[ARCHIVED] New Turnitin LTI and Speedgrader?

[mpoole]

Is there any way to have work still appear in speedgrader when students have turned it in to the new turnitin TLI?  Right now we have the old plugin running and it works perfectly for us.

I have JUST gotten my faculty on board with using speedgrader and the idea of losing that option is going to be a BIG blow for our Canvas use.

Besides having students turn in work twice, is there some easy way to grade in speedgrader but still get the originality report from turnitin?

Thanks!

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

I don't think this is currently possible,  @mpoole ​.  Since the Assignment is using the Turnitin LTI app as an "External Tool", the ability for students to submit things via Canvas (so that instructors can use the SpeedGrader) is disabled.  I just had one of our instructors talk to me about this last week, actually.  I do know, however, that you can still build a rubric for a Canvas Assignment and then just switch over to the Turnitin LTI "External Tool".  This would allow you to still use the Canvas rubric in the SpeedGrader for grading a student submission.  However, that submission is on the Turnitin server...not in Canvas.  With the Turninit LTI app, you can build in a rubric in the Turnitin interface, and you can also do grading...which will pass back to Canvas.  You might want to check out the blog by  @dhulsey ​ if you've not done that already.  There's a great discussion going on over there: Canvas and Turnitin.  Hope this is of some help to you!

[mpoole]

Thanks!  We don't necessarily use the rubrics as much as the crocodoc.  When I debuted the new integration to the humanities faculty last week, it was one big thumbs down about grading in turnitin.  They will come around. 

[dhulsey]

Hey,  @mpoole ! What do your faculty not like about grading in Turnitin? I ask because I love being able to save and reuse comments in Turnitin's Grademark and being able to see the originality report while grading in addition to the ability to add comments just as we can in crocodoc.

Here is a quick video I made for you to show my favorite Grademark features: Grademark - YouTube.

I hope it helps!

[mpoole]

​Thanks, Dallas.

I think most of their resistance is just change. But the draw and strike through features In crocodoc were popular. And I had a couple of folks say that the turnitin interface is too busy and the process of sorting and using the quickmarks isn't worth it. I think that is something that would quickly change once they use it enough to curstomize it.

I Appreciate the video, though. I will need all of the marketing help I can get! 

[joel_mills]

Where shall we start...

If you use the Turnitin LTI tool you lose the following features of Canvas:

• Ability to give an individual an extension to the assignment
• Ability to submit multiple files in the same submission
• Ability to select student work for second marking and moderation (new moderation tools in canvas)

In addition to this, the Turnitin LTI tool exposes the students to Turnitin performance issues (which there are many). Turnitin was out for a whole weekend 23rd Jan 2016 - 25th Jan 2016. Which means students cannot submit when Turnitin is down.

With the API integration, Students submit to CANVAS and therefore are protected from Turnitin performance issues like this. The API simply sends their document off when Turnitin comes back online...

All of these issues have been raised with both Turnitin Integrations team and Canvas. But LTI is not the solution we are looking for here.

[Stef_retired]

 @joel_mills ​, even users of the API were/are exposed to Turnitin performance issues (of which, I agree, there are many), and in practice, the API did not function as you describe: I suffered through several critical issues when, after a period of only a few hours' Turnitin downtime, I didn't have originality reports for weeks, if indeed I ever got them at all.

I am not saying this to defend Turnitin or the Turnitin LTI--far from it--only to say that staying with the API is not an ideal solution.

[dhulsey]

I like the LTI. It is not perfect, but it is much better than the API. Having read your other posts, Joel, I know that you do not like it. That's okay. Have you considered exploring the alternatives like Certified Partner - Unplag​?

[joel_mills]

Better how?

[dhulsey]

It supports TII features that my students and I enjoy using, including Cloud submit, PeerMark, Grademark (with no importing/ exporting of assets and with grade pass back to Canvas). The students do a much better job of critiquing with Peermark. I can also see who views their feedback and who does not. The LTI also keeps a complete and accessible archive of past submissions in TII. I can even submit for a student via the website and have it show up in the LTI in Canvas. The old API plugin didn't do any of that.

I do agree with you that the problem you note in losing Canvas functionality is either the LTI specification or the way LTI has been baked into Canvas assignments. At the same time, most of your problems will be solved by not enabling the LTI in Canvas. The LTI works well for me for how I use TII, but I agree that TII is expensive, can have show stopping bugs, and inconsistent customer service.

If I were using groups, I would stick with the Group assignment functionality in Canvas and run all submissions through Turnitin. Since Canvas allows downloading zip files of all submissions and Turnitin accepts zip files with many files, downloading all of the submissions and then submitting them to TII's quick submit feature only takes an instructor a minute or two. The bulk download and submission would also work well generally  for preserving maximum Canvas functionality and still doing plagiarism screening. Since that seems to be your goal, this might be your best option for now. Here is a video showing the process: Quick Submit - YouTube.

[joel_mills]

looking at alternatives. have approached UnPlag but they only do an LTI tool as well.

It it is not turnitin that is the problem, it is the LTI that is the problem.

[cgraves]

I'm not sure if I'm answering your question correctly as we're new to TurnItIn. Our students can submit to TurnItIn through Canvas and the instructor appears to have the option of marking up in Canvas or in TurnItIn, specifically if submitted as a document (docx, pdf, etc). I've attached a screen shot of what I see from teacher's view in speed grader. Hope this helps. (The sample below is not student work, but teacher example of how TurnItIn works.)

