Create a Turnitin submission link

Before you begin

First of all, have you considered whether you should use a Turnitin or a Blackboard assignment?

If Turnitin is your choice, read on or watch a demonstration video.

You can get help as you proceed by hovering over the  question mark next to each setting.

Create a submission link

1. In Blackboard, go to the content area where you want the link to the assignment to appear. This should be the Assessment Submission area.
2. Ensure you have Edit mode switched on.
3. From the horizontal tab menu select Assessments, then Turnitin Assignment.
   • If this is not the first Turnitin assignment within this Blackboard course, you will be asked to choose the type of assignment you’re creating.
     Choose Paper Assignment then Next step.
4. Assignment title Give the assignment a unique and meaningful title – this is what the students will see. Your School may have a naming convention for you to follow.
5. Point value This is the maximum mark the assignment could achieve. Usually, this 100.
6. Set the file types the students can submit:
   • • Allow only file types that Turnitin can check for originality
       This will prevent students from being able to upload file types not supported by Turnitin’s document viewer. It will also apply restrictions on Word documents, PowerPoint slides and PDFs to insist they contain text that can be scanned for the originality report.
     • Allow any file type
       This removes the above restrictions and students can upload any file type. If Turnitin cannot display a file type in its document viewer, then the marker will be prompted to download those files. They will then be able to view them on their own computer. This allows Turnitin to be used for all files types although only those that Turnitin support will have a Similarity Report.

   Here is a list of the files types accepted by Turnitin.

7. Set the assignment dates:
   Start date
   This is the date and time students can begin submitting to the assignment. This does not affect the visibility of the link, this can be done using Adaptive Release.
   Due Date
   This is the date and time by which the assessment is due.
   See Optional Settings for information on late submissions.
   Post date
   

   If Anonymous marking is enabled this is the date and time that:

   • • 1. 1. The student names in the Submission inbox are revealed to instructors.
          2. The grades are released to the Grade Centre and visible to instructors.
          3. The grades are revealed to the students via My Grades.
          4. The feedback is released to the students via Feedback Studio.

   
   If Anonymous Marking is not enabled:

   1. 1. 1. The student names are never hidden in the Submission Inbox.
         2. Grades are sent to the Grade Centre immediately they entered into Turnitin.
         3. Reveal grades to students only on post date? in the Optional Settings will control the date that the marks revealed to students in My Grades.
         4. The feedback is revealed to the student in Feedback Studio on the post date.
8. Now select the Optional settings button.

Optional settings

Special instructions

Special instructions appear on Blackboard below the link to your assignment on the Submissions page and can be used to provide the student with specific information such as submission instructions.

Allow submissions after the due date

IMPORTANT Set this to Yes

This enables students to upload their assignments after the due date, these submissions will be flagged as late by Turnitin.

Note that this only allows students to submit their work after the due date if they did not have a submission in place when the due date passes. If a student does have a submission in place when the due date passes, they are not then able to edit, delete or submit an alternative version.

Generate Similarity Reports for submissions?

IMPORTANT Set this to Yes

This will allow Turnitin to create the Similarity Report.

Generate Similarity Reports for student submission

This section controls when the Similarity Report will be created, and also controls if students will be able to resubmit their work, e.g. if they accidentally upload the wrong file.

• • • Immediately first report is final
      This generates the Similarity Report immediately after the student submits. This setting does not allow the student resubmit another file in it’s place.
      WARNING If a student accidentally submits the wrong file they are not able to resubmit to upload the correct file. The instructor will need to intervene to delete the current submission in the submission inbox to enable them to submit another in its place.
    • Immediately (can overwrite reports until due date)
      This generates the Similarity Report immediately after the student submits. This setting allows the student to resubmit as many times as necessary up until the due date and time, each new submission replaces the one before and updates the Similarity Report. All Similarity Reports in the module are re-generated at the due date to ensure they are compared against each other.
    • On due date
      This generates the Similarity Report on the due date. Students can resubmit as many times as necessary up until the due date and time.

Exclude bibliographic material from Similarity Index for papers in this assignment?

This prevents text in the assignment under the trigger words for References or Bibliography from inclusion in the Similarity Report.

Exclude small matches?

You can choose to exclude small amounts of text from the Similarity Report.

If Yes is selected, a dialogue box will appear to control the size of the excluded text either by percentage or by the number of words in the string.

Allow students to see Similarity Report

You can choose whether or not to allow students to see the Similarity Report.

Enable Translated Matching?

This is not currently supported at Aston and so should be set to No.

Reveal grades to students only on post date

This will automatically hides grades from the student in My Grades until the post date passes.

IMPORTANT Any marks awarded to a student will be included in the Total column in My Grades. While students will not be notified about this, there is the possibility they could use the value in the total column to see (or work out) the grade they have been awarded before you release it. You can exclude the Total column from calculations to prevent this.

Enable anonymous marking?

This masks the name of the student in the Submission Inbox and Feedback Studio until the post date passes.

Submit paper to:

• • • Standard paper repository – A copy of the assignment will be stored in the Turnitin database.
    • No repository – The assignment is not stored in the Turnitin database. Use this option if you are submitting an experimental assignment.

Search options

Select or deselect the repositories that Turnitin will check against in the creation of the Similarity Report.

Attach a rubric/form to this assignment

Add a rubric or a grading form to your assignment.

ETS® e-rater® Settings

This is currently not supported at Aston and should be set to No.

Would you like to save these options as your defaults for future assignments?

This will save your settings for future assignments only within this Blackboard module.

When you’ve finished setting up your assignment, click the  button