Canvas and Turnitin

[dhulsey]

• Introduction
• What is "Feedback Studio"?
• Does Feedback Studio alter any functionality?
• As a local Canvas Administrator, how do I configure the Turnitin LTI?
• Can my institution enable both the API version and the LTI version as we transition to the LTI?
• What happens to API enabled assignments when the API version gets shut off?
• Do teachers and students have to sign up for an account at Turnitin.com?
• Does the LTI version of Turnitin have feature X?
• How does an instructor set up an assignment using the LTI tool?
• When creating an assignment, should I load Turnitin in a new tab?
• How do students submit to a Turnitin LTI assignment?
• How do students complete peer reviews?
• I want to set up an assignment sequence of rough draft, peer review, and final draft.
• How does the grading work?
• How do students receive their feedback?
• How can I tell if my students have viewed their feedback?
• Will Turnitin send a grade from Turnitin to the Canvas Gradebook?
• Can I use the Turnitin iPad app to grade?
• Where can I see the originality report for a paper?
• What happens when I copy a course in Canvas?
• How can I use Turnitin with an essay question on a Canvas Quiz to get an originality report?
• I want to check discussion posts for originality.
• I want to use the Turnitin LTI but need a Canvas rubric for grading / assessment
• Can Students submit to Turnitin LTI assignments from the Canvas mobile apps?
• Are there any complications with the Turnitin LTI tool?
• I have a question that is not answered here.
• I do not like something about the Turnitin LTI. Who should I make aware of my displeasure?

Introduction

Turnitin is well known for plagiarism and integrates with Canvas when an institution purchases a Trurnitin subscription. Many instructors rely on Turnitin.com services for plagiarism education, prevention, and detection. Turnitin is also a valuable tool for grading and peer reviews. Turnitin currently integrates with Canvas in two different ways, but Turnitin is phasing out the older method.

The oldest Turnitin integration with canvas is known as the API integration. Currently, Turnitin is phasing out this older integration, but still offers support to schools who are not having a good experience with the LTI.  

The newer method of using Turnitin is the LTI tool. Turnitin’s page for the LTI tool includes the official Admin, Instructor, and Student Guides

Tutorials from Instructure for using the Turnitin LTI can be found here: , How do I create a Turnitin assignment?, and How do I manage Turnitin assignments?

Canvas has also developed a more robust framework for plagiarism detection services: Spring Cleaning Is Coming: Plagiarism-Detection Improvements Headed Your Way! Turnitin has announced that they will be continuing the LTI plugin while also developing a new plugin using the framework canvas is developing. The target release for the new plugin is Fall 2017. This new plugin promises Turnitin assignment creation within Canvas's interface for those who wish to use Canvas for most operations but would like an originality report from Turnitin. Users who wish to grade in Turnitin or use Peermark will wish to use the LTI version. However, Turnitin says institutions will be able to run both the LTI and the new plugin simultaneously. 

What is "Feedback Studio"?

Feedback studio is the name for an interface overhaul for Turnitin that took place in mid 2016. You can see an interactive tour and demonstration of the interface (Note the ability to use bold, underline, italics and hotlinked text in Grademark comments).  The materials in this blog now refer to feedback Studio, but only Grademark and originality reports have been incorporated into Feedback Studio. Peermark and its interface has not changed at this time.

Does Feedback Studio alter any functionality?

Yes, but the changes only affect the grading functionality of Turnitin.  As of May 23, 2016, the ability to view the complete list of Grademark comments is missing. For students, the implementation of rubrics in Feedback Studio is clunky as I discuss in this video:

Thankfully, Turnitin is listening and refining Feedback Studio. As of early 2017, the ability to search for quick marks while grading has been restored.

As a local Canvas Administrator, how do I configure the Turnitin LTI?

There are multiple sets of instructions with varying levels of detail for local canvas Administrators on the Turnitin website. Here is the best set of instructions, and here is the current configuration of the Turnitin LTI at the account level for my school:

1. Name the configuration.

2. The consumer key is provided to your account by Turnitin.

3. The launch url is provided by Turnitin and is the same for all institutions. The launch url for Turnitin UK Users is https://submit.ac.uk/api/lti/1p0/assignment.

4. Completing the domain field with "turnitin.com" ("turnitin.uk.com" for UK users) enables Turnitin to launch from the Canvas speedgrader report icons.

