Faculty Support

Online documentation: Help for using Turnitin via Canvas.

Turnitin is integrated into the Canvas learning management system.  Faculty only have to set up an assignment in a Canvas course and choose the settings for Turnitin (under external tool).  Student assignment submissions in Canvas will then produce a report on originality. 

If the assignment is set to allow only file types that Turnitin can check for similarity, Turnitin will only accept files that can generate Similarity Reports. This includes:

• HTML Microsoft Word® (.doc/.docx)
• Hangul Word Processor file (.hwp)
• OpenOffice Text (.odt)
• Rich text format (.rtf)
• WordPerfect® (.wpd)
• Plain text (.txt)
• PostScript (.ps)
• Adobe PDF
Turnitin will not accept PDF image files, forms, or portfolios, files that do not contain highlightable text (e.g. a scanned file - usually an image), documents containing multiple files or files created with software other than Adobe Acrobat®.

Note: If you are using an unsupported word processor, you may need to save your plain text file as .txt or .rtf in order to upload to Turnitin.

Microsoft PowerPoint(.pptx, .ppt, .ppsx, and .pps)

It is possible to submit PowerPointfiles through Turnitin.com, TurnitinUK.com, Turnitin Basic integrations, newer versions of the Turnitin Direct integrations, and LTI compliant integrations only. Turnitin converts the PowerPoint® slide deck into a static PDF, leaving all text and images in their original format but leaving out features such as presenter notes, embedded video, and animations. Text with visual effects is not supported, and it is recommended that any visual effects such as shadows and 3D be removed prior to submitting to Turnitin.

Microsoft Excel® (.xls and .xlsx)

The version of the file that can be viewed in the Document Viewer will look the same as it would if the Excel file had been saved as a PDF and submitted to Turnitin. We highly recommend that users pay attention to the image preview provided in the single file submission to verify that the file is presented in an acceptable manner. Users can adjust the way the file looks by editing the page setup and print area settings for the file prior to saving it and submitting it to Turnitin.

File types not checked for similarity

• Password protected files
• Microsoft®
• Works (.wps) files
• Microsoft Word 2007 macros-enabled .docm files
• OpenOffice
• Text (.odt)
• files created and downloaded from Google Docs online
• Document (.doc) files created using OpenOffice, as they are not 100% Microsoft Word equivalent
• Apple Pages Spreadsheets created outside of Microsoft Excel (i.e. .ods)
• Text with visual effects

Note: When converting a file to a new file format, users should rename their file with a name other than that of the original file. This is suggested to prevent permanent loss of the original formatting or image content of a file due to it being overwritten.

Contract Cheating & Authorship Investigations

Everything You Need to Know About Contract Cheating by Turnitin (pdf e-book) 

"The Shadow Scholar: The Man that Writes Your Students' Papers Tells his Story." (2010, November 12). The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Tell Tales of Contract Cheating (recorded webinar; see also https://youtu.be/3Hvhntvy1UU)

Originality/similarity Reports 

Interpreting the Tii Similarity Report (recorded webinar)

Similarity reports (Help page)

• Color coded from black to red (most similar)
• Links to original site(s) where text is from will be listed off to the right.

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• Filter settings icon has an option for exclusions, e.g. “Exclude quoted” allows you to ignore the parts of the document appropriately quoted and cited.

Much more on Resources page at Turnitin for more help. Use its search box.

This type of native account is required if an instructor wishes to conduct a "Quick Submit" on a single paper without creating a class in the native version of Turnitin. Oftentimes faculty are already "joined" into the Le Moyne account. Try logging in and using forgot password. If this fails, send an email to Lisa Chaudhuri, Le Moyne's Turnitin administrator, at doylel@lemoyne.edu and ask to be added as an instructor.

Depending on whether you want to create a class in the native system for students to upload their assignments into or if you want to use it solely to check a single assignment from time to time, your next steps are either A or B. 

A. Activating Quick Submit  and Submitting a Quick Submit

B. Creating a Class in the native system

More on "Creating an Assignment" and student use are found below.

Faculty Help Section

Student Help Section

Turnitin’s archiving of student work was ruled in the courts a fair use (and not a copyright infringement). The case is 562 F.3d 630. See FAQ # 18.

FERPA applies to student records. No grade information is part of the TurnItIn data.  Student information is inaccessible to users of TurnItIn other than to the course professor from that institution.