Turnitin is an assignment type you can add to your course that checks student's submissions for originality. Because of this scanning functionality, submissions must contain at least 20 words, and this assignment type is better geared for long-form written assignments, such as essays.

Table of contents

• To create a Turnitin assignment
• Common Turnitin-specific settings (resubmissions, late submissions, grammar and spell checking, etc)

Note: For other assignment types such as presentations, videos, or other student work that is mainly images or multimedia, use an iLearn Assignment instead.

Note: Turnitin does not support iLearn's scale grading functionality. All Turnitin assignments must use points for grading

Note: As of Fall 2021, setting up a Turnitin assignment is a two-part process. Please follow all of the steps below to fully set up your assignment

To create a Turnitin assignment

1. From the course page, in the upper right corner, select Turn Editing On
2. In the week/section you want to add the assignment, select the +Add an activity or resource button.
3. In the menu list, under Activities, select Turnitin.
   
4. In the Activity Name field, enter a name for the assignment. This will be the name of the assignment on your course page and in the gradebook.
   
5. In Grade, enter the number of points the assignment is worth.

   Note: Turnitin only supports points as a grading method. Selecting anything other than points will prevent you from entering grades for the Turnitin assignment.

   
6. Scroll down to the bottom and select the Save and display button.
   
7. Select the gear wheel icon in the gray bar to open the Turnitin assignment settings
   

   Note: There are two gear wheel icons on this page. The one you want to click on is the one in the gray bar closest to the list of students as shown in the screenshot above

8. Set your Start Date (the day your students can begin submitting this assignment), Due date (the date the assignment is due), and Feedback release date (formerly known as the post date, this is the date students receive their grades and feedback on the assignment)
   
9. Give any assignment instructions in the Instructions text box. Note that you will want to keep instructions in this box fairly brief. If you need to provide a longer essay prompt, we highly recommend providing this as a separate file or by using the Page feature in iLearn.
   
10. Select Optional Settings to set any Turnitin specific settings, such as what databases to search, whether you will allow resubmissions, late submissions, and other related features. You can also mark the checkbox at the bottom of the optional settings settings to save your selections as your defaults so you do not have to do this for subsequent assignments you create in your course.
11. Select the Submit button to save your settings

Common Turnitin-specific settings

Turnitin specific settings are found under Optional Settings when creating a Turnitin assignment.

Allowing late submissions

To allow late submissions, mark the Late submissions checkbox. Note that late submissions are only allowed if a student has not already submitted something. If you need to allow a late resubmission, you will need to delete the student's existing submission by clicking the trash can next to their submission before they can submit again.

Allowing resubmissions

Resubmissions are controlled by the Similarity report drop down menu. Choose the option closest to your desired behavior. The most common choice here is Generate reports immediately (students can resubmit until due date).

Excluding bibliographic and quoted materials

Both of these options are found in the Similarity report section.

Grammar and spell checking

Mark the Enable grammar checking checkbox to set any grammar and spell check settings.

For additional assistance, contact Academic Technology: (415) 405-5555, at@sfsu.edu, LIB 80