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Academic Integrity & Turnitin: Turnitin

Turnitin instruction and discussion

What is Turnitin?

Turnitin is a text matching software designed to support academic integrity and help students avoid plagiarism.

Once an assignment is submitted through Turnitin it will be compared with a huge database of:

  • previously submitted work
  • billions of webpages
  • documents like periodicals, journals, and publications

Instances of text flagged as similar or matching to other sources will be shown in a similarity report.

AI generated text

The similarity report includes an AI writing indicator. This shows a percentage of the document that may have been generated by AI technology such as ChatGPT. It is then up to the lecturer to decide how to interpret that result.

The Turnitin website has lots of information on  AI writing detection.

Using Turnitin

You will be required to submit many of your assignments through Turnitin. If your teacher has activated this setting then it will appear in your assignment submission link in Moodle. If you can't see the link check with your teacher. 

  1. Choose your submission title. It’s a good idea to make this clearly identifiable by reflecting the title of the assignment
  2. Drag and drop your assignment into the area provided or browse the file manager
  3. Tick the box to indicate that you have read and understood the student's declaration on academic integrity.

 

  1. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and press Add submission

  1. You will then see a submission receipt with a Turnitin submission ID and an extract of your assignment

 

After submitting your assignment a similarity report will be produced. Click on the similarity percentage to view the report.

If it is your first time viewing a similarity report there is a short tour you can go through which explains the features.

Please Note: When submitting multiple drafts of the same assignment it can take up to 24 hours for a new similarity report to be available. Take this into account when submitting drafts close to the assignment due date.

 

The Turnitin website has answers to many commonly asked questions.

Trouble submitting your paper

Student resource hub

 

The creation of a class is the first step in allowing students to submit their assignments through Turnitin. 

  • Find the relevant course from your Moodle homepage.

 

 

  • Select 'create learning activity' (located bottom of the page) 

 

 

 

  • Select Turnitin from the box selection 

If you cannot see the Turnitin option, contact moodlehelpdesk@melbournepolytechnic.edu.au

 

 

1.  Enter your Turnitin Assignment Name and an optional assignment summary. 

 

2. Select the submission type for the assignment. The default is Any Submission Type. There are two student submission options: File Upload and Text Submission. Select File Upload.

 

3. Select the number of parts you would like the assignment to have from the Number of Parts drop down menu. Each Turnitin assignment in Moodle Direct V2 can have multiple parts associated with it. The student must submit a file to each part to complete the assignment. As default, Moodle will create a one part assignment.

 

4. Select the Maximum File Size for submissions. Turnitin allows up to 2mb for a text only submission and 40mb for a text and graphic submission. The maximum file size can be adjusted in this setting in line with your requirements.

 

5. Opt to allow or disallow any file type. By selecting Yes, submissions will be checked for originality where possible, submissions will be available for download. By selecting  No, only file types that allow originality reports to be generated will be accepted. 

 

6. The option to Display Originality Reports to Student provides instructors with the ability to control whether students are allowed to view Originality Reports within each created assignment. Select Yes to allow students to see the Originality Report for the assignment. The default setting is No.

 

7. Opt to show student grades as fractions or percentages. 

 

8. To maintain synchronized data between Turnitin and Moodle, select Yes, automatically refresh originality scores and grades. Alternatively, select No, I will refresh originality scores and grades manually.

 

Grade Information

Set the grade type to None.

 

 

Assignment Part

Enter the assignment's name, start date, due date & post date. Ignore the Max Marks box.

 

Originality Report

 

The Originality Report Options have a significant impact on the score generated in each report. We, therefore, advise that you ensure all report settings are reviewed before completing the setup of this assignment.

 

1.   The Allow Late submissions after the Due Date gives students the option to submit work after the assignment due date; late submissions are always marked as being late and the actual submission date is recorded. You can click Yes to allow late submissions, or alternatively, leave this setting at its No default.

