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Tips for using Turnitin

Turnitin is most often used as a final step in assignment submission to check written assessment against the database and identify similarities that may require further investigation. However, as per the Student Academic Integrity Procedure, where possible, students should have the opportunity to check and improve their work prior to submission using the Turnitin tools, and the default settings for the two tools have been configured to support the development of academic skills.

When implemented correctly, Turnitin can be a useful tool for improving academic integrity. Below, you can find tips for using different aspects of Turnitin in teaching.

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The integrated Turnitin Similarity Report Settings in Moodle assignment allows you to use a full suite of Moodle marking options and produce a similarity score in the Moodle Assignment interface.
By default, when adding a Moodle assignment, the Turnitin Similarity Report Settings will be enabled. The default configuration will have Turnitin Similarity Report Settings are:
- Reports Generation Speed is set to Generate reports immediately (students can resubmit until due date): After 3 submissions, reports generate after 24 hours. This allows students multiple opportunities to submit their assessment and review the associated similarity report so that they can refine and improve their work, identifying where they need to strengthen their adherence to academic conventions and practice.
  Note: The similarity report is usually generated within a half hour of the first three submissions. After the third submission, the similarity report will be generated in 24 hours.
Understanding a Turnitin report is a skill, like any other. It is important to ensure students are given guidance in how to interpret a similarity report, and where to seek assistance if significant matches are revealed by the software. See the Supporting your students page for more information.
Currently, Turnitin cannot check images for plagiarism. For example, if a student has a text based table or diagram saved as an image Turnitin will not be able to read the text in the image. This can also be an issue if the student has copied content from another source and placed it as an image in the document or if they have scanned their document to PDF.
Key message: Inform students to avoid using images with text in them or scan to PDF.
Currently, Turnitin is only linked to the Moodle Assignment. You would have to manually copy and paste each student’s text-based quiz responses into Turnitin to check for similarity. Unfortunately, this is time consuming and may not be ideal for your situation. However, it is possible that Turnitin may be included into Moodle Quiz in the future.
Key message: Currently, Turnitin works for written assignments and not a Moodle Quiz.
Turnitin has the option to store students' papers in a repository to check all papers for similarity. By default, the Turnitin Similarity Report Settings for Moodle Assignment are set to store student papers on submission.
If required, the settings for storing in a repository and checking against future uploaded submissions can be altered in the Store Student Papers section, by changing the setting from/to No Repository.
Key message: Use No Repository under the Store Student papers if you do not want them stored in the Turnitin database.
Turnitin produces similarity reports that highlight similarities between submitted work that closely matches existing sources, as well as indicating the sources of the matched text. Pay close attention to the sources of the similarities to determine whether a student has engaged in plagiarism. Turnitin should NOT be regarded as a “plagiarism detector”. It is simply a tool that assists educators to make their own final judgement in alignment with Monash University's standards of academic integrity.
Monash’s Student Academic Integrity Procedure requires all text-based assessment tasks to be submitted through Turnitin, and Moodle Assignment is configured with Turnitin settings for drafting and submission by default. Other tasks, such as computer code, should be submitted through relevant software where this is provided by the faculty, e.g. MOSS or JPlag for code submissions in the Faculty of Information Technology.
When papers are submitted to Turnitin and there is a similarity percentage with another paper (at any institution), it is possible for a user to request access to the paper with matching text. From time to time, you may receive requests from educators or administrators at other institutions who wish to view student work. Click here to view an example of a Turnitin Paper View Request.
Replying to the request for a student submission may result in an inadvertent breach of privacy, as papers can contain sensitive and identifying information that is not automatically redacted by Turnitin.
All requests for Paper View with Turnitin should be ignored and deleted without response.
This will not impact the ability of Turntin to look for similarity in papers submitted to the database. You can set up a filter in your Monash mailbox to filter out the Paper View Requests so that they skip your inbox. Download the Turnitin Paper View Request gmail filter and follow the instructions to import a gmail filter.
Learning to write academically is a complex process, involving a wide range of new and interdependent skills. Students new to study (or returning after a long break) may lack many of these skills, and will not become fluent in the language of their discipline overnight. It is therefore important to view and use Turnitin as a tool to assist students in identifying problems in their writing skillset, rather than as a spy to inform them when they do something wrong.
Before requiring students to submit work through Turnitin, ensure you have scaffolded and supported them in development of skills such as effective reading (identifying key ideas), note taking (in their own words), and recognising that it is important to have an understanding of a topic, and something original to say, before trying to express the idea in writing.
Turnitin can then be used to highlight where there is an over-reliance on original wording and structure, and follow up instruction can assist students to consider how to express the ideas more effectively.
Key message: Integrate Turnitin into academic skill development.
Turnitin produces a similarity report, highlighting where a student’s submission contains text that is similar to text in another document within Turnitin’s database or online. Text may be similar in two documents for many reasons, only one of which is plagiarism. Other explanations might relate to use of terms and phrasing common within the discipline, use of templates or required content (such as particular headings), quotations and references, as well as coincidence. All matches should be reviewed in context. Additionally, if a student submission matches work by another Monash student, the submission with the higher score is not necessarily the one containing copied content.
For high similarity scores, you might want to compare the text more closely in terms of how the work was put together. Use the report to determine whether a student has engaged in plagiarism by verifying the sources used, where text matching has occurred, and whether it may be due to poor academic practice.
Key message: There are many reasons why a match may be indicated. The similarity score must be considered in context and interpreted accordingly.
When adding a Moodle assignment, the default settings allow for drafting processes before final submission. Supporting student understanding of the drafting process and Similarity Reports is a key part of supporting assessment and academic integrity practice.
1. Explain the importance of Academic Integrity. Not only are there consequences for breaches, but academic integrity is the code of practice that Monash Scholars adhere to, upholding honesty and valuing the work of others. There are different resources available in the Communicate about Academic Integrity section to support this messaging.
2. Introduce the submission plugin. Ensure students understand that they have an opportunity to check their assessment task against similarity databases generally or prior to submission, and why they might do this. The Turnitin Integration will allow students to upload and receive a report within 15 minutes for the first three times and then once every 24 hours after.
3. Explain the benefit of drafting. Allowing students to upload drafts and check similarity reports is an important part of learning about academic integrity. Interpreting similarity reports can help students in identifying weaknesses in their understanding of academic practice. Many issues with linguistic expression or poor paraphrasing will be picked up by the system..
4. Explain that similarity is not plagiarism. Share a standard similarity report with students and explain what the different parts mean. For more information, see Interpret a similarity report. Help them to identify where the reports are indicating poor practice, and what strategies could be employed to improve adherence to conventions (for example, are there references missing by accident, or poor paraphrasing?).
5. Be specific about what this looks like in your unit and your tasks. Use past examples or common pitfalls and misconceptions to help students understand exactly what you expect from them and how they should respond to different flags in a report.
6. Link students to additional support. The Student Academic Success team and the library are able to support students with improving referencing and other academic practices.

Learning and Teaching: Teach HQ

Learning and Teaching: Teach HQ

Tips for using Turnitin