Turnitin

Turnitin is a complete Web-based solution for managing writing intensive assignments. UNT has two Turnitin options available in Canvas for plagiarism detection: Turnitin External Tool Integration (LTI 1.3) and Plagiarism Review. Can't decide which integration is most suitable for your needs? The Turnitin Canvas comparison chart can help you make an informed decision!

Faculty at the University of North Texas can use Turnitin to help prevent plagiarism. Students submit papers to Turnitin and the tool compares the submissions against other sources on the Internet, the Turnitin database, and other commercial databases. Turnitin does not decide if a paper has been plagiarized but instead provides the faculty member with a report of how much text is similar to other sources. The faculty member ultimately decides if a paper has been plagiarized. In your syllabus, inform students that you are using the Turnitin tool to help prevent plagiarism.

On the TurnItIn website regarding AI Detection, TurnItIn states, "Turnitin's AI writing detection capability is designed to help educators identify text that might be prepared by a generative AI tool. Our AI writing detection model may not always be accurate (it may misidentify both human and AI-generated text) so it should not be used as the sole basis for adverse actions against a student. It takes further scrutiny and human judgment in conjunction with an organization's application of its specific academic policies to determine whether any academic misconduct has occurred." Please see the TurnItIn website for assignment requirements for the AI detection tool and more information.

Our license agreement with Turnitin allows it to be used exclusively in classes offered as part of UNT’s curriculum and exclusively for the purpose of submitting student work for evaluation. iParadigms, Turnitin’s parent company, offers a product called iThenticate for scholars to check their work for duplication and attribution. UNT has recently purchased a license for iThenticate for graduate students enrolled in thesis/dissertation and writing intensive courses. You can access iThenticate by logging in to the single sign on page. For login issues, please email ithenticate@unt.edu.

Turnitin External Tool Integration

The Turnitin Feedback Studio integration should be used when you would like to not only generate originality and AI detection reports, but would also like to use the full suite of Turnitin Feedback Studio and grading tools such as QuickMarks and rubrics. This option also allows students to submit the assignment multiple times generating a new similarity report each time. To create a Turnitin assignment:

To create a Turnitin Feedback Studio assignment using the LTI:

1. From the Course Navigation Bar, click Assignments.
2. Click on the 3 vertical dots at the top right of the Assignments page.
3. Click on TurnItIn.
4. Give the assignment a title and add any instructions related to the assignment.
5. Fill out the assignment settings to complete the assignment setup. For more information about the assignment settings, see the assignment settings and optional LTI settings guidance. 
6. Under Optional Settings, select if the assignment should be stored:
   a. Standard Paper Repository – submissions are stored in the global TurnItIn repository
   b. Institution paper repository – submissions are stored in a repository which is only accessible by the institution.
   c. Do not store the submitted papers – A similarity Report will be generated, but submissions will not be stored in the standard repository or the institution’s repository for future comparison.
7. Select the Similarity Report Settings
   a. Generate reports immediately (students cannot resubmit) - Similarity Reports for all submissions will be generated immediately. Students cannot resubmit papers.
   b. Generate reports immediately (students can resubmit until due date) - This option is recommended when instructors want to use the Similarity Report as formative feedback. Similarity Reports will be generated immediately for each student's initial submission to this assignment. Students can check their work, make changes as necessary and resubmit the best version of their paper to the assignment
   c. 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 is reached. Students may resubmit as many times as needed until the due date and time but will not receive reports during this period.
8. Select the Submit button to complete assignment creation and then Save at the bottom of the page.

Turnitin Plagiarism Review

The Plagiarism Framework should be used when you would like to generate originality reports but would also like to use Canvas assignment features such as group assignments, multiple due dates, and the Speedgrader. Additional information about this option can be found on TurnItIn's website for Plagiarism Framework. To create a Canvas assignment with the Plagiarism Review enabled:

1. From the Course Navigation Bar, click Assignments.
2. Click on the +Assignment button at the top right of the Assignments page.
3. Enter your basic assignment details.
4. Change the Submission Type to Online using the drop-down menu.
5. Select the File Uploads checkbox under Online entry options.
6. Choose Turnitin from the Plagiarism Review drop-down menu.
7. If you want to ensure that students are submitting file in which Turnitin can generate a similarity report, choose to Restrict Upload File Types to readable text files such as pdf, doc, docx, pptx, etc.
8. Select the TurnItIn settings to your preference and if the submission should be stored in the standard paper repository.

Turnitin and the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

FERPA regulations prohibit institutions from releasing personally identifiable information from a student’s educational records to third parties without the written consent of the student. Such personally identifiable information includes the student's name and identification number or any other information that alone or in combination is linkable to the student's identity by that third party. Because it is possible that student assignments may contain such personally identifiable information, it is important that faculty members understand when a student's written consent is necessary and how to obtain such consent to ensure compliance with the law.

Students Submit Papers

Instructors are not required to get consent from students to have them submit their own papers to Turnitin if they post a notice in the course syllabus informing students that they are required to submit written assignments to Turnitin prior to submission. Please review TurnItIn's privacy policy on their site.
*Sample notice: Students are required to submit written assignments for this class to Turnitin, a web-based plagiarism detection service. Before submitting your paper to Turnitin, please remove your title page and other personal information. (OPTIONAL: Any paper that is not submitted to Turnitin will not be accepted by the instructor and will not be graded.)

Accessibility

Turnitin's accessibility program aims to incorporate accessibility into the entire product development lifecycle to ensure that its website and applications are accessible and usable. Turnitin Accessibility

Get Help with Turnitin in Canvas

If you are a faculty member at UNT, and you are using Turnitin through Canvas, contact the Faculty Helpdesk for assistance with this tool:
Email: lms@unt.edu
Phone: 940-369-7394

Get Help with the Turnitin Website

Additional guides for using the External Tool and the Plagiarism Review can be found on the Turnitin website.