Turnitin is one of the most popular programs for detecting academic plagiarism. Florida State University integrates a version of the Turnitin application into its Canvas system for use by FSU instructors and students.

This allows you to manage Turnitin content and settings within your course's Canvas site without needing to create a separate Turnitin account. Our version of Turnitin includes OriginalityCheck, GradeMark, and PeerMark. Learn more  about this Turnitin LTI integration with Canvas.

Turnitin is able to identify students, instructors, and TAs within the Canvas environment. There is no need to manually create an account with Turnitin itself or use Turnitin's main site to use the service as either a student or teacher. Students can make their submissions directly on the Canvas assignment page.

Open the Assignments page

1. Navigate to your course site.
2. Select Assignments on the course navigation menu.
   

Open a Specific Assignment

On the Assignments page, click on the name of the assignment to open it.

Quick tip: Turnitin assignments and non-Turnitin assignments display in the same way on Canvas's Assignments page, so it might be a good idea to include "Turnitin" in the name of your Turnitin assignments, or house them in a separate assignment group.

View Turnitin Assignment
 

The basic Turnitin interface within Canvas for instructors is as follows:

1. Assignment Inbox: This is where you can view all student submissions for the assignment and access additional information.
2. Settings: This is where you can adjust Turnitin assignment settings such as allowing multiple submissions, adjusting due dates, or choosing what sources Turnitin checks against. Learn more about Turnitin Assignment Settings.
3. Edit Assignment Settings button: This allows you to edit the Canvas settings for the assignment. This includes the maximum available points, which Assignment Group the assignment belongs to, and other general settings.
4. SpeedGrader button: This allows you to view and grade specific student submissions. When using SpeedGrader with a Turnitin-enabled assignment, Turnitin will import its results (including similarity scores and in-text highlights) into the SpeedGrader interface.

View Turnitin Assignment Inbox

The Assignment Inbox lists all student submissions and provides detailed information about each one, including the results of Turnitin's analysis once it becomes available. Some elements include:

1. Author/Paper Title: Provides the student's name and the name of their submission.
2. Uploaded: This provides a time-stamp of when that submission was made.
3. Submission management tools: Includes whether or not the student has viewed any feedback you've given them, assigning a grade, similarity report percentages, and the options menu. More detail on this later, but these management tools allow you to grade submissions and perform additional analysis on them.

Manage Inbox

Some additional functions of the Assignment Inbox screen include:

1. Search field: Allows you to search the submissions by author or title.
2. Download All menu: Allows you to download a variety of complete reports on all currently submitted work, including grade reports, a list of submissions, and various outputs of the submissions themselves.
3. Download Selected menu: Allows you to generate the same types of reports as the above option, but for a limited range of students determined by the check boxes next to each student's name.
4. Check Boxes to the left of the Author/Paper Title allow you to target individual student(s) for reports and submission exports.

Manage Assignment Submissions

You can manage each student submission individually or as a group.

1. Grade option: Allows you to assign a grade for that particular student's submission.
   Quick Tip: You can grade papers within Turnitin's interface, or you can grade papers in Canvas's SpeedGrader depending on your preferences.
2. Similarity: Provides a percentage of how much content from a student's submission matches external sources. 
3. Options menu: Includes the ability to download individual submissions, delete them, and upload new versions if your settings permit.
   
   If you delete a submission, the student will be able to resubmit, even if the assignment does not allow for resubmissions. If you have allowed resubmissions, the upload option in the options menu will allow you to manually make a resubmission on the student's behalf.
   
   Please note: Resubmissions are still constrained by the established due dates of the assignment, unless you have specifically allowed for late submissions. Resubmitting an assignment erases all comments and marks associated with the original submission and it may take up to 24 hours before a new originality report is processed.

View Turnitin Assignment Settings

The Settings menu allows you to manage the specific parameters of the assignment. This includes setting "Start" and "End" dates (which determines when students are able to submit), as well as the assignment due date. "Feedback Release Date" sets the time and date when students can view the results of Turnitin's analysis on their submission as well as any comments you give them in Turnitin's grading interface. The Feedback Release Date must always be the same as or later than the due date.

You can also include additional instructions for students to view, as well as adjusting what sorts of files can be submitted. Turnitin automatically reads the Title and Max Grade of the assignment from the Canvas assignment settings, so you will have to navigate back to those in order to change them.

The Optional Settings menu includes other settings, such as:

• allowing late submissions
• allowing resubmissions
• determining which libraries of sources Turnitin will compare student work against.
• Allowing students to see their originality score, and when it will be visible to them.

Learn more about Optional Settings.