Creating a Turnitin Assignment

Turnitin can be enabled for a new or existing assignment. To enable it on an existing assignment, the settings must be updated before students submit their work.

1. Navigate to Course Assignments

   Go to your course in D2L, then on the navbar, select "Assignments."

2. Create a New Assignment

   Click the "New Assignment" button.

   To enable Turnitin on an existing assignment, select the drop-down arrow next to the assignment name and choose "Edit Assignment". Remember, Turnitin must be enabled before students submit their papers.

   On the assignment page, enter or edit the name, grade, and other details as you normally would. Three expandable sections on the right side of the page contain settings relevant to Turnitin:

   1. Availability Dates & Conditions — Set the start and end dates, release conditions, and any special access for individual students. These settings are not required for Turnitin, but a due date is necessary if you plan to use collusion checking.

   2. Submission & Completion — Set "Submission Type" to "File Submission" and "Allowable File Extensions" to "Compatible with Turnitin." This ensures students submit in formats Turnitin can process.

   3. Evaluation & Feedback — To add a template for exclusion, you must check "Enable Similarity Report for this folder."
      
      Select "Manage Turnitin" at the bottom of this section to open the Turnitin Integration window.

3. Configure Turnitin Settings

   In the Turnitin Integration window, enable the Similarity Report, Online Grading, or both. Then select "More Options" to continue to Step 4.

   • Similarity Report — If you enable the Similarity Report, you can allow students to see their similarity scores by clicking the checkbox under “Display.” It is recommended that you select “Automatic similarity checking on all submissions” under “Submissions Checked” because this allows papers from every student to go through similarity checking.

   • Online Grading — If you enable Online Grading, it is recommended that you select the option to “Automatically sync grades as Draft in Brightspace.” This will not automatically release the grades to the students; it simply syncs the grades between D2L and Turnitin automatically.

4. Review 'More Options'

   Despite the name, these settings are important and should be reviewed before saving.

   1. Submission Settings — Choose whether to store papers in the Standard paper repository. If students will be submitting multiple drafts of the same assignment, do not select this option — Turnitin will compare new drafts against earlier saved versions, producing an artificially high similarity score.

   2. Attach a Rubric — Rubrics built in Turnitin are not visible to students until feedback is published. If you want students to see the rubric while working, share it through D2L directly (in course content, the syllabus, etc.). Contact Distance Education for help with the rubric builder.

   3. Compare Against — Choose what sources to compare papers against: student paper repository, website content, publications, or any combination.

   4. Similarity Report — Select when Turnitin generates similarity reports:

      • Generate reports immediately (students cannot resubmit) — Reports generate as soon as each student submits. No automatic report is generated on the due date, so this option does not support automatic collusion checking; the instructor would need to manually regenerate reports (see the Checking for Collusion tab for instructions).

      • Generate reports immediately (students can resubmit until the due date) — Reports generate immediately after each submission. After 3 submissions, reports generate after a 24-hour delay. A final report for all submissions is automatically generated within one hour of the due date, enabling collusion checking. If matches are found between submissions, similarity percentages will change after the due date.

      • Generate reports on due date (students can resubmit until due date) — Students can revise and resubmit up to the deadline. A final report is automatically generated within one hour of the due date, enabling collusion checking. If matches are found between submissions, similarity percentages will change after the due date.

      You can also choose to exclude bibliographic material, quoted material, and small sources from similarity checking. See the Checking for Collusion tab for more details on how these settings affect collusion checking.

   5. Exclude Assignment Template — If your assignment uses a shared template, upload it here to prevent that shared text from inflating students' similarity scores. See the Excluding Assignment Templates tab for more info.

   6. Additional Settings — Select "Save these settings for future use" to apply this configuration as the default for future Turnitin assignments.

   7. Click "Submit" when finished.

5. Save and Finalize

   After submitting your additional options, click “Save” on the Turnitin Integration window from Step 3.

   You will be directed back to the Assignments page. At the bottom of the page, toggle on visibility to allow students to see the assignment. Save all of your changes by clicking either the blue “Save and Close” button or the gray “Save” button.

   On the Assignments page, you will see an icon beside the assignment to show that Turnitin has been enabled.

6. Reviewing Submissions

   Once students have submitted their papers, you will be able to view their results in the Assignment Submissions Folder.

   • The color-coded similarity score will be displayed if the Similarity Report is enabled.

   • If Online Grading is enabled, the grade will be shown once you complete grading in Turnitin.

   Learn More about Reviewing Submissions and Providing Feedback