5. Setting the privacy to public allows Canvas to share student names and emails with Turnitin.

6. Turnitin documentation states that the Custom Fields may be left blank. However, adding the code developed by canvas engineers adds several convenient features that sync information between canvas and Turnitin so that instructors do not need to enter information in both Canvas and Turnitin, including due dates, assignment id's, assignment titles, points possible, and availability dates. The graphic depicts all of the available codes.

Here is a short video demonstrating the syncing features added by the custom code.

Can my institution enable both the API version and the LTI version as we transition to the LTI?

Turnitin has offered varying answers on this question. The latest answer is yes. In an email sent to local Turnitin instructors on 4-11-2016, Turnitin states, "For those who are wondering, it is possible to run the legacy Canvas integration and Canvas LTI integration in parallel during the transition period."

What happens to API enabled assignments when the API version gets shut off?

In an email sent to local Turnitin instructors on 4-11-2016, Turnitin states, "When the previous Canvas integration becomes unavailable, classes and assignments originally created through the previous integration will remain accessible by logging into Turnitin directly. These older classes and assignments will not be visible in the LTI integration."  Although, I believe this access is limited to Turnitin administrators.

On the Canvas side, The API enabled assignments stay in Canvas and all Canvas functionality remains intact when the Turnitin API gets turned off. Submissions and grading in Canvas persists in Canvas once you turn off the API; only the link to Turnitin is lost, which means losing direct access to originality reports and any grading done in Turnitin. Although, with the API turned off and LTI turned on, you can currently see the icons and percent in the speedgrader for past assignments. If you try to click on the icon, you get this error message:

The text "Turnitin has been enabled for this assignment" persists in Canvas assignments when the API has been turned off but the LTI tool has not been turned on for that assignment even if the course is copied for a new term Of course, there is no way of knowing if this will change once Turnitin phases out the API altogether.

An instructor who wants to preserve grading in Turnitin from the API version for personal access, must save the grading as a .pdf one paper at a time before the API gets turned off. Originality reports can be saved one at a time, or reports can be reproduced by resubmitting the file to Turnitin and disregarding the first submission when interpreting the originality report.

When we turned on the LTI, I converted my existing assignments to use the LTI without issue.

Do teachers and students have to sign up for an account at Turnitin.com?

No one absolutely needs to create a separate Turnitin account. The tool uses the email address in the user's Canvas profile as an identifier, and log in from Canvas is seamless even for first time users. However, the instructor cannot use the Canvas test student for testing the LTI tool because the test student does not include a profile and email address. When I started using the LTI, I had a previous Turnitin account under the same email my Canvas profile uses, so the tool recognized me and put all submissions into my preexisting account.

If an instructor accessed Turnitin for the first time in the LTI and then later had a desire or need to access information in the web interface at Turnitin.com, the instructor can go through the forgotten password process at Turitin.com to set up a password and then can begin to use the webinterface. It is probably advisable for an instructor to have access to the Turnitin.com interface for using the iPad app, submitting for students at Turnitin.com, managing rubrics and saved grading comments, etc.

Does the LTI version of Turnitin have feature X?

Yes! All of the major Turnitin features are present in the LTI version, including originality reports and grading (with reusable comments, rubrics, etc.) through Feedback Studio, e-rater (automated comments), grade anything (PowerPoint Excel, etc.),  peer review (in Peermark), ios app, and cloud submit.

How does an instructor set up an assignment using the LTI tool?

Instructors add Turnitin as an external app to an assignment. This video demonstrates the process (assuming you have enabled the custom codes in your LTI configuration for Turnitin:

When creating an assignment, should I load Turnitin in a new tab?

I prefer to use a new tab, but there are pros and cons to both approaches. Probably the most important thing is to be consistent on your campus to avoid confusing students. Here is a video showing what each option looks like:

Update:  As of June 30, 2016, Instructors must no longer launch a Turnitin assignment to initiate the assignment in Turnitin. The Turnitin release notes state, "Students can now launch into an assignment and trigger its creation; this relieves instructors from being forced to have first interaction with the assignment before students are able to submit." However, the instructor must set an available from date and a due date in Canvas to allow students to initialize an assignment.

How do students submit to a Turnitin LTI assignment?

Go here for a .pdf tutorial on uploading a word processing file to a Turnitin assignment.

How do students complete peer reviews?

Here is a .pdf tutorial on using PeerMark.

I want to set up an assignment sequence of rough draft, peer review, and final draft.

