Using the Originality Reports · Using the Originality Reports This document provides you with an overview of the best practice when using TurnItIn ‟originality‟ reports to support

Using the Originality Reports This document provides you with an overview of the best practice when using TurnItIn ‟originality‟ reports to

support your identification of plagiarism.

Pedagogic Issues This section will help you understand how best in approach the integration of the toll within the context of

student learning.

Trust between students and staff It is important to introduce this service to the students in an atmosphere of openness. It can cause students

undue stress if they have little understanding of what the service does. It is strongly recommended that

students have at least one attempt at uploading and reading their own reports (see section below). The

introduction of this service can also reduce trust between student and staff. It could be seen as prejudging

the students by assuming that they will plagiarise. Therefore it is strongly recommended that staff emphasise

the following points when introducing the service

o Equity – all students are being treated the same o Integrity – this service will help maintain the future integrity, reputation and standard of their

award and the institution. o Learning – the service can help inform staff of where students are having difficulties with

particular academic skills, such as referencing. o Academic Judgment - interpretation of the report requires judgment by academic staff rather

than a completely automated detection by the system

No replacement for the academic judgment

It is important for you to understand that Turnitin is no replacement for your existing skills in detecting

plagiarism such as, changes in writing style, American spellings or changes in tense. Turnitin is also unable

to distinguish between legitimate quotations and non referenced quotations. Therefore, the matches that

Turnitin finds need to be analysed very carefully before processing with any disciplinary action.

No replacement for good assessment design

Turnitin may help to deter students from plagiarism and will help to detect it, but as research highlights many

other methods will reduce plagiarism from happening in the first place (See Carroll, J., 2002. A Handbook for

Deterring Plagiarism in Higher Education. Oxford: OCSLD.). One example is good assessment design which

motivates students to want to complete the task but also prevents students from copy from existing and

readily available sources.

Compiled by: Jim Turner (Academic Enhancement Unit) 3/4/2013

Help & Information available on the Blackboard Help tab Page 2 of 10

Reading the Reports The student list in the TurnItIn „assignment inbox‟

indicates the percentage of the submitted assignment that

matches with other sources. Therefore, a 10% match

would mean that 10% of the students‟ submitted

assignment has been matched to other sources. However,

the matches found DOES NOT indicate the level of

plagiarism, only the level of matches. The matches could

be:

Commonly used phrases

Legitimate use of cited quotations within the assignment

Matches found for the same referenced title.

Therefore the reports need to be analysed in order to make a judgment on how serious the case may be.

The actual reports consist of the submitted

text and a list of the matched sources.

The submitted text will contain numbered

and coloured sections of the text which

relate to the sources identified. These

sources have a percentage value

indicating the amount of match they have

with the original source. For instance 1%

would mean only 1% of the assignment is

found within the matched source.

Please note, Turnitin does not always

identify the primary source for a quoted

piece of work. It will use the source were

the highest level of match has been found

Three types of matched sources

Matched sources come in three types;

1. Internet pages - these can be reviewed immediately by clicking on the link provided.

2. Journal articles – these can be accessed in the same way as the internet matches. However, it is important to note that the journals checked may not contain specific journals published in your subject



area. Therefore, if a match is not found but you still have suspicions over particular paragraphs, it would be necessary to check those journals.

3. Other student works – a database of all past student work submitted to turnitin will match

submissions against

a. past submission on other modules by the same student, b. other students on the course or other courses in your institution c. students a different institution.

In this case of a match being found at another institution the original source will not be accessible unless you explicitly ask the other institution to provide it.

Accessing the reports This section will show you how to access the report

This is how to access the TurnItIn assignment inbox.

1. Login to Blackboard, go to your module where you have

created a TurnItIn assignment.

2. Click on „Course Tools‟ and select „TurnitinUK Assignments‟.

3. Click on the link to your assignment.

4. Click on the similarity number in the „assignment

inbox‟



Overview of the report This section will give you an overview of the main aspects of the report viewer.

1 Click here move between the originality report and the GradeMark tools. 2 The submitted paper. 3 The

total percentage of matches found. 4 The matching navigation panel 5 Tools to further filter the found

matches. 6 Information about the files and print facility. 7 enlarges the document

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Navigating through the document This section will show you how to move dynamically to see how a particular match is spread through a

document.

Sometimes the matches from another single source maybe distributed over the length of the submitted

paper. For instance, a section may appear in the introduction and some in the conclusion. To allow you to

move quickly between these sections follow these instructions

1. Hover over the match you wish to instruct in closer

detail.