 

2. Select one of the following three options for Originality Report Generation Speed:

 

  • Generate reports immediately (resubmissions are not allowed) - Originality Reports for all submissions will be generated immediately. Students cannot resubmit papers. Submissions must be deleted by the instructor to enable resubmission.

 

  • Generate reports immediately (resubmissions are allowed until due date) - Originality Reports for the initial submission, and subsequent 3 resubmissions, by each student user to this assignment will be generated immediately. Students may resubmit as often as the student wishes until the assignment due date. Originality Reports for the fourth or subsequent submission will require a 24-hour delay before the Originality Report begins processing. Only the latest submission is available to the instructor or student. Previous versions are removed. Student submissions will compare against one another within the assignment on the due date and time, which may result in a change in the Originality Report similarity index and results at the due date and time. This option is typically used when students are self-reviewing and revising their submissions and able to view the Originality Report. No resubmissions after the due date and time of the assignment.

 

  • Generate reports on due date (resubmissions are allowed until due date) - Originality Reports will not be generated for any submission until the due date and time of the assignment. Students may resubmit as many times as needed until the due date and time without receiving reports. Resubmissions may not be made after the due date and time of the assignment.

 

3. Opt to either store student papers in the standard repository or no repository. By storing papers in the standard repository, this will allow these papers to be checked against in this future. By selecting No repository, submitted papers will not be saved in the Turnitin repository. However this means that if two students submit the same paper to the same assignment, Turnitin will not find any match.

 

4. There are three repository source options available for you to select. Turnitin can check against stored student papers, the Internet, and journals, periodicals, and publications. Select Yes or No for each source you would or would not like us to check against. For any source that you do not wish to check against, the similarity score may decrease.

 

Note: If you do not select 'Yes' for at least one of the 'Check against...' options, then an Originality Report will not be generated.

 

5. Turnitin can exclude certain elements of a paper from an Originality Report to provide a more accurate similarity score. You can opt to exclude the following from an Originality Report:
 

  • Bibliography - Text appearing in the bibliography, works cited, and references sections can be excluded.
  • Quoted Material - Text appearing in the quotes of student papers can be excluded.
  • Small Matches - Matches that are not of sufficient length can be excluded. The number of words or paper percentage to be excluded is determined by yourself, and entered into the text box.

 

Note: This setting can be overridden in individual Originality Reports.

 

 

GradeMark Options, Common module settings, Restrict access, Tags & Competencies

                     Can be left alone.

 

  1. Scroll to the bottom of the screen and press Add submission

  1. You will then see a submission receipt with a Turnitin submission ID and an extract of your assignment

 

 

Teachers can access the Turnitin submission inbox to make amendments to their assignment settings, as well as submit on behalf of students, delete papers and view Originality reports for submitted papers.

 

 

 

A Turnitin Originality report for a student can be viewed from the submission inbox. The similarity column icon indicates the similarity score as a percentage. There is a corresponding colour which scales from blue(0%) to red (100%).

Click on the similarity icon to open the report.

For more information from the Turnitin instructor manual, click here.

 

 

Turnitin currently accepts the following file types for upload into an assignment:

 

  • Microsoft Word® (DOC and DOCX)
  • Corel WordPerfect®
  • HTML
  • Adobe PostScript®
  • Plain text (TXT)
  • Rich Text Format (RTF)
  • Portable Document Format (PDF)
  • OpenOffice (ODT)
  • Hangul (HWP)

 

 

 

Referencing Support

Referencing Fundamentals Library Guide

The ideal guide for beginners.

  • Why you should reference

  • What types of materials you must reference

  • In-text citations, reference lists and bibliographies

Online Referencing Tool

Use the Online Referencing Tool to help create accurate citations in both Harvard and APA7 styles.

At Melbourne Polytechnic two styles of referencing are used: Harvard Style, and APA7 Style.

Check with your teacher to find out which style is used for your studies.

Get Help

Contact the MP Library for help with Turnitin.

Phone: 9269 1349

Emaillibrary@melbournepolytechnic.edu.au

Library Chat: bottom right corner of this page