You will need two assignments in Canvas / Turnitin. The first assignment will be for students to submit drafts and critique each other with Peermark. The second assignment will be for the submission of the final draft. This video tutorial demonstrates setting up an assignment and adding a Peer review component with Peermark. Note that only the grade on the paper in Grademark gets passed back to the canvas gradebook, so if you want to grade Peer reviews, you can add reviews into the paper grade (what I do), or you can set up an assignment with no submission and manually enter grades for the peer reviews:

How does the grading work?

An instructor can choose to grade using Turnitin's Grademark or Canvas's Speedgrader.

I do all of my grading in Turnitin's Grademark. I use the Quickmarks (saved comments I can reuse) with a rubric and enter the grade in Turnitin. The grade gets passed to the Gradebook in Canvas. It actually works quite a bit like the Canvas Speedgrader, and you can advance from student to student as well as quickly flip through all of a student's submissions for the term. I prefer Turnitin's Grademark because I can save and reuse remarks (with clickable url's!). Turnitin also can layer the originality report and Grademark, so the instructor can see the originality report while grading. Unlike the older API plugin, Quickmarks, rubrics, and PeerMark libraries persist across Canvas courses, so there is no need for importing or exporting Turnitin assets after the initial use.

As of the August 29, 2015 update, the student submits the paper to Turnitin, and Turnitin sends a copy of the paper to Canvas. The copy of the paper in Canvas may be graded in the Speedgrader, but if you wish to use a Canvas rubric, you must add the rubric to the assignment before configuring the assignment submission as an external tool.

How do students receive their feedback?

Here is a tutorial for receiving instructor feedback through Grademark. If the instructor chooses to grade in the Canvas speedgrader, then the process is the same as it is for any other Canvas assignment except that the student can also click on the Turnitin icon to view her originality report.

How can I tell if my students have viewed their feedback?

If you use Grademark for grading, you can access the Turnitin inbox through the link on your Canvas assignment:

In the image above of a Turnitin assignment inbox, the eye icon indicates a student who has viewed feedback. The dots are students who have not seen the feedback.

Will Turnitin send a grade from Turnitin to the Canvas Gradebook?

Yes! Grades entered in Turnitin automatically get posted to the Canvas grade book. However, this is a one way link. Grades posted in Canvas do not show up in Turnitin.  

Can I use the Turnitin iPad app to grade?

I use it all of the time! In fact, the iPad Turnitin app does something nothing else does right now: you can download papers to the iPad and grade them without an Internet connection, using a rubric and Quickmarks (saved and reusable comments). Then, when you hit wifi again, the papers sync back to Turnitin (and therefore to Canvas).

Where can I see the originality report for a paper?

Icons for the originality report show up in the Canvas speedgrader and gradebook.  The full report can be seen by clicking on the icon in the speedgrader or accessing the LTI tool from the Canvas assignment or through the Turnitin iPad app.

What happens when I copy a course in Canvas?

The assignment, settings, instructions, and dates persist in Canvas when an instructor copies a course for a new term.The LTI assignment must be visited (if you load TII inside of Canvas or the LTI tool must be launched (if you load in a new tab) to reestablish the assignment and settings on the Turnitin side. Now, a student can access the assignment from Canvas to initialize the assignment in Turnitin; However, the instructor must set an available from date and a due date in Canvas to allow students to initialize an assignment.

How can I use Turnitin with an essay question on a Canvas Quiz to get an originality report?

There are two options.

The first option is to use a file upload question in the quiz. This allows students to upload a file in response to the question, and the instructor can bulk download the files from the quiz as documented in How do I create a File Upload quiz question?.  Once the students' files are downloaded in a zip file, the instructor could upload the zip file to the Submitting via quick submit https://guides.turnitin.com/01_Manuals_and_Guides/Instructor/Instructor_User_Manual/37_Quick_Submit on Turnitin's website. This is one good reason for instructors to set up accounts through Turnitin's interface and enable the quick submit in their settings.

The second option is to use essay questions in the quiz. After the students complete the quiz, the instructor can generate an item analysis. Download the item analysis and open it. Next, locate the column with the essay responses you wish to scan, and it helps here if you can search for a key word to locate the column. I always include the word "essay" in my essay questions, which lets me locate the columns I need quickly. Next, copy the column and submit it to Turnitin via cut and paste with Submitting via quick submit 

Here is a video that demonstrates using quick submit:

I want to check discussion posts for originality.

