General

Submitting Papers

Originality Reports

Classes, Assignments, and Other Issues

Can I use Turnitin without joining an account?
In order to use our service you must join an account using an account ID and join password. You can get this information from your school's account administrator. Individual accounts are available if your school does not currently use Turnitin

If you are interested in an individual account, please contact the Turnitin sales department at sales@turnitn.com.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

I forgot the enrollment password that I assigned for my class.
You can access the class enrollment passwords that you have created by clicking the green "update" button to the right of each class title displayed on your instructor homepage. From this page you can make changes to your class name, end date, and enrollment password.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

How do I get my students started? Some of them do not have e-mail addresses or access to e-mail at school.
There are two ways for students to establish Turnitin accounts: students can register themselves and enroll in the class or instructors can enroll them in the class directly.

If you choose to have your students register independently they will have to create a user profile using the link provided on our homepage. You will need to provide them with the class ID and the enrollment password so that they can join your class. If your students are not able to use valid e-mail addresses for registration purposes, please have them create a user profile using a fake e-mail address. To avoid accidentally using a real e-mail address belonging to someone else, make sure you choose a domain that you know does not exist. Do not use real email domains such as yahoo or hotmail. For example, name@your-school.Turnitincom is good because there is no such domain your-school.Turnitincom. Make sure students remember the email address they used to create an account with so they can sign on in the future.

Please note that students using fake email addresses cannot be sent any information through email, including digital receipts and emailed links to reset their passwords. Students can submit papers; they will also have the opportunity to print their digital receipts after they submit their paper.

There are also training videos and Quickstart guides at http://www.turnitin.com/static/training_support/.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

How do I enroll students myself?
If you prefer, you have the option to register students from your instructor account. With this method, you create user profiles for your students and also enroll them in your class. To add students to your class, log in to your account and click on the appropriate class. Click on the "students" tab in the gray navigation bar near the top-left of the screen. Click on the "add student" link and fill out the appropriate fields. Please note that you will need valid e-mail addresses for each student in order to complete this process. If your students are going to be using user names that are not valid e-mail addresses, they will need to set up their own user profiles.

Once you have added a student to your list, our system will send the student an e-mail with a temporary password. All students that you add will be able to log in to an established account and will not need any further assistance from you. Please note that emails may be filtered as spam, so have your students check their spam/bulk mail folders as well.

It is important to remember that if a student has used Turnitin in the past, our system will not generate a temporary password for him or her. Rather, the student should proceed to login with his or her existing login. Forgotten passwords may be reset using the "password help" link on our homepage.

There are also training videos and Quickstart guides at http://www.turnitin.com/static/training_support/.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

I logged in and I don't see my classes. The homepage I am seeing doesn't look like my instructor homepage. How do I get to my classes?
Your default user type is set to either "student" or "administrator." To change your user type, please do the following:
  1. Log in to your Turnitin account.
  2. Once you are logged in, select "user type" from the red navigation bar at the top of the screen.
  3. Choose your user type accordingly and click "submit".

You can also set your default user type to "instructor" so that you will always log in as an instructor.

  1. Log in to your Turnitin account.
  2. Once you are logged in, select "user info" from the red navigation bar at the top of the screen.
  3. Locate the pull down menu labeled "default user type." Choose instructor as your user type and click "submit".

If you have multiple user types, you will want to choose the user type you use most often as your default user type. You can then switch user types using the method outlined above.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

Can I submit papers in languages other than English?
Our search engine gathers content from web sites based on the ISO-8559-1 character set (Latin script). Therefore, you may submit papers composed in Latin script regardless of language. Please note that our system does not translate documents in order to detect matching text.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

How do I submit a student's paper?
You may submit a paper by following the steps below:
  1. Log in to your Turnitin account and enter your class by clicking on its title.
  2. Select the "submit" icon to the right of the assignment you wish to submit to.
  3. Use the pull-down menu labeled "submit a paper by" to choose your submission method.
  4. If you are submitting a paper for a student who is already enrolled in your class, you may select his or her e-mail address using the pull-down menu labeled "author's user name". Complete the form and submit.
  5. Upon submission you will receive a confirmation message. If you do not receive this confirmation message it is an indication that your paper has not been submitted properly.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

How do I submit by using the cut and paste method?
In order to submit a paper to Turnitin using cut and paste, please follow the steps below:
  1. Log in and enter the appropriate class by clicking on its title.
  2. Click the "submit" icon to the right of your assignment title.
  3. On the following page, use the pull-down menu labeled "submit a paper by" and select "cut & paste." Copy and paste your paper into your browser and click submit.

Upon submission you will receive a confirmation message. If you do not receive this confirmation message it is an indication that your paper has not been submitted properly.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

Is there a way for me to submit multiple files at the same time?
Our system offers a bulk upload feature to accommodate instructors who wish to submit a large number of papers at once. In order to use this feature, please follow the steps below:
  1. Log in and enter the appropriate class by clicking on its title.
  2. Click the "submit" icon to the right of your assignment title.
  3. Use the pull-down menu labeled "submit a paper by:" and select "bulk upload". Attach as many files as desired and click "submit" to finish.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

How do I allow my students to submit papers after the due date I have posted?
You can choose to allow late submissions when creating an assignment. On your assignment creation page, choose to view advanced assignment options and then choose "yes" within the pull-down menu labeled "Allow submissions after the due date?"

