Turnitin | Turnitin® Originality check settings
When Originality check in Turnitin® is enabled for a Brightspace assignment it is possible to adjust the settings for how the submissions will be qualitatively evaluated in the system. These settings are optional, but can be adjusted to the needs of the lecturer or the assignment at hand.
In this article you will find information about:
Default Turnitin® Originality Check settings
By enabling Turnitin for your Brightspace assignment, you can adjust the settings of the Originality Check. In the table below you can find a general explanation for each setting that you are able to adjust.
Turnitin® Originality Check settings |
What is it? |
|---|---|
|
Submission settings |
Allows to adjust the type of file to be accepted for submission, how and where the file will be submitted in the Turnitin system |
|
Similarity report |
Allows to adjust whether and how a similarity report will be generated |
|
Compare against |
Allows to adjust against what content the submitted file will be compared |
|
Exclude assignment template |
Allows to provide the system with a template to be excluded from similarity check for an assignment that uses a template for submissions |
|
Additional settings |
Allows to save settings for future use |
By default, the Turnitin® Originality Check settings for each Brightspace assignment are as pictured below:
1. General submission settings
The submission settings allow you to decide against what resources the student's submission will be checked against. The table below provides the available options that can be selected and the description, respectively.
| Storing of the submission | Description | Default option |
|---|---|---|
| Standard paper repository |
Student papers will be checked against other institutions' student submissions. | Selected |
| Institution paper repository |
The assignment will only be available for comparison against other students' submissions within the institution. The papers will still be compared against all of the Turnitin databases you have selected. |
NOT Selected |
| Do not store the submitted papers |
A Similarity Report will still be generated for paper submissions, but your students' papers will not be stored in the Turnitin standard paper repository or the institution's paper repository for future comparison. |
NOT Selected |
Tick box: Enable Translated Matching. Turnitin will create a report based on English translations of students’ non-English submissions like Dutch, German, French and many more.
Source: Turnitin
2. Similarity report settings
In this section you can choose how the similarity report will be generated and select what will be excluded from the similarity check. In the tables below you can find more details on each option and which setting is a default setting.
| Report generation | Description | Default option |
|---|---|---|
| Generate reports immediately (students cannot resubmit) |
Submissions must be deleted by the instructor to enable resubmission. | Selected |
Generate reports immediately (students can resubmit until due date): After 3 resubmissions, reports generate after 24 hours |
Similarity Reports for the initial submission, and the next three resubmissions, will generate immediately. |
NOT Selected |
| Generate reports on due date (students can resubmit until due date) |
Similarity Reports will not be generated for any submission until the due date and time of the assignment. Students may resubmit as many times as needed until the due date and time without receiving reports. |
NOT Selected |
Source: Turnitin
If the assignment is set to accept any file type Turnitin will only generate Similarity Reports for the following file types:
Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, WordPerfect, PostScript, PDF, HTML, RTF, OpenOffice (ODT), Hangul (HWP), Google Docs (submitted via the Google Drive submission option), plain text files.
For more check Turnitin - Accepted file types and sizes.
| Exclusion options | Description | Default option |
|---|---|---|
| Enable Translated Matching | Generate a separate Similarity Report based on English translations of students' non-English language submissions | NOT Selected |
| Allow students to view Similarity Reports | Choose whether students can view the Similarity Reports for their submissions to this assignment | NOT Selected |
Exclude bibliographic materials |
Select whether you would like text appearing in the bibliography, works cited, or references sections of assignments to be excluded from being checked for matches in the Similarity Index when generating Similarity Reports. (source: Turnitin) |
NOT Selected |
Exclude quoted materials |
Select whether you would like text appearing in the quotes of an assignment to be excluded from being checked for matches in the Similarity Index when generating Similarity Reports. (source: Turnitin) |
NOT Selected |
| Exclude small sources | The exclude small sources feature works by excluding sources in the source list that are below a set word count or percentage threshold. With this feature, you have greater control over sifting out smaller sources, allowing you to focus on larger, more problematic and suspect sources within Similarity Reports. (source: Turnitin) |
NOT Selected |
For more details please visit Turnitin - Exluding quotes and bibliographic material.
Furthermore, you can select whether you want your students to see the Similarity report (Allow students to view Similarity Reports).
3. Comparison settings of the submitted file
For each Brightspace assignment with Turnitin enabled you can set what repositories will be used for checking the similarity of the student's submission. When a new Brightspace assignment is created and the Turnitin is enabled, all repositories are selected by default.
If no repository is selected the Similarity score will be 0%
| The currently available search targets are: | Description | Default option |
|---|---|---|
| Student paper repository |
Student works previously submitted in classes and assignments on Turnitin. | Selected |
| Current and archived web site content |
a repository of archived and live publicly available internet pages containing billions of pages of existing content and tens of thousands of new pages added daily. |
Selected |
| Periodicals, journals, & publications |
Third party periodical, journal, and publication content including many major professional journals, periodicals, and business publications. |
Selected |
Source: Turnitin
4. Additional settings
EXCLUDE ASSIGNMENT TEMPLATE
Turnitin in its advanced settings also offers an option where you can upload or create a template of text to be automatically excluded from the Similarity Report.
Note that the template can not be uploaded or edited if there has already been submissions in the assignment.
ADDITIONAL SETTINGS
The last option given in the advanced Turnitin settings is whether you would like the current setting to be remembered by the system or not. If you decide to save these new advanced settings as your default for the future, all Brightspace assignment you create and enable Turnitin for them with have these newly adjusted advanced settings as default.
Leave the box Save these settings for future use unselected to only use the new advanced settings for the current Brightspace assignment.
Understanding the Turnitin Interface
To access the Turnitin report of a student's submissions,
- Navigate to Assessments in the green navigation bar of your course
- From the drop down menu, click Assignments
- Click the downwards arrow next to the assignment submissions you wish to view
- Click on View Submissions
- Click on the number indicating the Similarity Percentage
1. Similarity Report
The Similarity Report summarizes the sources matched to your submission and helps determine if the matches are acceptable. It provides a similarity score, representing the percentage of matched text in your submission, calculated by dividing the matched words by the total words in the document.
The color of the report icon indicates the similarity score of the paper. The percentage range is 0% to 100%. The possible similarity ranges are:
- Blue: No matching text
- Green: One word to 24% matching text
- Yellow: 25-49% matching text
- Orange: 50-74% matching text
- Red: 75-100% matching text
(Turnitin, 2024)
To find out more about the Turnitin Similarity report, please visit: Understanding the Similarity Score for Students
2. Flags
Turnitin’s algorithms analyze your document for inconsistencies and flag anything unusual for your review. A flag doesn't always indicate a problem, but it suggests areas that may need further attention.
3. Turnitin AI detection
Turnitin has launched AI detection functionality and now it is possible to view the percentage of AI generated text in the similarity report. When you enable Turnitin for the Brightspace assignment, the percentage for the AI generated text will be automatically presented in the similarity report therefore you don't have to do anything to activate this feature.
When you click on the Similarity report percentage on the Submission page, you will land in a Turnitin feedback studio. On the top of the page there is a panel where you can find the AI Writing report.
To find a more detailed explanation of the Turnitin AI writing report, please visit: AI writing detection in the new, enhanced Similarity Report
However, it is good to be aware that Turnitin can misidentify both human and AI-generated text, so it should not be used as the sole basis for adverse actions against a student.
Visit the following link to learn more about this functionality and FAQs for Turnitins AI writing detection : Turnitin's AI writing detection capabilities
Now you know about the Turnitin® Originality Check settings for a Brightspace Assignment!
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