Blackboard / Turnitin Staff Guide Gary Clay, Learning Development and Innovation Turnitin Staff Guide Version 2.1 March 2009

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1 Turnitin Staff Guide Version 2.1 March 2009 This guide describes how members of staff can use the TurnitinUK plagiarism detection facility from within Blackboard modules. Please note that it includes the recently updated interface and so replaces the previous edition of this document. Please refer to for details of the new features. The following sections are included : Scope of this guide; What is TurnitinUK? Advantages of using Turnitin within Blackboard What does Turnitin compare student submissions against? How is TurnitinUK linked to a Blackboard coursesite? Viewing the Results Advanced Options Important Note Regarding Housekeeping after Course Copying Note that Turnitin DOES NOT re use the Digital Drop Box feature within Blackboard. Scope of this guide This guide covers BASIC use of Turnitin from within the Blackboard VLE at Staffordshire University. More advanced facilities such as GRADEMARK are not currently included and you are recommended to contact the Learning Support team of Information Services (or access the TurnitinUK Website available at for further information related to the Turnitin service. What is TurnitinUK? TurnitinUK is a service allowing learners in UK HE institutions to submit their documents to be checked for originality. The lecturer has the option of deciding e.g. if the learners can see the resultant originality report or not, what period the learner can submit their work and if they can submit multiple pieces of works as part of a particular assignment. This allows use of the service for both formative and summative checking, the former for example in those cases where learners are 1

2 unfamiliar with the current UK view on copyright (e.g. either coming from a different culture or are returning to education.) 2

3 Advantages of using Turnitin within Blackboard? Although Turnitin can be used standalone via their web site, advantages of using it from within Blackboard include : Access to Turnitin is seamless i.e. there is no need for staff (and students) to specifically register before using the service, and e.g. staff do not need to add students to a class as would be the case if using the service standalone. Student progress can be tracked from within Blackboard; The ability to provide a better context around the issues associated with plagiarism and also why it is important for this particular piece of work in relation to the rest of the module; What Does Turnitin Compare Student Submissions against? Turnitin compares student submissions against the following types of information : Previous student submissions (by default, any work submitted by a student via Turnitin is added to the database used to check future submissions) Current, and archived, internet; Periodicals, journals and publications. 3

4 How is TurnitinUK linked to a Blackboard coursesite? We will illustrate linking Turnitin to Blackboard by way of an example using the default options - other options are dealt with in a later section. 1) Access the EDIT VIEW for the area / folder where you want to place the link. In the example below we have clicked on the Assignments button followed by the Edit View link 2) Click on the Select menu at the right hand end of the bar where you would normally add e.g. a new item or folder to reveal a range of options as shown above. Select TurnitinUK Assignment and click the Go button adjacent to the menu. The following screen will appear enabling you to create the assignment 4

5 At the top of the screen are links as follows : Switch Back for those who are familiar with the older interface for Turnitin; About the new Turnitin describes the new features; Training Materials further help resources provided by the company. Scroll down to reveal the entire new assignment section (partly obscured in the picture above) Choose paper assignment (we will look at Revision Assignments as part of the Advanced options below). Enter a title for the Assignment, ensure that the date range (start date to due date) is appropriate (by default submissions are allowed for the next seven days). Note that Post Date is only applicable for those using the additional Grademark service which is outside the scope of this document. Optionally, add a points value but note that this is merely used within Blackboard and is not e.g. linked to Thesis. Click Submit at the bottom left of the screen. (Nb- there is an option to override the default options for this assignments via the more options - further details are available via the section on Setting Advanced Options towards the end of this document.) 3) A confirmation screen will appear and you should click the OK button which will result in the link being created as shown 5

6 below Provided the Start date is not in the future, students can now submit work via this assignment - please refer to the Student Guide to Turnitin for details. Note that Turnitin currently accepts document files of the following types: MS Word, WordPerfect, PostScript, PDF, HTML, RTF, and plain text wirh a file size limit of 10 MB. (Note that lecturers can also submit documents for checking via the above link e.g. you might place the link in a folder that is not available to students and use it to check their work that is part of a summative assessment. You should refer to the student guide to using Turnitin for details but note that you need to indicate which student the work belongs to. Lecturers however also have the option to Bulk Upload a series of documents or use a ZIP file (in which case the system will present you with a table I which you select which student owns which particular document see the Turnitin Manual available via the Training Material link for further guidance. 6

