About Turnitin in Canvas

On this page:

About Turnitin
- About Similarity Reports
Canvas integrations
- About the integrations
- Canvas integration feature comparison
Get help

About Turnitin

Turnitin provides a web-based plagiarism detection service, which can be used as a deterrent and as a tool to teach students how to work with sources. Turnitin Feedback Studio also includes tools for peer review, automated spelling and grammar review, document annotation and feedback, and grading of student submissions.

Note:

For more about standards of academic integrity at IU, including disciplinary procedures for academic misconduct, see the Code of Student Rights, Responsibilities, and Conduct.

Instructors at IUB may submit academic misconduct reports online.

If you are an instructor, and you wish to submit student papers to Turnitin yourself (that is, students have not submitted their papers with the Turnitin option enabled in Assignments), it's best to submit the papers directly through Turnitin.com, not through Canvas. See Submit papers directly to Turnitin.

About Similarity Reports

A Turnitin Similarity Report indicates overlap between the text of the submitted paper and other materials in the Turnitin database. The report indicates the percentage of overlapping material in the paper, as well as specific matching passages. Reports will usually be available within 15-60 minutes of the submission or the due date, depending on the assignment settings.

Note the following limitations:

Turnitin compares submissions against a wide database of internet sources (as well as previously submitted student work and commercial databases); however, it may not scan every site on the internet. A clean similarity report does not necessarily guarantee that the submission is the student's own work.
Turnitin does not flag essays that include plagiarized ideas or concepts, nor can it detect paraphrasing that dramatically changes the wording of an original source while maintaining that source's organization.
Students who are quoting correctly might have reports that indicate a high level of overlap with these sources.

For more, see Interpreting the Similarity Report.

Canvas integrations

About the integrations

Turnitin offers two integrations for Canvas:

Canvas Plagiarism Framework: For instructors who use Turnitin solely for plagiarism detection and prefer to conduct all feedback and grading activities in Canvas. This integration is considerably easier to use than the Turnitin LTI tool. The Turnitin Feedback Studio is not available via the Plagiarism Framework.
For more, see Use Turnitin's Canvas Plagiarism Framework.
Turnitin external LTI tool: Includes full access to the Turnitin Feedback Studio, which is integrated with the Canvas Gradebook and includes tools for quick mark up of student papers, written feedback, spelling and grammar check, building and grading with rubrics, conducting peer reviews, etc.
For more, see Use the Turnitin Feedback Studio in Canvas.

Canvas integration feature comparison

If you are unsure about which integration will best meet your needs, refer to the table below:

Feature	Plagiarism Framework	External Tool
Canvas online submission assignment	✔Yes	No
Canvas external tool assignment	No	✔Yes
Turnitin Similarity Reports	✔Yes	✔Yes
Supports Canvas group assignments	✔Yes	No
Feedback using Canvas Speedgrader	✔Yes	✔Yes
Feedback using Turnitin QuickMarks (document markup)	No	✔Yes
Turnitin grammar and spelling check	No	✔Yes
Canvas Peer Reviews	✔Yes	No
Turnitin PeerMark (peer reviews)	No	✔Yes
Differentiate assignment before students have submitted	✔Yes	✔Yes
Differentiate assignment after students have submitted	✔Yes	No
Canvas rubric	✔Yes	✔Yes
Turnitin rubric	No	✔Yes
Submit multiple files to a single assignment and get a report score on each one	✔Yes	No

Get help

Instructors can get help using technology in their teaching at the teaching and learning centers on each campus.

For help from a UITS Support Center consultant, fill out the "Ask for Help" form found in the Canvas Help menu. You can also contact your campus Support Center directly.