A feature request for using Turnitin on Canvas discussions is under review: . In the meantime, you can navigate to a discussion, select the entire page (ctrl A on Windows; Command A on Mac). Next, use Submitting via quick submit  on Turnitin's website and paste in the text. Some text you may not want will be included like the discussion prompts and your discussion replies to students, but if you can live with that, you can batch scan the posts, and what you copy even includes each student's name, so you know who wrote each post:

I want to use the Turnitin LTI but need a Canvas rubric for grading / assessment

Create your assignment as a Canvas assignment without linking it to Turnitin. Save the assignment. Add your rubric to the assignment, and edit the assignment to enable Turnitin. I

Can Students submit to Turnitin LTI assignments from the Canvas mobile apps?

Not at this time. As per Canvas iOS app and External Apps(LTI), Turnitin needs to make its LTI tool fully compatible for a mobile environment. However, it is possible for students to submit essays by using the browser on their mobile device. Additionally, Turnitin's iPad app supports student use for submitting papers  and viewing feedback. For students to gain access to the iPad app, they should go through the password recovery process after accessing Turnitin at least once through the canvas integration.

Are there any complications with the Turnitin LTI tool?

There is some loss of Canvas functionality that may affect some instructors:

• Turnitin assignments will only accept one file per assignment.
• Using differentiated due dates as documented inHow do I assign an Assignment to an individual student or course section? breaks date syncing with Turnitin because Turnitin can only handle one set of dates per assignment. As a workaround, an instructor could set a date in Turnitin that corresponds with the last date in Canvas, allowing all groups to submit to the same assignment, but this only works if your school is not using the custom codes to automatically sync due dates with Turnitin.  Alternatively, an instructor could set up multiple assignments, releasing each assignment only to one subset of students.
• If an instructor wishes to alter a Canvas rubric on a Turnitin assignment, she must Turn off the LTI to alter the rubric and then reinstate the LTI when done editing the rubric. Warning: disabling the LTI after students have submitted will severe the connection between Canvas and the LTI; you should only do this if students have not submitted.
• It is not possible to use the Turnitin LTI (or any other external tool submission) with a Canvas group assignment; the option to assign to a group disappears as soon as "External Tool" is selected as the submission type.

I have a question that is not answered here.

You can comment on this blog, and I am happy to help, but I do not work for Instructure or Turnitin and have no inside information. I am an English Professor, and I use the Turnitin LTI tool in Canvas daily. 

I do not like something about the Turnitin LTI. Who should I make aware of my displeasure?

Most issues are going to be with Turnitin. File bug reports and give feedback at Turnitin - Support Wizard.  You can also contact your local Canvas admin to pass feedback to the Turnitin rep for your institution. I encourage you to do this. Let Turnitin know that Canvas users want and deserve their attention. Turnitin is a great product, but it is also an expensive one. Get the most for your money by getting your feedback to the right folks.

However, it is also true that Canvas and Turnitin are working together, and Instructure Employees have initiated discussions on the following known issues:

Turnitin + Canvas: submissions appearing on the wrong assignment

Turnitin + Canvas issue: "Resubmit to Turnitin" button occasionally results in submission getting st...

Turnitin + Canvas: Allow teachers to resubmit on behalf of students

Canvas + Turnitin: Retreive TII originality score again after due date has passed

Questions? If so, please don’t be shy!

Does Feedback Studio alter any functionality?

[ccalderon]

I call your Eeeek! and raise you by a Yikes! :smileyshocked:

[vrs07nl]

Dear all

Not sure this is the best thread to post my query to so it might appear in other places too

We wll be moving to the Turnitin LTI. We are currenlty usig hte the canvas API

what happens to the submissions and grading when it get switched off... will be still be able to see the originality reports etc

If not - what do we need to do to preserve these past submissions and the data

[morris_admin]

Hi Nicola,

We're in the same boat. We're switching to the LTI on December 23, which is the end of our Fall semester in preparation for Spring. From my CSM as well as from my testing, the Originality Reports disappear when you turn off the API. Our instructions are going to inform our community about how to download the Originality Reports, but unfortunately this has to be done per student per assignment (at least that's the only way I know - happy to hear if others have ideas)! Here are the instructions for downloading the Originality Reports: Originality Check - Guides.turnitin.com​. I contacted Turnitin about doing a bulk download, but they said it wasn't possible.

We're going to keep the API on through the first day of the Spring semester to give people time to download their old papers. I know it can cause problems to keep the LTI and API on together, but we think people will need the extra time.

