Creating a Turnitin Assignment in Blackboard

You can create an assignment in your Blackboard course that will incorporate the anti-plagiarism features of Turnitin, giving you originality reports for each student's work.

From the Control Panel:

1.Click on the Content Area you wish to access.

2.Select Turnitin Assignment from the Select pull down menu and click Go.

3.On the Assignment Creation page enter the following:

Enter an AssignmentTitle.
Point Value for the Assignment. This is optional, however if you do enter a value this value will appear in the Gradebook column associated with the Turnitin Assignment.
If desired any Special Assignment Instructions for the assignment.
Choose Date and Time restrictions.
Start date: The date and time the assignment opens, when students can submit the assignment.
Due date: The date and time the assignment is due. Depending on another option, this can also be the cutoff date.
Post date: The date and time the students will be able to get access to the instructor’s comments.
Choose whether or not you would like Originality Reports generated. The Originality Report will compare this paper to a number of data sources for similarities between them.
Select “yes” for Show Advanced Options if you would like to customize the Originality Reports.

  • Generate Originality Report for student submissions
  • Immediately (first report is final)
  • Immediately (can overwrite report until due date): New reports will be generated in about 24 hours.
  • On due date
  • Select “yes” if you want to Allow students to see Originality Reports.
  • Select “yes” if you want to Allow submissions after the due date.
  • Some instructors as well as students might have a problem with the student work becoming part of TurnItIn’s database.Select “no” for Allow other papers to be checked against submission if this is an issue and the papers will not be added to the database.
  • Compare submissions against these search targets
  • student paper database: Compares the currently submitted paper against all papers that have ever been submitted to the TurnItIn database.
  • current and archived Internet: Compares the currently submitted paper against approximately 4.5 billion current and archived web pages.
  • periodical, journals, & publications: Compares the currently submitted paper against a vast collection of books and journals available from this subscription service.

4.Click Submit

Submitting Papers (Instructor View)

1.Click the View/Complete link through the Content Area where the assignment was created.

2.To submit a paper, locate the paper you want to submit on your computer by clicking the Browse button and enter a title for the paper. Select an enrolled student using the student pulldown to associate the submission with a student and click the submit button to upload the paper.

3.Make sure that the paper displayed below is the correct paper. If it is, click Yes, Submit. If it is not the correct paper, click No, Go Back, to return to the previous page and select another paper.

Viewing Results

1.To view the results of a Turnitin assignment, go to the Control Panel, Course Toolsand select Turnitin Assignments. This will show you a list of all Turnitin Assignments that have been created for this course.

2.Select View for the assignment you would like to see the results.

3.From this page you can view who has turned in the assignment, view a paper, view an Originality Report, download a paper, or remove a paper from Blackboard. Removing a paper from Blackboard also removes it from your Turnitin account.

4.Students can view the Originality Report for a document by clicking on the original assignment link (View/Complete link). If the student has already submitted the assignment they will be told 'You have already completed this Turnitin Assignment, click ok to review your results.' Clicking the OK button then takes them to an additional screen with their document and the Originality Score/Report.

Turnitin and the Gradebook

Grading is integrated with the Blackboard Gradebook. When you initially create your Turnitin Assignment, a column will be created in the Gradebook and grades entered in Turnitin are automatically recorded in the Blackboard Gradebook.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q: How do I change the assignment so that my students can turn it in multiple times before the deadline?
A: You may do this by selecting Show advanced assignment options. You will then selectimmediately (can overwrite reports until due date) in the pulldown menu associated with the Generate Originality Reports for student submission.

Q: Why are not all enrolled students showing up in my Turnitin inbox?
A:Students enrolled in your class will appear in your inbox as they make their first submissions to Turnitin assignments in your class. If you would like all your students to appear within the inbox before they begin submitting papers. You may synchronize your class roster by clicking Roster Synch in your assignment inbox.