Turnitin

Turnitin helps instructors check students’ work for improper citation or potential plagiarism by comparing it against numerous online databases. Turnitin is available to instructors and students through Canvas.

Georgetown offers two Turnitin tools in Canvas, both of which are enabled through a Canvas Assignment:

Plagiarism Review

Generates Turnitin Similarity Reports and spelling/grammar suggestions (if ETS e-Rater is enabled). The Canvas SpeedGrader is used to enter inline comments and grades.

Turnitin External Tool

Generates Turnitin Similarity Reports and spelling/grammar suggestions (if ETS e-Rater is enabled). Inline comments and grading are done in Turnitin’s Feedback Studio. Does not support Canvas group assignment submissions.

As of October 2023, Georgetown has turned off Turnitin’s AI writing detection feature in its similarity checks because of the main campus faculty executive committee and the Honor Council’s concerns about the tool’s accuracy and in the belief that the harms of false positives are worse than any advantages of the tool. Many institutions have done the same.

What are the differences between the Turnitin External Tool and Turnitin’s Plagiarism Review (Plagiarism Framework) tool?
Use this chart to review feature differences between the two options.

Can I use Turnitin outside of Canvas?
Please reference the Honor Council’s page on how to use Turnitin.com

I’m a faculty/staff member, can I use Turnitin to check my own work for originality?
According to our end user license agreement with Turnitin, we cannot use it for anything besides originality checks for work submitted in registered courses.

How do I create a Turnitin assignment for draft papers?
OPTION 1:
Create a new Turnitin assignment in Canvas and title it “Draft of Paper 1,” for example. As long as the “Draft” and the “Final” Turnitin assignments are within the same course, and submitted by the same student, Turnitin will not return a match based on a previous submission of the same paper.

If a student submits the same paper to multiple assignments (including revision assignments) in the same class they will not match each other. This is to allow students and instructors to use the Turnitin Similarity Reports as part of a review/resubmit process without generating a “false positive”. Note: Similar papers submitted to a different class or via different accounts will match each other, even if they are submitted to the same instructor. Also, if the instructor submits the same paper as a “non-enrolled student” to the assignment, then it will match the student’s paper.

OPTION 2:
Create a new Turnitin assignment and title it “Draft of Paper 1” for example. In the Turnitin assignment settings select the “Do not store the submitted papers” option (located under “Submissions to this assignment will be stored in…”). Not saving the submitted assignment drafts in the Turnitin database will ensure that the final submissions will not return a match.

How do I use Canvas rubrics with a Turnitin External Tool assignment?
Note: The Turnitin Plagiarism Review tool is recommended when using Canvas rubrics.  

Currently, there is not a way to add a Canvas rubric after creating a Turnitin External Tool assignment. The work-around for this is to create a Canvas assignment the normal way (i.e. not selecting External Tool as the Submission Type), which will allow you to add a Canvas rubric. After the Canvas rubric is added, edit the assignment, change the Submission Type to External Tool and select Turnitin External Tool. You can then access the Canvas rubric through the SpeedGrader when grading students.

How can I make student names disappear in the Canvas SpeedGrader so I can grade anonymously?
We recommend changing these settings in Canvas before student assignment submissions are made.
If you are using the Plagiarism Review Tool:

1. Access your course site in Canvas

2. Click on Assignments

3. Locate the Turnitin assignment and click to open

4. Click on SpeedGrader 

5. Use the Canvas SpeedGrader Settings to hide student names.

If you are using the Turnitin External Tool:

1. Access your course site in Canvas

2. Click on Assignments

3. Locate the Turnitin assignment and click to open 

4. Click on the Turnitin Settings button(not the “Edit assignment settings”).

5. Click on Optional Settings.

6. Under the Submission Settings section,click on Enable Anonymous Marking.

7. Scroll down and click Submit.

I’m having problems accessing Turnitin, is the system down?
Check the Turnitin Service Status.

Why am I getting an error message when submitting a PDF file?
Students will get the following error message upon submitting copy/print protected or password protected PDFs:

Sorry, we could not process your request.
Your submission does not contain valid text.
Please try again.

Note: When a copy/print-protected or password protected PDF gets submitted into Turnitin, the protection is removed and the downloaded file can be printed. The text on the page, however, is not selectable.

Where can I find the official Turnitin user guide for teachers?
External Tool User Guide
Plagiarism Review User Guide

Contact Turnitin Support