Turnitin is available within Canvas Assignments to check the originality of student submissions.
Turnitin checks student papers against the current and archived internet, scholarly databases, a global repository of student papers, and a Penn-only repository of student papers. The data from Turnitin reports can be shared with students as a teaching tool.
Turnitin is intended for essay-type submissions. For other assignment types (math, coding, etc.), contact your Local Support Provider to learn about available options.
This page is intended for instructors. Students should review Turnitin for Students.
Guidelines
End User License Agreement (EULA)
Turnitin requires users to agree to an End User License Agreement (EULA) before use. Instructors should read the EULA in full before deciding to use Turnitin and will be required to agree to the EULA before accessing a Turnitin originality report for the first time. Students must agree before submitting their work to a Turnitin-enabled Canvas Assignment.
Please share information about Turnitin’s EULA with your students through your course syllabus or as part of the information you provide with an individual assignment.
Penn terms of use
Only content produced by students at the University of Pennsylvania may be processed through Turnitin. Materials produced by users outside this group, including applicants for admission to any University of Pennsylvania program or school, may not be submitted through Turnitin.
Materials produced by faculty or researchers at Penn should be processed via iThenticate.
Creating a Turnitin-enabled Assignment
Turnitin is only available within Canvas Assignments; it cannot be used with Quizzes or Discussions.
Turnitin must be enabled before any students submit the assignment. If students have already submitted an assignment, you cannot enable Turnitin retroactively.
If you need to enable Turnitin after students have submitted, create a separate Turnitin-enabled assignment and have students re-submit. Consider checking the Do not count this assignment towards the final grade box for one of those Assignments to ensure that only one gradebook column appears on the Grades tab.
To create a Turnitin-enabled assignment:
- Follow your normal process for creating an assignment.
- Under Submission Type, select Online Submission and specify Text Entry or File Uploads. This prompts the Plagiarism Review tool option to appear.
- Select Turnitin from the Plagiarism Review drop-down to enable originality checking for this assignment. This opens the Turnitin menu.
- Adjust the Turnitin settings as desired. Default settings store student submissions in a Penn-specific repository and will not show originality reports to students.
Interpreting Reports
The Gradebook shows color-coded icons indicating the score similarity range, but you’ll need to access SpeedGrader to view the similarity score for an individual submission. Click the percentage icon to launch the complete report on Turnitin’s website.
Note that the Turnitin similarity score is not intended to be used on its own, as the percentage of matching text can be affected by many factors that don’t necessarily indicate plagiarism.
For this reason, Penn does not have specific policies regarding the percentage of similarity that is acceptable/unacceptable. Instead, we encourage instructors to use the similarity score as one factor out of many that may flag a paper as warranting closer review.
It is also possible to exclude sources through the Turnitin Report Interface.
Responding to plagiarism
The Center for Community Standards and Accountability (CSA) is an excellent resource to answer instructor questions or address actual or suspected violations of academic integrity. Consider scheduling a confidential consultation with CSA, even if you have not decided to refer a student for disciplinary action. Their FAQ for Faculty provides in-depth information on addressing and reporting academic integrity issues.
Penn’s Center for Excellence in Teaching, Learning, and Innovation (CETLI) also provides recommendations on detecting plagiarism in papers and essays.
Additional Resources
Getting Help
Contact your Local Support Provider or submit a request to canvas@pobox.upenn.edu.