Benefits of proactive use of Turnitin: when used as a normal part of the writing process, students acquaint themselves with the system and learn to interpret Turnitin’s similarity report, in addition to learning skilful writing.
Turnitin does not directly indicate whether a submitted work has been plagiarised or not. You, as the teacher, decide whether the work is plagiarised based on the information in the similarity and AI reports.
Turnitin does not check the authenticity of references in the work, regardless of whether they are human-written or AI-generated.
Turnitin does not analyse images or graphs. In tables, it only analyses text for similarities.
Turnitin is used in MyCourses as an activity. It is used either as part of MyCourses's Assignment, Quiz or Workshop activities or as an independent activity called Turnitin LTI 1.3.
Teachers supervising and/or advising thesis work can request a dedicated MyCourses workspace containing submission boxes for thesis drafts. Request for such a workspace via the form on this page.
Students receive immediate feedback from Turnitin on whether they have
Teachers and thesis supervisors and advisors can use Turnitin to
Turnitin compares the submitted texts to an extensive database that includes books from major publishers, scientific journals, magazines and other works, publicly available documents online, as well as research reports, theses and dissertations from renowned universities. Turnitin generates a similarity report from the submitted text, which is visible to both the teacher and the student. The percentage in the report indicates the proportion of similar text in the submission. The similar sections are highlighted in the report and are accompanied by links to the original text, making it easy to check the sections.
The similarity report is generated when
Additionally, Turnitin creates a report assessing how much and which parts of the submitted text are generated by artificial intelligence. Text evaluated as created by artificial intelligence is highlighted in the same way as in the similarity report. The specific limitations for creating the AI report are described here.
Turnitin accepts the typical file types used, such as PDF, Microsoft Word (doc, docx), OpenOffice (odt), text file (txt), HTML, Microsoft PowerPoint (pptx), Microsoft Excel (xls, xlsx), as well as Rich Text Format (rtf). You will find the complete list and more information on all the supported file types on Turnitin's website. See also the restrictions related to the similarity report.
An AI report is generated only from docx, pdf, txt, and rtf file types. See also the other restrictions regarding the AI report.
MyCourses has a workspace called 'Independent Turnitin originality check for academic Year 20uv-20xy' where you can check texts with Turnitin independently. You can use the workspace independently of any courses. Your role will be that of a student in this workspace. Use MyCourses's search utility with the query 'independent turnitin originality check' to find the workspace.
If you have a MyCourses workspace created for thesis supervision, you can check your texts in the Draft Submission Boxes in the workspace. Since you have the role of Teacher in this workspace, in addition to the similarity report, you will also get the AI report.
Unfortunately, there is no absolute percentage or number indicating a satisfactory result. The submitted text must always be reviewed and assessed regardless of the percentage of similarity given in the similarity report. Nonetheless, the less similar the text is, the better. As a rough rule of thumb, less than about a third of the text marked as similar is usually acceptable.
We recommend that you use Turnitin as often as possible: whenever you have a written assignment. It is not just a tool for checking originality but also a learning and feedback tool.
Using Turnitin is a mandatory part of the thesis submission process. As a thesis supervisor and advisor, you can use a personal, dedicated MyCourses workspace to guide the thesis writing process. Order a workspace by filling out the form on this page.
More information: Thesis supervision workspace in MyCourses – Turnitin – MyCourses help site
The tool is automatically enabled in all Turnitin submission boxes, and all new submissions are analysed. You are not able to control the tool in any way. The limitations on using this tool are:
See Turnitin's frequently asked questions for more information on the subject.
Although Turnitin claims that AI-generated text is well-detected, experiences so far show that this may not entirely be the case. Text created by the latest generative text models often slips through undetected, and there are many false positives. Whether these numbers are within the range stated by Turnitin is impossible to say.
Additionally, the indicator marks text corrected by grammar correction software, which, after all, uses large language models in its functions and is thus actually AI-generated.
Although the identification of AI-generated text is far from perfect, it serves as a useful tool in recognising AI-generated text, and the AI report forms the basis for discussion with the student when misconduct is suspected.
See Turnitin's frequently asked questions for more information on the topic.
If you suspect plagiarism or other misconduct, contact your school's Manager of Academic Affairs. They can discuss the situation with you and take the matter forward if necessary.
See here for a detailed description of the process.
As a teacher, your primary responsibilities when using Turnitin include the duty to inform students when Turnitin's similarity check and AI check are in use and to ensure that they receive similar treatment throughout the course. Read more about these and other responsibilities in the article Plagiarism and Turnitin users' obligations and rights.
Find below links to important information instructions.
The rights and responsibilities of both teachers and students using Turnitin are described here. Also, the kinds of plagiarism are listed, and the process regarding the investigation of suspected plagiarism is summarised.
