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Turnitin is a web-based service that Mississippi College provides to its faculty and students to help maintain academic integrity.  It does this by detecting plagiarism and giving feedback to submitted work, which allows faculty to uphold high standards and encourages students to think and write originally.


Students

  • For general Turnitin help links, click here.
  • For video explaining plagiarism vs.text similarity, click here.

 Faculty

  • For general Turnitin help links, click here.

Setting up a TurnItIn Assignment

If you use rubrics to grade your assignments, you will need to do this first before proceeding (If you don’t use rubrics, proceed to Setting Up TurnItIn Assignment

Adding a Rubric to an Assignment

  1. Select “Assignments” in Course Navigation
  2. Click the name of the assignment
  3. Click the “Add Rubric” button
  4. Click “Find a Rubric” to find an existing rubric
  5. You will see three different column
    1. First column, select a course or account
    2. Second column, select the rubric
    3. Third column, click the “Use This Rubric” button
  6. Click “Edit” (pencil) at the top of the rubric to choose your settings at the
    bottom (clicking “use the rubric for assignment grading” will allow the assessment score to automatically appear after choosing rubric criteria)
  7. Once you have made your setting choices, click “Update Rubric” (for more details, visit http://tiny.cc/7gciuz)

Setting Up Turnitin Assignment

  1. Click on “Edit”
  2. In the submission type area, click in the dropdown box and select “External Tool”.
  3. Click on “Find” and search “TurnItIn”. Choose TurnItIn and click on “Select.”
  4. Proceed with your additional settings to set up your assignment.
    1. When preparing to set up your dates, only set the due date and until date.
    2. If you set a “From” date, you will receive a post date error message.
  5. Once you have made all your necessary selections, “Save” your changes and updates.

Adjust Your Turnitin Settings

After setting up your TurnItIn assignment, the following are settings are suggested for best results:

  1. Click on the “Gear wheel” if Optional Settings isn’t visible
  2. Click on “Optional Settings” to begin your selections
    1. Submission Settings (suggested setting: “Do not store the submitted papers”).
      • Unless this is either a research paper, dissertation or thesis, this isn’t recommended
    2. Enable grammar checking using ETS e-rater technology
      • Advanced
      • US English Dictionary
      • Categories enable by default (make sure all are checked)
    3. Compare Against (check all boxes)
    4. Similarity Report (if you select exclude small sources, the suggested threshold is 4 words)
    5. Check the box next to “Save these settings for future use”
    6. Click “Submit” to save your settings

Grading Your TurnItIn Assignments

  1. Click on “Speedgrader”
  2. Once you are in the assignment submission area, click on the Similarity Report percentage to view the assignment and make your evaluation
  3. Once you have made your evaluation, click “View Rubric”
  4. Select your ratings per criteria in your rubric, and “Save” (you will then see the grade total appear in the assessment box)

If you need further assistance with this process, please contact either Dr. Erica Battle (ext. 7878 or ebattle@mc.edu) or Becki Stringer (ext. 3494 or stringer@mc.edu) and schedule a one-on-one session.