Student Resources

Turnitin Feedback Studio is used by some APSU instructors through D2L Assignments to check for similarity and provide writing feedback. When Turnitin is enabled on an assignment, you will receive personalized feedback directly on your submitted paper — helping you understand your instructor's expectations and strengthen your writing.

Before You Submit

Before uploading your file, confirm it meets Turnitin's requirements:

File size: Less than 100 MB
Page count: Fewer than 800 pages
Word count: Must contain a minimum of 20 words
File type: Your instructor may specify the exact file type required. A full list of accepted file types is available on the Turnitin website. Submitting an incompatible file type may result in a processing error.

Submitting Your Assignment

Open Your Course

Go to your course in D2L.
Find Your Assignment

On the navbar, select "Assignments". Turnitin-enabled assignments display a Turnitin icon next to the assignment name.

Select the name of the assignment you want to submit.
Upload Your File
Review the instructions, dates, and any other details your instructor has provided, then upload your file:
- Select "Add a File" and follow the prompts to locate the file on your computer. Each file you add increases your file count. Your instructor's settings determine how many files you can submit.
- If required by your instructor, add any notes in the Comments text box.
- Click "Submit" when you are ready.
Success!

After a successful submission, a confirmation screen displays your submission details, including the date and file size. Click "Done" to return to your assignments list.

Accessing Your Feedback

Go to your course in D2L and click "Assignments" on the navbar. Then, under the 'Completion Status' column, you will be able to see how many files and submissions you have made. Click the hyperlinked text in that column to view your submission history.

On the Submission History page, all files you have submitted are listed along with any available feedback. Select either the feedback link under 'Inline Feedback' or your score under 'Turnitin Similarity Report' to open your submission in Turnitin Feedback Studio.

Similarity Report — If your instructor enabled similarity checking and chose to display scores, a color-coded percentage bar appears under the Turnitin Similarity Report column. If the report is still processing, you will see "In Progress." Your instructor may also choose not to display similarity scores.
Inline Feedback — If your instructor used Online Grading, a link to your feedback appears under the Inline Feedback column.

In Feedback Studio

Depending on the instructor's settings, you may be able to view feedback related to your grade with the Grading layer and your similarity score with the Similarity layer. Your paper will be displayed in the center of the page. Select the layer icon to see which feedback layers your instructor has made available. You can select all or review feedback one at a time.

Grading Layer

Select the "Grading" checkbox to view your instructor's annotations.

These may include:

QuickMarks — Short labeled comments attached to specific parts of your paper
Comment bubbles — Personalized notes your instructor added while reading your work
Strikethroughs — Text your instructor flagged for revision
Inline text — Written notes added directly on the paper itself

Additional tools your instructor may or may not use:

Overall Score — appears in the top-right corner of Feedback Studio.
Rubric — click "View Rubric" in the right panel to see how your work was evaluated.
Comments — Any text or audio comments your instructor left appear in the right panel

Similarity Layer

If the Similarity layer is available, select the "Similarity" checkbox to view the portions of your paper that match content in the Turnitin database. Highlighted text indicates matches with existing sources such as websites, journal articles, or other student papers.

The similarity score ranges from 0 to 100. A score of 0 means no matching text was found. A score of 93 means 93% of your paper matched sources in Turnitin's database. This number is based on the total work of the paper.

Downloading Your Report

If you need to download the Grading Report and/or Similarity Report, select the layers you want included in the report—the downloaded will only include the layers that are currently active—then click on the download icon followed by "Current View."

Understanding Your Grade

Once your instructor has published your grade and feedback, your score will appear in D2L next to the assignment.

Under the Evaluation Status column on the Assignments page, the status will read "Feedback: Unread" until you have viewed the feedback. Once you view it, the status updates to "Feedback: Read."

Viewing Assignment Information

If you're able to submit multiple versions of your paper, you can check the details of any specific version. In Feedback Studio, select the information icon in the right sidebar to view the submission date, file name, word count, page count, and other details about that submission.

Support

For help with Turnitin or your submission, contact Distance Education at online@apsu.edu or (931) 221-6625, Monday–Friday from 8:00 am to 4:30 pm.

Additional student guides are available on the Turnitin Student Hub.