Turnitin for Discussions?

[bjholt]

Apologies if I missed it here...

I have seen and followed the comments about adding Turnitin integration into Canvas Discussions in other places in the community.  I did not see anything here.  We are certainly advocating for the integration of Turnitin in the Discussions Redesign. 

Thanks

[Katrina-Hess · Accepted solution]

Hi @bjholt, we are definitely exploring plagiarism checker solutions, including a Turnitin integration. We'll update as we get further along in our discovery. 

[jbuss8706 · Accepted solution]

As a faculty member as well as admin for Canvas curriculum, I can honestly say this (adding Discussions to the TurnItIn suite) is a feature that is much needed. Academic Integrity is an integral part of providing students with a safe and authentic learning experience. I really see no downside (besides possibly cost of capital to build) to having this feature added, and the upside is tremendous.

[WhitniBuckles · Accepted solution]

Hello,

I wonder if there is an update to this? The need for Turnitin or a plagiarism checker in Discussion Boards is high. I am routinely spending a lot of time manually uploading DBs to Turnitin. This is a much needed upgrade as students know that there is no way for a faculty member to easily check their work against Turnitin in a DB. I have even had students challenge me for turning their work in manually because they know DBs aren't checked against Turnitin.  Please advise if there is a fix in the works.

Thank you.

[lee_gilmore]

Adding my "yes, please, asap!" to this suggestion. Turnitin screening has *long* been needed as an option in Canvas Discussions and now that ChatGPT is a thing, I for one do not think I can use Discussions as an assignment any more until there is an integrated way to deter & detect AI probability in student Discussion Posts. Searching through these community forums, I've seen this as a suggested feature going all the way back to 2016 and I can't believe it isn't an option yet. What's the hold up? Please roll this feature out ASAP.

[floriana]

May I reiterate that this is VERY much needed - and for those who suggested Harmonize as a possible solution, may I point out that this could be an option only if you are based in US, Harmonize does not have a server in Europe for instance, and this would preclude (and/or make it cost prohibitive) the implementation of security aspects. Plus, I cannot see why we would need a third party solution when this option should be part of the core Canvas features, it is really basic stuff here we're talking about

[DrAJP]

YES YES YES - I don't know why Canvas doesn't have this already. 

[smchurgin]

I also cannot believe this doesn't exist yet, particularly when looking back at how long ago it was first requested. In my online courses, I choose to use Discussions to help the students feel connected to one another and to allow them to see others' ideas and input. However, I am quickly realizing that I need to switch back to having them submit their assignments only to me so that I have access to plagiarism checkers. It's shocking that this hasn't been remedied yet in an environment where we're doing more and more online asynchronous teaching. 

[DrAJP]

It's even harder to work around it now, as Turnitin just changed things such that you can just upload submissions--everything has to be associated with a student now! 😞 

[lshulman]

I created an ungraded "Turn it it" assignment. An instructor can submit to that if they shift to "student view" in Canvas. 

I have found this approach to using Turn it it to check for AI use, even for assignments (e.g. discussions) that do not automatically get submitted to TII.

[DrAJP]

Thank you for this idea! I think this will work. 

[PlagiarismCheck]

Dear @bjholt, 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 as already mentioned last week in our similar thread on https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Discussions-Announcements/Discussion-Boards-Need-Turnitin/m-p/587..., 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). 

You will see that other schools have started to chime in on that other thread to echo my concerns. Your response seems to indicate a lack of understanding as to the nature of the concern, and your understanding of FERPA - this would be a big red flag for us (and most other schools I suspect) in partnering with an educational vendor.

Trina