I am waiting to see what Instructure's Turnitin guides look like when they are updated on November 21 before I finalize my documentation and send that out to our community, but I'm happy to share the information back here next week once that's finalized!

[sboldt]

morris_admin​, thanks for checking on the status of the originality reports.

Since our preference is to keep all the course content and submission data together, we may upload the originality reports right back into the courses to the Files structure. Should we ever need to verify student work, these reports will be within the course and available instead of on an instructor's desktop that may be retiring.

[tdelillo]

Groan! You know, I like the new LTI. A lot. But the lack of communication and lack of assistance has been a pain point. Thank goodness for this blog/page/thread.

[tdelillo]

I just noticed that the language regarding the Turnitin LTI has changed in the release notes. Per version 4 of the beta release notes, "Turnitin is deprecating their Canvas plugin (API) by the end of 2015." That was changed in later versions to "The Turnitin LTI will replace the Turnitin Canvas plugin (API), which will be deprecated at a later date." I was just about to send out the first nuclear message, and now I'm wondering whether we have more time to deal with this. See my previous comment about poor communication. What is really going on here?

[crafte]

According to the Turnitin integration team I contacted:

We are retiring access to our Legacy API in Q4 of 2015 in favour of LTI, which is a supported, and generally more stable route to integration. We are working closely with Canvas at the moment to ensure that their LTI integration is a suitable replacement for their current Legacy integration. We have also offered Canvas some extra functionality (this will be different to a standard LTI integration) which they are implementing in the coming months. 

Canvas will be reaching out to their customers closer to the time to advise them of these changes and we will be assisting with the migration to the new integration. We will not simply turn off access to the Legacy integration until the LTI version is up to scratch, so you will not be without a suitable replacement.

[vrs07nl]

Thanks Jessica

very helpful to a point and sharing very welcome

got a sort of similar reply to same post at Working with Turnitin API not LTI

[rmundy]

Here is a question for Canvas or TII admins. And thanks Dallas for all your work on this extremely helpful post. So with the Legacy API integration with TII, Canvas would create some sort of "user" over in TII when the integration was implemented and students submitted an assignment. This counted against the TII Active users licensing. If, in the case of a teacher who also had direct login access to TII (which I don't think with the API that they could log into TII and use the Canvas user) and the instructor set up a course and had students log in directly to TII to submit (the same students who may have submitted assignments in other courses through Canvas API to TII), that this student would use up TWO TII licenses and theoretically if lots of teachers were doing this, we could double the amount of expensive TII licenses required.

Now my question is this with the LTI migration from API. Basically will the same situation happen here? Will the LTI student user have a different TII account than the API one and thus create duplicate users and double the licensing (for up to the 6 months when the API courses time out?). It seems to me like this will happen and will be a nightmare to work with. I know we dealt with a problem like this when migrating from one LMS to another LMS both with API integration to TII and ended up going way over our license count and after a lot of wrangling TII gave us some temporary licenses to cover things until the old LMS timed out.

Thanks for any information.

[tdelillo]

When you say the Originality Reports disappear, I assume you mean that you can no longer click on the Turnitin icon in Canvas and see the submission and its data in Turnitin. Are the originality scores retained, though? When I go to the Speedgrader, will I still see the little icon and percentage? For some of our faculty, I think that will be sufficient.

[dhulsey]

Hi, Tracey. With the API turned off and LTI turned on, you can currently see the icons and percent in the speedgrader. If you try to click on the icon, you get this error message:

Of course, there is no way of knowing if this will change once Turnitin phases out the API altogether, but for now, it appears exactly as it does in your screenshot.

[anthonem]

Hi  @dhulsey ​ and snugent​ (and others?)

Now that you are a couple weeks into using the Turnitin LTI custom variables - have you run into problems? We're looking to deploy ASAP.

Thanks in advance for your feedback!

[snugent]

Hi Mark

We haven't turned the variables on yet in production. We decided to wait until the end of the semester which is in just a few weeks now. In my testing I found the variables work just fine. You will need to train people to edit the title, points (Max Grade), due date, and Available From date (Start Date) in Canvas Assignment settings.

The only issue  I did find is when copying a course with TurnItIn assignments on the import screen if you adjust dates and the beginning and end dates are not populated, the TurnItIn assignments will throw a TurnItIn error. It is relatively easy to fix by editing the Canvas Assignment settings  and removing the date but the error message will throw people off for sure. I am not sure why the beginning and end dates are not populating. I have dates set in the course and section settings.

