Discussion Boards Need Turnitin

[WhitniBuckles]

is there an update on this urgent need for Discussions to receive a Turnitin Report? I am currently downloading all of my students' DBs and uploading them to Turnitin manually. To my chagrin, I have found that many of the DBs have information that would have been flagged in a Turnitin report that the student could see, had the report been availavle. I am now routinely uploading this report to students.

This is laborious. It is incumbant for educators to ensure academic integrity. Is this feature going to be updated?

[DrAJP]

Adding my voice here. This feature is urgently needed. And should be easy. 

[DeborahPinkston]

I too would like to see this added to the items that are processed thru Turnitin. It would save professors SO much time and would benefit students to learn what is expected of them in scholarly writing.

[gheinzel]

Yet another table stakes feature that the platform doesn’t provide. Overall, discussion-based assignments are severely limited by the lack of helpful and common features in the Canvas offering for discussion-based assignments.  

[Jeff_F]

May I suggest trying something to try out? Create a 0 point ungraded assignment and configure it as a Turnitin draft. This could be done once or perhaps for each discussion topic should that be preferred.  If done weekly, perhaps set the expectation (or a module requirement) that a submission to the Turnitin assignment is required prior to posting the initial reply to the discussion. There are flaws with this as it is an extra step. But it is doable and then the students have access to see the similarity report.

Personally, I promote student use of the Turnitin Draft Coach tool for all writing assignments.

[AndrewKosciesza]

I tried to create a dummy assignment where I could upload material for Turnitin to test. But it will not let me assign the assignment to the "test student" Why can I not do this? 

[lshulman]

I noticed that "test student" cannot be selected to assign to. I just leave it as assigned to everyone. Students can access it and use it to submit drafts (none ever do). But I don't date it or add it to a module. It only appears at the bottom of the master list of assignments, at bottom of syllabus page.

I allow unspecified "multiple submissions" and have used it countless times, for different submissions, in any given course. Just be sure to UNcheck the option to save to TII database (to avoid false flagging as plagiarism for future submissions).

Also note that the AI detection will not display while you are in "student view". If you are submitting to check for AI (which is mostly what I am concerned to check for), have to leave student view and then review TII results as instructor. And since it is an assignment, it appears in grade book. I just have it set to grade as "complete/incomplete" worth zero points and "do not count toward total".

[DrAJP]

I have a Canvas shell with no students enrolled and just as a playground to test features and different settings. I created the "dummy assignment" in this shell, and it works with the student view. 

[PlagiarismCheck]

Dear @WhitniBuckles, checking Discussions and Quizzes for plagiarism and AI in Canvas became available!

We are not Turnitin, but an alternative tool. Our team noticed numerous requests to enable plagiarism detection in Discussions and Quizzes. So we created an Integrito Extension that allows checking texts right from Canvas without cumbersome downloading or using files.

Just select the text student’s text you want to check and get the result in no time.

Install Integrito 

for Chrome browser https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/integrito-plagiarism-ai-c/lhbjcjhlgiblnlfigbfhnamoghgfppoh

for Mozilla Firefox https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/integrito-plag-ai-checker/.

You can use this extension even if your institution is subscribed to another plagiarism checker.

Contact us to get a special trial account for instructors support@plagiarismcheck.org.

We also would appreciate your feedback 🙂

The next version which is even more convenient is coming in the following weeks.

[TrinaAltman]

@PlagiarismCheck, 

Thank you for trying to provide a solution to something we have been asking for, but please be aware that most schools have important and required security and privacy procedures in place with regards to sharing student data (including the content of their discussion posts and quiz submissions). The fact that you are trying to drum up business by asking instructors to provide student data through your service without going through a more formal and vetted process with the institution would make me wary of ever doing business with your company. 

Trina (a higher ed Canvas administrator)

[PlagiarismCheck]

Dear @TrinaAltman, thanks for noticing our update and addressing your concerns!

Instructors look for solutions to the issues they have, and our job is to provide the best solutions possible to help. Of course, schools have procedures to verify vendors, but instructors still can use multiple tools that are not official vendors of their schools. The recent example we all saw with AI detectors — while institutions were deciding, instructors started exploring available options to protect Academic Integrity and deal with AI challenges. 

So, the solution for quizzes and discussions is already there. We plan a big update soon to enable checking students' replies in 1 click and delivering the results right to Canvas.

To address your concern, the only data we use is the content of the reply itself, which can be deleted from our system forever. 

[PlagiarismCheck]

Dear @TrinaAltman, thanks for noticing our update and addressing your concerns!

Instructors look for solutions to the issues they have, and our job is to provide the best solutions possible to help. Of course, schools have procedures to verify vendors, but instructors still can use multiple tools that are not official vendors of their schools. The recent example we all saw with AI detectors — while institutions were deciding, instructors started exploring available options to protect Academic Integrity and deal with AI challenges. 

So, the solution for quizzes and discussions is already there. We plan a big update soon to enable checking students' replies in 1 click and delivering the results right to Canvas.

To address your concern, the only data we use is the content of the reply itself, which can be deleted from our system forever. 

[TrinaAltman]

@PlagiarismCheck ,

Thanks for your response, but you have not addressed my concern at all. Yes, technically "instructors still can use multiple tools that are not official vendors of their schools", but that does not mean they should. We explicitly do not want our instructors sending student data (including data generated by students, such as discussion posts) out to unvetted services, including (perhaps even especially) for AI detection. There is a reason our vendors must go through security and privacy reviews, and it is to protect our students and to ensure we are complying with FERPA requirements (federal law). Your response seems to indicate a lack of understanding as to the nature of my concern.

Trina

[jenn_stevens]

I am 100% with @TrinaAltman here. I feel as though I'm seeing an uptick lately in vendors trying to go around the procurement process and encouraging users to sign up with them directly, which puts our data at risk. As the person at my school who would be primarily responsible for choosing and supporting a plagiarism checker, I notice things like this and I don't like it.

Jenn, another Canvas admin

[callinger]

Hello all (especially @PlagiarismCheck ),

Our institution agrees with what Trina and Jenn have already articulated. It is in violation of FERPA guidelines to share student records (including their submissions/posts) with a third party without the proper vetting and care. Not only is it unethical, but it might also be considered illegal. Please be mindful of this when promoting your software.

At a minimum, I recommend that you always share your TOS/TOU and Privacy Policy links wherever you share your extension links. Please don't take advantage of instructors who are struggling to keep up with technology changes and are not aware of the data security/FERPA implications.

-Rocky Allinger (Canvas admin, instructional designer, & adjunct instructor)

[DrAJP]

I really wish Canvas would just take care of this and make Turnitin connected throughout Canvas. 

[abenson2]

YES! I love using discussion boards for my hybrid classes and rely on them all year for my senior English class. However, academic integrity and honesty issues must be addressed to use them most effectively. Canvas, please make this a priority in future updates!