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Learning Technology Team

Ultra Workflow 1: Turnitin

Information for Staff

When to use a Turnitin assignment

You will normally use a Turnitin assignment when:

  • Your students are each individually submitting a single digital file for assessment;
  • Your students are submitting a file which contains text and which is in a common Microsoft Office or OpenOffice format, including Word (.doc/.dox), OpenOffice Text (.odt), Rich or Plain Text (.rtf/.txt) PowerPoint* (.ppt/,pptx), Excel* (.xls/xlsx).
  • You want your students' work to be checked for originality**;
  • You want to mark your students' work anonymously**.

*PowerPoint and Excel files will be converted to PDF during the upload process. While you will be able to download the students' original files, you will not be able to use PowerPoint functions (e.g., viewing presenter notes or slide animations) or Excel functions (e.g., filtering and sorting data) within Turnitin Feedback Studio.

**Originality checking and anonymous marking are optional settings in Turnitin. These settings should only be switched off in cases where it would not conflict with the University's policy regarding assessment.

You cannot use a Turnitin assignment if:

  • Your students are submitting multiple files for assessment;
  • Your students are submitting a group assessment;
  • Your students are submitting large files (i.e., over 100MB).

Where you are prevented from using a Turnitin assignment because of one or more of the above limitations, you will be able to use a Blackboard Assignment instead.

Overview of the anonymous submission and marking process

  1. Set up the Turnitin submission point with anonymous submission set to ‘yes’.
  2. Ensure that students know how to prepare work for anonymous submission.
  3. Students submit work for assessment.
  4. First marking.
  5. Internal moderation
  6. Internal verification
  7. All submissions made after the due date de-anonymised by first marker.
  8. Grades for late submissions capped by first marker in line with University policy.
  9. Feedback and grades released to students.
  10. Grades downloaded from Gradebook and sent to Student Records.

UON policies and official guidance related to anonymous marking

Introduction to setting up an anonymous Turnitin submission point

This section of the guide explains how to set up an anonymous Turnitin submission point. It covers all of the recommended settings and steps to ensure that the assignment runs smoothly for both staff and students throughout the submission and grading electronically process.

To help your students understand the process, please add the link to the student guide to your Ultra course: Submitting a Turnitin assignment - Student guide

NOTE:

Two Turnitin submission points are usually required per assignment. The first is for the submissions expected on the due date. This submission point will collect the assignments submitted on time, those submitted after the due date from students who have an agreed extension, and those unauthorised late submissions.

A second submission point also needs creating for resits. This is to collect any assignments from students who are allowed to resit the assignment, such as students with mitigating circumstances, for example.

All Turnitin assignments should be placed within the 'Assessment and submission' area on NILE module courses so that students know where to find them.

It should be made clear to your students that the assignment will be marked anonymously and that they should not include their name or student number anywhere in the document, the file name, or the submission title.

A guide for students is also available which explains how to submit an assignment to Turnitin (see link below).

Creating a Turnitin submission point

NOTE: All submission points must be placed in the 'Assessment and submission' module on Ultra courses. This is defined within the NILE design standards and is a mandatory requirement.

Ensure you follow both steps, this section 'Creating a Turnitin submission point' and the next section 'Setting up the gradebook'. Both steps need to be completed.

Navigate to the NILE course in which you wish to set the assignment.

In the course content area, select the module titled Assessment and submission so that it expands. Then click the plus icon within this section.

Choose Content Market from the list of options.

On the following page, select the Turnitin LTI tool.

The list of tools is in alphabetical order.

In the main details section enter a title, maximum grade, start date, due date, and feedback release date.

The title should include the assignment code and title as it is recorded in the module guide. If it is a resit assignment, this should also be clearly marked in the title, e.g. AS1 Resit.

The maximum grade is always out of 100. This allows for the correct recording of grades in percentages.

The start date is the date you wish to start accepting submissions from. This can usually be left as the date the submission point is created.

In line with policy, the due date should be set to 23.59 on the cutoff date.

The feedback release date should be four working weeks after the due date according to UON policy.

Optionally, enter any additional instructions for students.

After entering the details above, expand the optional settings section.

These settings are particularly important to ensure that the assignment is set up correctly. Please use the information in the table below to complete this section. At the end of the options, there is a checkbox which allows you to save the settings as your default options for the next time you set up a Turnitin assignment.

Submission Setting Selection
Submit papers to Standard paper repository
Allow submission of any file type This should normally be unticked so that only file types which Turnitin can check for similarity can be submitted. Consider setting up a Blackboard assignment instead if you are expecting submissions of different file types.
Allow late submissions Tick for first-sit assignments. Untick for re-sit assignments.
Enable anonymous marking Tick
Attach a rubric Tick and select the rubric from the dropdown list if using one.
Compare against Selection
Student paper repository Tick
Current and archived web site content Tick
Periodicals, journals and publications Tick
Similarity Report Selection
Generate Similarity Reports for student submission Generate reports immediately (students can resubmit until due date)
Allow students to view similarity reports Tick
Exclude bibliographic materials Tick
Exclude quoted materials Tick
Exclude small sources Tick
Small match exclusion type Words
Set source exclusion threshold 5 (This is a recommendation. Any value between 5 and 8 words should yield suitable results)
Additional settings Selection
Would you like to save these options as your defaults for future assignments? Optionally tick to save these options for next time

If you would like to know more about what each of the individual settings do, focus on the contextual help icons, which are represented as question marks.

The contextual help icons are tooltips. Screen readers may require increased verbosity.

Use the Submit button at the bottom of the form to save the settings.

A success message will be displayed briefly and the newly created assignment will be visible in the Assessment and submission area.

NOTE: Please follow the next step 'Setting up the Gradebook' to display a percentage grade to students.

Setting up the Gradebook

The assignment will have been added as a markable Item to the Gradebook, you just need to check the settings, and alter one of them. This step will display a percentage grade or a letter grade to students, rather than a score between 0 and 100.

Navigate to Gradebook in the course menu at the top of the course page.

Select the contextual menu next to assignment title choose Edit.

Locate the 'Mark Using' option.

Select either Undergraduate Letter, Postgraduate Letter, or Percentage from the 'Mark Using' drop down list, depending on your requirements, and save the changes.

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The Turnitin submission point is now ready to accept student submissions.

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