[dhulsey]

The variables have been working well. Of course, I have not yet copied my courses for next term, so I didn't know about the issue Susan has come across. Thanks for the heads up, Susan!

[anthonem]

snugent​ - thanks so much! Glad to hear you haven't run into many troubles. It's really helpful to know about the course import adjust dates issue. Do you see that error on the import screen right after the import finishes?

[anthonem]

Thanks Dallas! Glad to hear everything is running smoothly...for fall term at least

[snugent]

No it is on the assignment page. It basically says an assignment cannot be created. You can edit the Canvas settings and remove/change the date and all is good.

[anthonem]

Got it. Thanks again!

[tdelillo]

That's kind of a pain, but I'm so glad to know about these things ahead of time. Have I mentioned what a lifesaver this forum is???

[vrs07nl]

I have worked with other VLES and generally speaking when copying courses over it best not to copy over existing Turnitin set ups - create from scratch so no clash with pre-existing set up form old course in Turnitin database = that should prevent the error message

[vrs07nl]

Jessica Morris

I too am having to do some how to guides. What is your take on the Instructure ones? I too am happy to share my guides but may be too tailored for our instance here in UK

One by one download of originality reports is a pain.... fortunately we do not have too many so i have decided to do it so know we have them in case academics forget...

Do we have a date yet for the big switch off?

[brueckert]

I have only skimmed the 7 pages of comments on this post so far, so please forgive me if this has already been addressed. How does Turnitin handle multiple due dates and selectively released assignments to different sections of the same course? Does everything properly transfer over using the LTI? I just installed it to our instance before Thanksgiving and haven't dug in yet.

[dhulsey]

Hi, Brian. I ran a test: I set up an assignment with the Turnitin LTI tool and selectively assigned the assignment to two out of five sections with a different due date for each section. When I loaded the Turnitin LTI after saving the assignment, the due dates did not sync to Turnitin. Turnitin can only handle one due date per assignment at this time. Off the top of my head, I would suggest multiple copies of the assignment using selective release if restricitng access to the Turnitin assignment is a priority. Otherwise, you could set your selective release in Canvas and set a due date in Turnitin that allows for all of the groups to submit to Turnitin.

[morris_admin]

Hi vrs07nl,

Here is what we developed. It's nothing fancy, but I hope it helps with the transition. These links are going out as part of a more general end of semester email. I'm also going to post the links in two Canvas announcements: one targeted to instructors and one targeted to students.

For instructors/faculty​

For students​

Post on our edtech blog​

[brueckert]

Thank you  @dhulsey  those workarounds sound good to me. Since the workflow is already drastically different, I don't think this extra, relatively minor change in assignment setup will anger too many folks; though sometimes I feel like I need to preface my emails with "Don't shoot the messenger." We'll see.

Thanks a ton for your work on all of this - HUGELY valuable to the Canvas community as a whole.

[snugent]

Just an FYI on the date issue with copied courses. I submitted a ticket last week and got a response today. This issue has been fixed; however, the fix is not retroactive. He did suggest that I could submit links to the assignments so support could fix them. At this point we don't have too many people creating TurnItin assignments and there are other fixes that instructors can do to fix the problem. Hopefully, this issue is a one time issue.

Option 1: On the import screen, if adjusting due dates, check the option next to remove dates. This will remove dates for ALL assignments so probably not the best option.

Option 2: Click the Edit Assignment Settings in right sidebar of TurnItIn assignment and change dates. I like this option better. I just don't like error message because I know it will confuse people.

[dhulsey]

Thanks, Brian! If anything, this has given me a  lot of respect for the documentation team at Instructure. Since first posting the blog, I have realized how many different ways people can use a tool and expect for it to work. Trying to anticipate those use cases and write clear instructions is a challenge. Honestly, I don't use selective release or differentiated due dates, so I never thought about how the LTI would treat them until you asked about it. Next time I revise the blog, I need to add material about selective release and differentiated due dates.

[brendaa]

I noticed that with the variables it does sync the Start date and Due date, but the times are all in 24 hour time.  This may be on the Turnitin side, but I expect that will be confusing to students and faculty.  Does anyone know why this is appearing in 24 hour time?  I don't see any setting to change it.

I also see 4 sources to compare submitted papers against:

• Student paper repository         
• Institution student paper repository         
• Current and archived web site content         
• Periodicals, journals and publications         

I checked all 4 but whenever I include "Institution student paper repository" I get an error and can't save the options.  We still use Blackboard also and I checked that Turnitin integration and "Institution student paper repository" is not an option there.  Does anyone know what the "Institution student paper repository" is and why it is not selectable?

