New Quizzes: Allow use of turnitin

(107)

When using the new quiz app for a take home exam, it would be good to allow the use of turnitin to monitor any inappropriate collusion on essay questions. 

57 Comments
Stef_retired
Instructure Alumni
Instructure Alumni

 @browning339l ‌, we've modified the title of your idea so that it now reads "New Quizzes" instead of  "new quiz app." If that's not what you meant by "new quiz app," please let us know. Smiley Happy

Steven_S
Community Champion

If the ability to quickly download all essay questions in a format that could be uploaded into turnitin (or other plagiarism scanners) would help you, you may also be interested in https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/15635-download-essay-questions Also, setting up a process for such a download may eventually make partner integrations like this one more feasible.

mambalal
Community Member

In times like this, we hope the New Quizzes function will permit Turnitin.com to be used for all essays. Please get this changed so we can help ensure students are providing their own work and learning the importance of academic integrity. 

gemma_sinclair
Community Participant

Yes we have been asked about this several times especially in response to digital assessments replacing exams due to COVID. This is especially for Essay questions in New Quizzes

sharon_kitching
Community Contributor

It would be very helpful if there was an option to allow checking of essay answers, or uploaded quiz files to Turnitin/text-matching software. Using a quiz would also have the benefit of giving a timer/timed countdown for submission. 

jenlois
Community Member

Yes! Please build the plagiarism detector for file uploads into quizzes! Quizzes allow for a) timed test-taking and b) random selection from a test bank, and c) a file upload. So "assignments" don't have 2 of those 3 features, and from what I can tell, quizzes lack vericite or turnitin or whatever plagiarism-detector box you can check on assignments. Students' file uploads to quizzes need to be checked against each other, past courses, and sometimes internet sources. Please make this available! Thank you!

Reindert95
Community Member

Comopletely agree with this idea. I need exactly this function for the course I will be teaching in September. Examination has to go online and this Quiz (with essay questions checked for plagiarism) would be the perfect option to avoid fraude while offering a proper exam.

Is is realistic that this will be there soon? Should I request this? First proposal seems to be made at the end of last year.

sharon_kitching
Community Contributor

It's hard to see how we are meant to 'vote' this up @canvas ?? Is it just clicking on the stars? Is that the new voting mechanism? 

mrh
Community Member

I also need a plagiarism checker for canvas quizzes. We have turnitin--it should be connected to essay answers on quiz. I also don't get the response about how to vote. 

sharon_kitching
Community Contributor

@mrh - i think clicking on the 'stars' is the new voting. 

@Reindert95  - I have no idea. Ideally, Canvas & Turnitin need to talk? Not sure who's side the responsibility it is for this kind of integration. HOWEVER! noticed on the Turnitin page that there is now integrity checker on Moodle quizzes - https://help.turnitin.com/release-notes/integrity-all-release-notes.htm#all-updates

So maybe it's coming?  @canvasb any thoughts on this? 

admin_nolan
Community Participant

I agree with the comments in this idea conversation.

Would like to see the ability of an anti-plagiarism tool such as TurnItIn to be able to evaluate essay question responses in Canvas quizzes.  Most likely for the New Quizzes tool.

Kevin Nolan

Colorado State U Canvas Admin

Reindert95
Community Member

@sharon_kitching I hope so! Would be a great fit: my faculty does not like the proctoring system (video camera), but I believe cooperation by students through Google Docs/WhatsApp/other programs even makes essay exams less fraud-resistant than normal. And all our exams are online open book exams (at home) now.

This option would help a bit: if you do not know whether you will receive the same essay questions, there will be less incentive to set up these kinds of cooperation.

sharon_kitching
Community Contributor

@Reindert95  - we have run a few exams where the quiz gives students their 'random' question(s) which they then 'answer' but submitting the written text answer to an assignment. That was one of the workarounds. The annoying bit is that you can't allocate question 1 to the same marker - which is fine if one person is marking everyone, but gets a little convoluted if you have multiple markers (mind you, it does anyway). 

erica_suchman
Community Novice

As a faculty member who just had issues with cheating on my written answers on Canvas quizzing I can honestly say the quizzes written answer sections are useless without the ability to use turn it in to detect cheating. I can not state strongly enough how much I support this idea. I am not going to use the quizzing feature again until this issue is resolved.

Erica Suchman

Colorado State University

christianne_mag
Community Novice

As faculty struggle to keep up with the rising challenge of academic dishonesty in the online environment coupled with the overall decline in students' written communication skills, there is no better perfect storm for an increased incidence of plagiarism in open response answers. Like many of my colleagues, I will be unwilling to use this feature until there is an anti-plagiarism tool such as TurnItIn to be able to evaluate essay question responses in Canvas quizzes.  Christianne Magee, Colorado State University 

juniperroan
Community Novice

As a student, I would appreciate the use of TurnItIn at CSU. I earned my undergraduate degree at a university that used TurnItIn and it never caused any issues. The pandemic is certainly pushing everyone into less-than-ideal circumstances, to put it mildly, and many professors are resorting to open-note exams. TurnItIn would restore a degree of integrity for online classes. 

olian
Community Explorer

I agree with the comments in this idea conversation.

d_herbert
Community Novice

This feature is really important. We want to use Canvas for as many things as possible so that students are working in a familiar environment. But without this checking process we will have to opt for a dedicated proctoring solution. 

jobeey
Community Member

It would be really great if there was a way to integrate plagiarism checking software into essay questions in quizzes (or new quizzes).  There are currently some work-arounds with Turn-it-in (https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Question-Forum/Turnitin-and-Essay-Quizzes/td-p/75360), but they are all pretty cumbersome and may not be feasible for short-answer style questions.  This would be particularly helpful for short-answer type questions, which may tempt students to Google a response. 

 

 

lynn_schedler
Community Explorer

This would be very useful especially with distance learning. Normally this wouldn't be an issue because i would have students writing their test essay questions in class where I can closely monitor what they are accessing. In distance learning, even if I put them into a lockdown browser, many of them still have multiple devices they can access. Having a plagiarism checker associated with new quizzes would be very helpful. Please figure out how to get the two to work together.