Turnitin is an online text-matching service that is integrated with Blackboard that generates automatic feedback on student writing and referencing ( this feedback is known as an Originality report).
Turnitin can be used to teach students about good referencing and discourage plagiarism. Therefore, many tutors use it formatively to enable students to check drafts of their work before they submit a final version for marking. See our best practice guidelines for formative use of Turnitin for more information.
Staff can also use the generated reports, after the final work has been submitted, as a deterrent to cheating and to check for and evidence plagiarism. For more information, see our best practice guidelines for summative use of Turnitin.
Advantages of using Turnitin with students include:
- Raising awareness of plagiarism and surrounding topics.
- Encouraging students to reference correctly. Students may not have intentionally plagiarised but failed to use the correct referencing method. Turnitin can help students see where text has been matched and check they have referenced it appropriately.
- Deterrence. Knowing that Turnitin is in use may deter some students who may have considered plagiarizing.
- Equitable source of feedback on academic writing and referencing.
Advantages of Turnitin for staff include:
- Early detection. Automatic referencing feedback on students' draft work, before they submit their final version, can help them detect problems early and prevent the need for punitive action.
- Teaching tool. Turnitin Originality Reports can be used as a teaching tool to highlight plagiarism. For example, you can illustrate what may be detected, how to reference matched text, etc.
At the start of the academic year 2024, we moved over to Blackboard Ultra (from Blackboard Classic), which also meant there is now a way to enable Turnitin as part of Blackboard Assignment submission points. But you may still see the ‘old’ method of a separate Turnitin submission point on some of the older Blackboard sites or in certain modules where the new method does not support practice as well.
Formative checking of work in Turnitin by students
If Turnitin is being used to check final student submissions by markers, students must be given an opportunity to check their work in Turnitin ahead of the final submission. There are two ways they can do this.
Students can submit their draft work to the final submission point in Blackboard and receive a Turnitin report on their draft work ahead of their final submission (if Turnitin has been enabled on the submission point). Submissions points are set to unlimited attempts which should facilitate this.
Students can also check their work through their University Office 365 account using Turnitin Draft Coach. This option can be helpful for students who are anxious about submitting draft work to the final submission point, and Draft Coach includes some additional grammar and referencing checking tools. Note staff cannot use Draft Coach due to licensing limitations.
