Turnitin and Canvas (Instructors)

Turnitin is an electronic text matching system that compares text in a student assignment against a database of sources. Turnitin is frequently used as a plagiarism detection application. Best practices from instructors suggest that Turnitin OriginalityCheck can be used as a teaching tool to address citation and academic honesty. 

The following statement must appear on a course syllabus if Turnitin or other antiplagiarism tool is used in the course:

In an effort to ensure the integrity of the academic process, Texas Woman’s University vigorously affirms the importance of academic honesty as defined by the Student Handbook. Therefore, in an effort to detect and prevent plagiarism, faculty members at Texas Woman’s University may now use a tool called Turnitin to compare a student’s work with multiple sources. It then reports a percentage of similarity and provides links to those specific sources. The tool itself does not determine whether or not a paper has been plagiarized. Instead, that judgment must be made by the individual faculty member.

Optional statements:

1. All required assignments in this course may be checked for plagiarism using Turnitin.
2. Some of the required assignments in this course or may be checked for plagiarism using Turnitin.
3. Assignments will be randomly checked for plagiarism using Turnitin.

Turnitin Resources

1. Plagiarism Spectrum 2.0 - identifies twelve types of unoriginal work,both traditional forms of plagiarism and emerging trends.
2. Turnitin Canvas Integration Matrix - This table breaks down the features of the two options for Turnitin in Canvas:
   1. External Tool - Canvas LTI for Instructors use this option to use some or all of the full suite of Turnitin Feedback and Grading Tools, such as Turnitin QuickMarks and Rubrics, Turnitin PeerMark, and ETS eRater. If you want to markup and score student papers using Turnitin Feedback and Grading Tools, then choose the External Tool Integration.
   2. Plagiarism Framework - Canvas Plagiarism Framework – Teacher use this option to generate the Turnitin Originality Reports and score student papers using Canvas SpeedGrader. To use additional Canvas features such as Group Assignments and multiple due dates, then choose the Plagiarism Framework Integration.
3. Interpreting the Similarity Report - Turnitin checks the student's submission against their database, and if there are instances where the student's writing is similar Turnitin flags this for you to review. Video: The Similarity Score Explained

Support Options

1. Canvas LTI Slide presentation for students: Submitting a Turnitin Assignment (Linked to Canvas) 
2. Canvas Plagiarism Framework presentation for students: Submitting a Turnitin Assignment (Turnitin in Canvas)
3. To get started or for personalized assistance using Turnitin, please contact your Instructional Design Partner in Teaching and Learning with Technology.
4. To request technical support, submit a Technology Service Desk email to start a ticket.