[mpoole]

Hi  @cgraves ​,

Yes, that is the way the legacy integration is set up.  However, turnitin has a new interface and sometime next year the legacy version will go away.  In the new version, it works as an external tool, so when students submit their work through Canvas, it gets transmitted to turnitin and the student submission does not appear in the speedgrader in canvas at all.   So at that point, faculty will no longer have the option to use turnitin to check originality while still annotating in the crocodoc speedgrader view.

[cgraves]

Good to know Melissa Poole. Seems to defeat the purpose of integration. Maybe I need to do some more exploring. Thanks.

[emin_saglamer]

We are having a huge problem over here at UTH, where we were told not to use the plugin by Canvas for Turnitin because it is going to be unsupported soon and we hooked up the LTI Turnitin only to find out that the LTI tool strips out ALL formatting from the documents submitted on their way back to speedgrader.

Speedgrader has many features our instructors like and they do not like Turnitin's version of the grader. They WANT to use Speedgrader but as it stands now it is all unusable.

I dont understand why a submission can not be sent to both locations by the code, one sent to Turnitin for analysis and the other to Canvas for Speedgrader.

Also when you use the LTI version of Turnitin, the turnitin scores can only be accessed from the LTI tool and do not trickle back into Canvas and can not be seen in the speed-reader or anywhere else except in the LTI pane.

ALSO, when submitting papers through the LTI tool 3 out of 5 students experienced problems submitting their paper after upload because the submit button is scrolled down due to smaller screens not having enough real estate. We bounced between Turnitin support and Canvas in an endless loop each one blaming the other with no resolution. What's worse is, on Chrome, there's not even a scrollbar to indicate that yes you do have to scroll down in the CSS layer to access the submit button.

Turnitin LTI has been a nightmare this semester for us. I wish we had never moved out of using the plugin -- except when using the plugin none of the submissions were recorded by Turnitin.com, as admins we had no access to the course by course submission transactions from the turnitin.com site.

I mean are we asking for rocket science here? I don't understand why all of this can not work correctly.

Someone throw me a freaking bone.

[mpoole]

YES! I completely agree.  I am not in any way looking forward to what happens when the plugin is no longer supported.  I am actively looking for alternatives to Turnitin because it's just not as functional in the new system.

[Heidi_Ross]

THe Turnitin tool is excellent, but without the ability to sustain it & or respond to requests in a 24/48 hr period they have lost our business until they can provide what we've paid to see.

[Chris_Hofer]

I am not an instructor, but I have helped one of our full-time faculty members set up the Turnitin LTI interface for one of his courses.  From what I have gathered, the Turnitin LTI app is working fine.  I've also tested out the LTI app in my own sandbox course in Canvas, and I can tell you that if you create a rubric via the Turnitin interface (not the Canvas interface) and then use it for grading, the score will pass back to the Canvas gradebook.  As mentioned in my earlier reply (above), Dallas has a great blog with all kinds of useful information (Canvas and Turnitin) that's worth reading.

[dhulsey]

Hey, Melissa! With the latest update to the Turnitin LTI tool on 8-29-15, a copy of the student's file gets sent to Canvas. You can grade with the speedgrader and use annotations, and the Turnitin icon for the originality report is back in the Speedgrader (and grade book). The only sticking point is that Canvas rubrics are still not usable with the LTI tool, but that will be coming in a future update.

[vrs07nl]

FYI

These are the key settings to ensure can access Tii ORs via Assignment page as well as via any link Speedgrader or Grades (before due date) without getting error messages

Testing has confirmed that a student who successfuly submits can view the Originality Report

a) from same assignment page within 1-5 mins of first submission

b) from Grades but only before due date  ( there is at least 10 - 15  min delay from first submission for the link to appear in Grades)

A marker using Turnitin Grademark and Turnitin rubric should only access via Assignments - NOTE once a submission has been marked - marker cannot see Tii colour in Grades view

my top tips :

a) access submissions one by one from Assignment view to avoid time out issues i.e close Turnitin window after complete marking each submission using GradeMark and rubric etc ( do not go to next submission from Turntin window - more likely to get timeout - adding comments and completing rubric = activity, scrolling up ad down is not activity and time out is after 30 mins of inactivity

b) start with adding  inline comments, reviewing them to aid rubric completion, then add and SAVE general comments, enter grade LAST

c)  update grade at any time before feedback due date via Turnitin ( if not anonymous marking) - grades changes in Turnitin  feed to grades ( not vica versa)

d) only add comments to Turntin view - NOT speedgrader / grades as such comments are not linked directly to the Turnitin feedback

NOTE once a submission has been marked - marker cannot see Tii colour in Grades view

If marking with Speedgrader and only checking originaliity - can access the OR from Speedgrader view ( but Grademark will not be available). If using a canvas rubric - add this to inital set up before create Tii external tool link

Students can see their turnitin feedback  only via Assignment (if go via home page> recent feedback or Grades_ only see grade in speedgrader - not Turnitn comments, rubric etc). Best access to inline comments etc is by clicking pen icon from Assignment view (can then switch to OR if wish to)