Thanks, this forum is immensely helpful!

Brenda

[dhulsey]

Hello, Brenda! The institutional repository refers to papers submitted at your school. Source release allows instructors to see papers that have been previously submitted to your school when Turnitin flags them in the originality report without the need to send a request to view the paper. Source release has to be turned on by your local Turnitin administrator in the settings on Turnitin.com:

I do do not know for certain, but I would check the source release settings on Turnitin.com. If you turn on the source release, that might get rid of the error you are seeing for institutional repository.  Let me know if that helps.

[crafte]

Hi Brenda,

We noticed the fourth repository option as well and contacted Turnitin. This option applies only if your institution purchased a private repository.

Correction! We contacted Turnitin again to find out what can be done to avoid the error when checking the institutional repository. Turnitin tech support advised selecting the enhanced repository in the Turnitin admin settings. We inquired about what would happen to student papers if we did not purchased the institutional repository. Turnitin sales had informed us earlier this year that the institutional repository has to be paid for in addition to our other licensing. It seems that the Turnitin sales representative we talked to was not aware that their system has an institutional repository option (this is available for all schools at no additional cost) and there is a private repository option which can be purchased by schools.

Student papers stored in an institutional repository are not accessible to other schools.

[dhulsey]

I never knew that, Elisabeth. Thanks for that information!

[brendaa]

Thanks, Elisabeth! I wonder if we can get them to turn it off?  I'm sure faculty will check every option and then be confused by the error that shows the entire section as "red" with a problem.  I'll followup with my Turnitin CSM.

[anthonem]

snugent​ - thanks for your update about the date issue on course copies.

Just to double check, this issue is fixed for any new LTI assignments? And the two options you listed are just for Turnitin LTI assignments created before the fix was applied? So let's say an instructor created a Turnitin LTI assignment last month - when they go to copy their course in March will they need to fix the dates via the workarounds you mentioned? Thanks again for your help!

[brendaa]

This worked!  I logged into the Turnitin Account and edited the account I set up for Canvas LTI.  I changed the Paper repository options to "Enable instructor expanded respository options" and under Paper source release I changed it to "Enable source release for this account".  Now instructors can select all  4 submission options and not get an error.  Thank you!

[snugent]

 @anthonem ​ Yes that is the way I understood it. It is an easy fix so I probably will send out a message to faculty so they don't get freaked out by the error message.

[dwillmore]

I apologize if this has already been addressed and I missed it in my search.

The API dies 16/SP.    Then we all use the LTI to utilize Turnitin.

What happens to the assignments turned in with the API?

• Will the originality report icon still exist in the Canvas Gradebook?
  • I assume if it does exist you won't be able to click on it to be taken to the actual report on Turnitin correct?
  • If you can't see the report through Canvas how does a faculty member get to the report?
    • Does the faculty member need to login directly to Turnitin to find the course and the paper to see the report?

[stevenwilliams]

My current understanding is that the color-coded flag from Legacy-generated Originality Check reports will remain visible, but that all access to these reports will be lost. In the Working with Turnitin API not LTI discussion, some participants have been discussing the possibility of manually downloading these reports for instructors prior to making the switch to LTI.

[dwillmore]

I see that faculty can login directly to Turnitin, establish a password, and then be able to work with your courses there.    Since Turnitin has captured course, and instructor name/email information wouldn't that associate the legacy courses as well, or could there be some code to make this happen?

[stevenwilliams]

I have read that the LTI integration allows instructors to directly log in to turnitin.com and view reports generated through Canvas, but the Legacy integration does not provide this level of access.

[brendaa]

I would love to know the answer to how faculty can access the reports once we switch to the LTI integration.  I had one of our instructors log directly into Turnitin, using the same email address, join the Turnitin "ID" for our Canvas integration, but still could not see any of the classes from Canvas. He could see all of the classes that were integrated with Blackboard.  I submitted a ticket to Turnitin, but got an auto-reply from them that they were very busy and it might be a while before I heard back.  If anyone has successfully retrieved reports from the old integration via Turnitin, please share your process.

[sharris]

We are switching over to the LTI at the end of the month. I'd be interested to see how those who have already switched dealt with students not being able to submit via the Canvas app ?

