written notice to students.
Portions of student's papers that are found to be the same as other sources stored in the Turnitin database will be highlighted and the sources identified in Turnitin. When the source is another student's paper, from any institution, only the portions of the paper that are the same are highlighted. Faculty and students cannot see the full text of the source student's paper.
A feature within Turnitin allows faculty from any institution to request copies of
the full text of student’s papers from any institution. A review by the Office of
the Registrar, Information Technology Security, University Attorney, and Distance
Education has identified this feature as a potential student privacy, FERPA, and intellectual
property concern.
Austin Peay State University has opted not to provide papers in response to these
requests. The portion of the paper in question that may be plagiarized is highlighted
on the student's paper and visible in the Turnitin Feedback Studio. This information
will assist faculty in determining whether concerns about plagiarism are founded.
Sharing additional information could be a risk with regard to FERPA and the student’s
right to privacy, right to determine what happens to their assignments and could create
intellectual property concerns. In addition, the paper content may be of a personal
nature and result in the sharing of the student’s personal information such as their
identity or other covered information in violation of the student’s FERPA rights.
Faculty do not need the other student's paper to leverage Turnitin for academic integrity.
The paper section(s) that match content from the Turnitin database are automatically
identified within the tool. Additionally, to file charges of academic misconduct,
faculty only need to provide a copy of their student's paper and the Turnitin report
showing the similarities highlighted. For more information about academic misconduct
at APSU, please visit the Associate VP for Student Affairs and Dean of Students website
on Academic Honesty and Integrity.
Important: matches between student papers does not necessarily indicate collusion
or student-student plagiarism, but instead, it could be that both students plagiarized
or poorly cited the same resource. The features within Turnitin can help faculty
determine this possibility.
Faculty - Enabling Turnitin
- Creating a Turnitin Assignment in D2L - this guide provides the steps necessary to create a Turnitin-enabled assignment in D2L Brightspace.
- Excluding Assignment Templates - decreases false similarity created when students are all using the same template to submit their assignment.
- Faculty have the ability to exempt individual students from having their Dropbox assignments submitted to Turnitin. Instructions on how to do so are available in this Exempt Individual Learners from Turnitin (opens new window) video. The exemption applies to individual learners for the entire course.
More guides for faculty using Turnitin through D2L (opens new window)
Faculty - Generative AI Resources
Important Note about AI Detector Tools
Generative AI like ChatGPT is widely available and is being used in higher education in both positive and potentially negative ways. One negative outcome, for example, is using generative AI to create content that one then passes off as their own. To counteract this, there is a push for AI detectors and many are already available. Please use caution with these tools and always review their terms of service, privacy statements, etc. Additionally, understand that these tools are not 100% accurate and accuracy varies by tool and the continued advancements in generative AI. Finally, AI detectors are not a simple solution to this issue. As they are not definitive, they can only act as a conversation starter.
Turnitin AI Detection
Turnitin is offering AI detection capabilities as a preview and APSU instructors currently have access to this tool as part of their Turnitin Feedback Studio usage. Turnitin notes, their "AI writing detection model only highlights text that is highly likely to be AI-generated. This is to help ensure that students are treated fairly whilst safeguarding the institution’s academic integrity standards. We must stress that the percentage is interpretive and should not be used as a definitive measure of misconduct or punitive tool. Instructors should use this indicative percentage to help them decide how to best handle work that may have been produced or partially produced by AI writing tools" (Source opens in new window).
Since this tool will continue to change and possibly often, we are providing links to Turnitin resources and information which should also be frequently updated.
- Turnitin AI Writing Detection (opens new window)
- Turnitin AI Writing Detection Frequently Asked Questions (opens new window) - A must-read to learn about what the tool does and qualifying documents
- Guide for Approaching AI in the Classroom (opens new window)
- More AI Turnitin Resources (opens new window) - Incudes a rubric/checklist to help faculty review their current writing prompts and make changes to help deter generative AI usage
Discussing Results with Students
Faculty - Similarity & Feedback Resources
Reading the Similarity Report
- Guide: How to Read the Similarity Report
- Video: How to Read the Similarity Report
Providing Writing and Assignment Feedback
- Guide: How to Provide Feedback
- Video: How to Provide Feedback
More guides for faculty using Turnitin through D2L (opens new window)
- Avoiding Plagiarism (opens new window)
- The Plagiarism Spectrum (opens new window)
- The Honor Code: Guidelines for Academic Integrity (opens new window)
- Setting reasonable expectations for the Turnitin Similarity Score (opens new window)
For more resources, visit the Turnitin Disrupting Plagiarism website (opens new window).
Student Resources
Turnitin Feedback Studio is used by faculty through D2L Assignments to check for similarity and provide writing feedback.
- Guide: Submitting an Assignment and Reviewing Feedback
- Video: Submitting an Assignment and Reviewing Feedback
Tech Support
Information about the current status of Turnitin is available on the System Status page provided by Turnitin (opens new window). Faculty and students should direct questions and requests for support to the Distance Education Support Desk, available Monday-Friday, 8:00am-4:30pm.