If you have already created an assignment you may allow for late submissions by clicking on your class and then clicking on the appropriate assignment title to get to the assignment options page. From this page follow the instructions above.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

How do I make a revision assignment so that students can submit different revisions/drafts for an assignment?
If you want to let your students resubmit a paper to an assignment, you can create a revision assignment.

To create a revision assignment:

  1. Log into your account.
  2. Click the class name where the assignment is located.
  3. Click the "create a new assignment" link.
  4. On the assignment creation page, select "revision assignment" using the assignment pull-down at the top of the form.
  5. Fill in the necessary information.
  6. Click the "submit" button.

Revision assignments may be created multiple times for each assignment.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

How do I delete a student's paper from my assignment inbox?
To delete a paper, please follow the steps below:
  1. Log into your account.
  2. Click on a class name that contains the paper you wish to delete.
  3. Click the inbox icon for the assignment under the inbox column.
  4. You will see a list of submitted papers and the name of the authors.
  5. Check the checkboxes to the left of the papers you wish to delete.
  6. Click the delete button located above the author column.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

How do I view Originality Reports for the papers submitted to my class?
Originality Reports are viewable from within your Turnitin account.

To access your report, log in to your account and enter the appropriate class by clicking on its title. On the following page you will find the list of your assignments for this class. Click on the inbox icon to the right of the appropriate assignment title. After entering the inbox you will find Originality Report icons displayed to the right of each submission title.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

How can I give my students access to their reports?
You can allow students to view Originality Reports by doing the following:
  1. Log into your account.
  2. Click on the green update button next to the name of the appropriate class.
  3. Select "yes" from the pull-down menu for the question "Let students view their own Originality Reports for all paper assignments in this class?"

Repeat for other classes if needed.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

How do I know if my student has plagiarized?
Our service does not determine if a paper has been plagiarized; we show matching texts and their sources from our database. Each instructor has to use his or her discretion to determine if a paper has been plagiarized.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

I am trying to use the rubrics I created for Peer Review/GradeMark and they are not showing up.
When creating an assignment, you have the option of selecting a rubric set that you would like to use for the assignment. The rubrics you select for the assignment are also available for any Peer Review or GradeMark exercises associated with that assignment.

If you have already created a Peer Review or have begun to use GradeMark without having designated a rubric set, you can select a rubric set for your assignment by following these steps:

  1. From your class homepage, click on the title of your assignment that is being used for Peer Review or that contains papers you want to GradeMark.
  2. Select a rubric set using the pulldown menu at the bottom of the assignment form. Click "submit" to save your changes.

The rubric set you selected will now be available for use with Peer Review and GradeMark. Please note that if you do not have any rubric sets available, you can create your own rubrics and rubric sets from your class library.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

I am receiving a message that I have exceeded my student limit.
If you have exceeded your student limit expire any classes you are not using in order to decrease your number of enrolled students. To do so, please follow the steps below:
  1. Go to your instructor homepage and locate the class you wish to deactivate.
  2. Click on the green update button to the right of the class title.
  3. Expire the class by setting its end date to a date that has passed. Click "submit" to save your changes.

Upon completing the steps above your class will disappear from your list of active classes and reappear on your list of expired classes. To access your list of expired classes, use the pull-down menu on your class homepage labeled "show".

You may also wish to look for and delete multiple enrollments of the same student by doing the following:

  1. Sign in to their accounts.
  2. Click on the class name.
  3. Click on the "students" tab (upper left).
  4. Click where it says "student name" above the list of student names to alphabetize the list.
  5. Look for doubles in the newly alphabetized list.
  6. Look at the dates next to the duplicate students' names.
  7. Drop all duplicates of each student except the version with the latest date (drop by clicking on the little red box with an x at the end of each row).

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

What is a master class?
If your class has many sections, you might want to change your class to a master class. This allows you to set up sections for your class, with the option of assigning a teaching assistant (TA) to each section.

When you convert a class to a master class, all students and assignments are pushed into the first section. TA's will have the same capabilities as instructors for the sections they are in charge of.

To convert a class to a master class, you must first log in. On the screen with the list of your classes, click on the green update button next to your class name. This will take you to an update form. Click on the box next to the question "convert to master class?"

Please note that students are not actually enrolled in the master class. They are each enrolled in a section, and must submit papers to their respective sections.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

Regarding master classes, what is meant by "pushing" assignments to sections?
Pushing assignments to sections refers to the act of copying assignments that you have created in your master class to your sections. After creating an assignment for your master class you will have the option of selecting which sections should receive the assignment(s).

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

My instructor homepage shows that my classes are expired. What does this mean and how do I make my classes active again?
If your class has expired it is an indication that its end date has passed. Each class that you create must have an end date. In order to reactivate your class, click on the green "update" button and extend the end date using the pull-down menus provided.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.

How can I find out which Turnitin products my institution has purchased?
To view the products your institution has purchased and are available to you, follow these steps:
  1. Log in to your account.
  2. Click on your school's name.

The next screen has a list of all the Turnitin products and shows their status in your school's account.

If this did not answer your question or if you need further assistance, click here to email the Turnitin helpdesk.