Our institution is moving 1:1, so every student has an iPad. Most submit assignments via their iPad, and it doens't look like the new LTI will work with the Canvas app.

[crafte]

When Turnitin is enabled via the check mark in a Canvas assignment (API), the drop box on the Turnitin side is created by using a generic account. It is not associated with an instructor's email or login. This type of drop box is not listed when an instructor logs into the Turnitin website.

Using the LTI version will create a drop box using the instructor's email address. This allows instructors to access the drop boxes once logged into the Turnitin website.

The only way to preserve the originality reports for papers submitted to API integrated drop boxes is by downloading the individual reports.

[dhulsey]

Hey, Sam. The students can probably submit through Safari or Chrome on their iPads . Interestingly, Turnitin says it is working on student submission through its own iPad app, which currently is only for instructors. However, I do not know their timeline for that or how the Turnitin app would function for the Turnitin LTI tool.

[vrs07nl]

Thanks Jessica

I am still testing in Beta and will move to production after term ends - i will share any i make

[jared_flaherty]

Hi Everybody!

My institution (higher ed) has recently announced that we are going to start using turnitin.     I'm reading through documentation and watching videos, etc. to learn about the turnitin/canvas LTI integration.      Looks pretty sweet...    but, I has a question that I hope someone can help with.

We use the course masters model and every term we use the API to create a course, migrate the content, etc.      We set module unlock dates/assignment due dates, etc in the course masters and then when the Content Migration API runs, we shift dates=true.     

So, I know that the assignment dates shift correctly inside Canvas, however, it appears that there are due dates inside of turnitin as well.    Is this true?

If so, I watched a video that indicated that the due dates inside of turnitin will default to 1 week after the creation of the assignment.       

This will be an absolute nightmare if this is true....      anybody have some insight for me?     

TIA!

Jared

[dhulsey]

Yes, that is correct, Jared. However, if you use the syncing codes Instructure has provided (see the image in the blog post), then dates between Canvas and Turnitin will sync as shown in this video: untitled7 - YouTube. ​ The catch is that the instructor must launch the LTI tool on each assignment to initiate the sync. Also, the instructor may wish to adjust the optional Turnitin settings on each assignment; although, if an instructor is consistent, she can save a set of default optional settings that automatically set, but, again, the LTI tool must be launched by the instructor to initiate each assignment on the Turnitin side every time you copy a course.

Perhaps someone like  @James ​ could cook up a script or some other coding magic to initiate the LTI tools for all assignments in a class at once. How about it,  @James ​? Would something like that be possible?

[jared_flaherty]

Thanks, Dallas...   it makes sense to me now.   

Jared

[jared_flaherty]

Ok, so I emailed turnitin specifically about  Canvas -->  turnitin due dates and got this response:

The dates and other information will transfer if the integration is configured as detailed on this page:

http://guides.turnitin.com/03_Integrations/Turnitin_Partner_Integrations/Canvas/Configuring_the_LTI_...

She is currently fixing some broken images on the page but all of the content is there.

​So, am I getting accurate information here?

[dhulsey]

Sure, that looks accurate, Jared, and is a much clearer set of instructions than Turnitin initially provided.

[jazemlya]

Hello,

We are going to need to move form the API integration to the new LTI tool.  I have a few questions that i hope can be answered here about it.

• What happens to old integration assignments once I turn the the API tool off?  I am thinking they will no longer work.  This is the toughest scenario here as i am concerned that there is no good way to avoid this.  Due to upcoming semester courses being developed while current courses are being ran not sure how i can avoid breaking already created assignments in Canvas with the TII API.
• What is the exact reason it is recommended that the API and LTI tools not be turned on at the same time?  Is it just a worry of conflict from an assignment being posted in 2 ways?  If I were to somehow hide the TII API option in assignments via JS/CSS overrides could i leave both on in theory?  Then i could let old assignments continue to work and let new assignments going forward utilize the new TII LTI integration.  Then turn off the API integration once the current semester ends.  This scenario would involve communication and planning but this will need to be done anyways and i think could make for a smoother transition.
• Does anyone see an issue with me turning on the LTI tool in my Canvas test instance?  I have a testing account in TII that is not linked to the current prod TII integration that i can link to our test or beta instance in Canvas so we can start testing out the scenarios above.  Anyone see a down side to this scenario.

I think that is all i have for now but if there is anyone that has made the transition from API to LTI already i would love to get your take on this and anything else I will need to plan for from your experience doing this transition.  Thanks!