2. Click on the arrow icon that appears

3. The navigation bar will change. It will tell you how

many places the match has been found across the submitted

document in the grey bar across the top. By clicking the

arrows you can move through the document to see each

section of the match.

4. The view will also display a short section of the original text, so that you can compare the two. When

you click on this text it will display the full text in the navigation panel. You can then see who the text

is spread across both documents, the submitted text and the original source.



5. To close this view click on the arrow to the left of

“Match Report”

Using Filters Removing a match

This section will show you how to delete matches and change the filters used on a particular report.

When reading a report you may wish to delete a match from the list.

To do this, follow these instructions.

1. Hover over the match you wish to instruct in closer detail.

2. Click on the arrow icon that appears

3. This will change the view of the navigation panel. Click

on the „exclude matches‟ button at the bottom of the

panel.

4. This will display

„check boxes‟ by each match. Click inside each box to select that

match for deletion.

5. Click „Exclude‟ to illuminate that match from the report.



To revise this process.

6. All the excluded matches will are

recorded. Click on „no entry sign at the bottom

of the navigation panel. Click on the „check box‟

and „Restore‟ to reinstate the match.

Changing the overall filters for the report

You may wish to change the filter settings for „Exclude

Quotes‟ or „Exclude Bibliography‟ applied to the originality

report.

To do this, follow these instructions.

1. Click on the „filter‟ icon at the

bottom of the navigation panel.

2. This will change the navigation

panel to display the filter setting. Make the changes and

click „new report‟.

Note: this will only effect the current report.



Using the reports to support student understanding (pre submission)

This following section outlines a possible method for supporting students understanding of plagiarism via

TurnItIn.

What can the report tell the student?

The report will be individual to that student, so it is difficult to say exactly what will be learnt. However this is

the major advantage in using the report in this way. It will highlight specific problems that the student may

have when understanding the rules and values of academic authorship. The report can be used to highlight

general issues such as;

If a source has been identified and not referenced

If a passage in the original assignment is found to match with a web or journal article, this will appear

within the report. If the student not referenced it effectively, this can be used as a starting point to

discuss their knowledge and understanding of referencing and their current methods for collecting

and recording research.

Whether the similar source found is a primary or secondary source of information

If a web source or journal article is identified as a match, you may be able to open this and discuss

whether the student judges this to be worthy and appropriate source to reference. Please note that

this may not be the source the student originally researched, but can be a useful exercise to get the

student to demonstrate their understanding

Whether they have been sharing their research too closely with other students on the course

The report may highlight a match with another student on the course, this maybe in the form of similar

sources or in direct similarity in writing. This will be a chance to discuss the appropriate level and

extent to which students should share information and work together.

The report allows opportunities for discussion on the value and methods of authoring academic works. This

will allow the student to realise, at a deeper more personal level, why they are important.



The following instructions show you how to set this link up. The link can only be created if you have

previously set up a assignment link in this module

1. Click on the „Assignments‟ menu item. This is where you will create the link to the Turnitin service. It is important that all staff place the Turnitin link within this folder to avoid any confusion by the

students. If you don‟t have an „Assignments‟ menu item, go to the Creating the Assignments menu

item section below.

2. Click on the „Create Assessment‟ Button and select „TurnitinUK Assignment‟. This will allow you to

add and edit the contents of this page.

3. The following page will open.

4. Select Revision and „next step‟

5. Change the settings on this page as follows;

o Change create a new to “revision assignment”. Select the assignment this pre-submission is linked to from the drop down list. If you only have one assignment in the module this will be shown by default.



o Change the due date for the date when the students can submit their work. Make sure the post date is after that date.

o Enter special instructions use this text as a guide. “This is where you submit your electronic DRAFT version of the assignment for this module. You can submit only ONCE before the final closing date and time for pre-submission. The file types that can be used with this link are MS Word (.doc), WordPerfect (.wpd), PostScript (.eps), Portable Document Format (.pdf), HTML (.htm), Rich Text (.rtf) and Plain Text (.txt).”

o Generate Originality Reports for student submissions to “immediately (first report is final)”

o Change „Allow students to see originality reports?‟ to „Yes‟

o Then click submit

Guides to help the students understand their reports are available via the blackboard help tab.

Documents

Using the Originality Reports · Using the Originality Reports This document provides you with an overview of the best practice when using TurnItIn ‟originality‟ reports to support