Turnitin
Turnitin is a tool instructors can use to check student submissions for potential plagiarism and AI-use. When instructors use Turnitin to scan student submissions, they receive a:
- Similarity Report, which provides information on where content in students' submissions matches content from other students, the web, and periodicals, journals, and publications.
- AI Writing Report, which provides insight into what content was likely generated or remixed by artificial intelligence.
Setting up Turnitin
Turnitin can be enabled on Assignments in Canvas by choosing Turnitin from the drop-down box under Plagiarism Review.
Settings allows for several customizations. For example, instructors can decide:
- What content they want to compare submissions against (student papers, website content, and/or periodicals, journals, and publications)
- What they want excluded from the Similarity Report (e.g. bibliographic materials, quoted materials, or small sources)
- If/when students can view similarity reports (immediately, after the assignment is graded, after the due date, or never). Note: students cannot see AI reports at this time.
For step-by-step instructions, review How to Enable Turnitin on an Assignment in Canvas.
Student Guidance
When enabling Turnitin on an assignment in Canvas, it can be helpful to include extra guidance in your assignment instructions. For example, you may want to share:
- That student submissions will be scanned by Turnitin for both similarities and AI-usage.
- That their work should align with LPC's Academic Integrity Policies and any course or assignment-specific AI policy. (See AI Resources for guidance on AI Course Policies.)
- A link to Turnitin's Student Hub, which provides tutorials and technical support.
- Links to resources that help students understand how to cite research and avoid plagiarism.
For example:
- LPC RAW Center: Preventing Plagiarism
- LPC Library: Citation Help
- Links to citation guides for your discipline, like the MLA Style Guide or APA Style Guide.
Reviewing Results
Once students submit their assignments, instructors need to open and review both the
Similarity Report and AI Writing Report. These reports can be opened from Canvas Speedgrader.
Note: the flag and percentage that displays in Speedgrader relates only to the Similarity Report, and doesn't indicate the AI score. You must click on the flag in Canvas Speedgrader to access both reports.
For details, review:
- How to Access the Similarity Report
- How to Access the AI Writing Report
- Turnitin FAQ for Instructors
It's helpful to remember that a similarity score or AI score doesn't necessarily mean that a student has cheated. You must review the reports to learn more.
For example, in the Similarity Report, Turnitin may flag part of your student's paper that matches a source in an academic journal. But if, upon review, you find your student has correctly cited this source and put matching text in quotation marks, this is not plagiarism.
Because artificial intelligence is relatively recent and rapidly developing technology, it can be helpful to understand Turnitin's AI writing detection capabilities. When AI-use is indicated, follow-up with the student is warranted. For example, instructors may ask students to meet during office hours to learn more about a student's writing process through conversation and/or a review of the revision history.