Turnitin

Stemming from the amendments made to FIPPA from Bill 22 – 2021, passed on November 25, 2021, student information can now be held on servers outside of Canada, however, the learning technology storing that information must first pass a Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA). All tools supported by LT Hub have passed a PIA, including Turnitin. Regardless, steps must be taken to protect student privacy when using Turnitin.

When using Turnitin as a standalone tool, UBC Privacy Requirements require that students be allowed to create Turnitin accounts using anonymized emails, if they wish to do so.

While it is not required, it is recommended to advise your students to delete any identifying information from the original document prior to uploading it. This includes their names and student numbers in the document, as well as any metadata or hidden data that might be stored in the document itself. If you are submitting papers for your students, it is important to do this for your students before uploading their submissions.

To remove metadata from a Microsoft Word document:

• Windows: You can remove the hidden data using Microsoft Word’s Document Inspector.
• Mac: Remove the hidden data by clicking on Word > Preferences > Security, then selecting Remove personal information from this file on save.

As of April 16, 2024, Canvas has a Turnitin integration automatically available for assignments, allowing instructors to streamline the Turnitin process.

A Plagiarism Review setting is available for all assignments with File Upload and/or Text Entry submission types.

To Enable:

1. In an Assignment, click Edit
2. Set the Submission Type to Online, and select only File Uploads
3. In the Plagiarism Review section, enable the Turnitin integration by selecting Turnitin from the drop-down.
4. You can choose whether or not to store students' papers in the Turnitin repository, so that Turnitin can compare against these papers for plagiarism in the future. Note: storing papers will store the papers and student identification on Turnitin servers outside of Canada.
5. Comparison settings are provided, giving the option to compare submissions against a mix of the student repository, web content, and publications.
6. Similarity settings are provided, giving the option to filter out different materials (e.g. the bibliography) from the similarity report. Including materials in the report will flag more materials.
7. Report visibility to students can also be selected. While this is up to instructor discretion, students unfamiliar with Turnitin may worry about their similarity scores if allowed to view their reports.

Students can submit as per normal through Canvas, once accepting Turnitin's agreement that their work is their own. Canvas will automatically run the submissions through Turnitin and will generate reports for each student which can be accessed through SpeedGrader. Clicking on the Similarity Report indicator (the small blue square labelled with a percentage) will open the Turnitin framework.

When using Turnitin as a standalone tool, rather than integrated with Canvas, instructors and TAs will require a UBC-affiliated account prior to setting up their class and assignments.

Creating Accounts

1. Request an account through the LT Hub Contact Form
2. For TAs, a UBC employee email address will need to be provided (@ubc.ca or @mail.ubc.ca)
3. After your account is created, you will receive an email containing a link to validate your account.
4. You will then receive a second email with a link at which you’ll be able to set your password (no longer than 12 characters), and a security question.

Creating a class

Creating a Class - follow this guide if you are an instructor who will be managing and reviewing submissions on their own.

Creating a Master Class - follow this guide if you have TAs who will be managing and reviewing submissions assigned to their own tutorial sections or group of students.

Adding TAs

Adding a TA to a master class section - TAs can only be added to a Master Class, not a standard one.

Converting a standard class to a master class

Notes:

Only one TA can be assigned to a section.

You can create additional TA sections, but you cannot move submissions from one section to another.

Each TA section will have its own enrollment code that students should use to make their submissions. They should not be making them to the primary master class.

Creating assignments

Creating assignments in a master class requires different steps than creating assignments in a regular class. Instructors will need to add assignments to sections.

Creating a paper assignment - steps to create a paper assignment in Turnitin. Settings to generate similarity report are in + Optional Settings.

Submissions

Students can submit their own work now on Turnitin, or instructors can submit assignments for students in Turnitin. Please see Turnitin's guide on submitting on behalf of students for different submission methods.

Viewing results

These similarity report instructions have detailed information on how to access and interpret similarity reports.