7 Viewing the Results In order to see the results, you need to access the Course Control Panel, and then in the Course Tools section, click on the TurnitinUK Assignments command, A list of the Turnitin assignments you have created within this Blackboard coursesite will be displayed e.g. Click on the View link for the assignment you are interested in. A table (the Assignment Inbox) listing the learners who have access to this module and their results will be shown e.g. This screen provides options to select and then delete, or download the originality reports as well as filing to a range of predefined folders. With the current configuration you can view the originality report by clicking the appropriate entry in the report column, or can see the file as submitted via the file column. Note that the TurnitinUK Assignments by Group command is used in conjunction with the Blackboard Groups feature. If you are using groups within your Blackboard module then this will enable you to select students within a particular group. This can be useful when you have a large number of students on your course and e.g. have different tutorial groups. By creating groups based on which tutorial session they attend, you can easily collate the originality reports for a particular tutorial group. 7

8 Advanced Options A range of Advanced Options are available via the More Options button on the screen used to create a Turnitin assignment as follows: Generate Originality Reports for submissions o Yes or No Generate Originality Reports for Student Submissions (check options) Immediately (first report is final) report is generated immediately and no further submissions are allowed by the learner unless you delete their previous submission (although this will not remove their original work from the database of previous submissions held by Turnitin); Immediately (can overwrite reports till due date) report is generated immediately and learners can continue to submit further attempts until the due date. Note that there is a 24 hour delay between originality reports being provided for the second, and subsequent attempts; On Due Date although learners can submit several attempts, only the latest version that was submitted before the due date is checked. Allow students to see Originality Reports - Yes or No dictates whether students can see the originality reports for their submissions (if set to no then only the lecturer will see them) Allow submissions after the due date - Yes (late submissions are allowed) or No (nb - all submissions are timestamped) (submit papers to) o (standard paper repository) - the student's submission will be uploaded and stored in the Turnitin system meaning that future submissions will be compared against it. See note below. o (no repository) - the student s submissions are not stored centrally 8

9 (search options) Compare submissions against these search targets (student paper repository) - previous student submissions - if two students submit identical papers for the same assessment, the former will receive an appropriate feedback score, the later submission will be indicated as being 100% plagiarised. current and archived internet periodicals, journals & publications Revision Assignments NB Revision here refers to a revised submission for an earlier assignment and should not be confused with revision in the sense of revising for an exam. They are intended for use when you want students to be able to submit several versions of a document for a particular assignment. For example, you create a normal paper assignment and allow students to submit against this. Some time later, you create a revision assignment and ask for a second piece of work to be submitted which takes into account what they learned as a result of their initial submission. This is different from allowing them to submit to a single paper assignment several times prior to the due date which itself would not retain their previous attempts. Revision assignments are duplicates of the parent assignment s advanced options and standard settings, but may have new start, due, and post dates. The revision assignment may have a different Generate Originality Reports for student submissions setting. The instructor may also select a different set of optional special instructions, or assign a different point value. Important Note Regarding Housekeeping after Course Copying Prior to each new run of a specific Blackboard based module / award, one of the house-keeping tasks typically undertaken by a module leader is to ensure that the newly copied version is ready for use by the incoming cohort of learners. 9

10 Each Turnitin assignment uses a specific (unique) link to Turnitin's own database and the act of copying the course means that a new Blackboard course site will be created. In turn this means that the link from the VLE to Turnitin is no longer valid for the new copy and so won't work. Also, the dates originally specified are unlikely to be valid Prior to making their courses available via the VLEenrol webpage, Lecturers are therefore requested to recreate any Turnitin assignments that they need and which came across when the course site was copied. Note regarding Submissons to Student Paper Respository the system will indicate if it finds a match against a previous student submission e.g. If you click on the link (Submitted to University of Sheffield in the above) the system will ask you for your address. In order to prevent problems with IPR, etc, rather than allowing direct access to the original work, the system will contact the member(s) of staff on the course at the remote location and ask them to provide the document. 10