Using Turnitin Within Blackboard for Online Submission and Feedback Centre for the Development and Enhancement of Professional Practice CDEPP - June 2012
2 - CDEPP June 2012
Contents Introduction to Online Assessment 3 Submitting Assignments via TurnitinUK within Blackboard 4 Creating a TurnitinUK Assignment within a Content Area 4 Optional Settings - explained 6 How Students Submit to a Turnitin Assignment Area 9 Interpretation of Originality Reports 12 Using Turnitin to Mark Assignments and Provide Feedback Online 13 How to Record Voice Comments 14 How Students View Their Marked Assignments 15 My Grades 16 Turnitin and Grade Centre 17 Introduction to Online Assessment Changing study patterns together with advances in technology make online submission of assignments and feedback both likely and efficient. It enables students to submit work without making an unnecessary journey, students can submit complex digital work such as e-portfolios or software design, it makes timely feedback easier, it allows work to be processed through the TurnitinUK plagiarism detection software and work can be made available to external examiners in a more secure, efficient and economical way. Online submission also ensures that work does not have to travel around campuses - especially important due to the distributed nature of our university. This leaflet outlines the use of Turnitin within Blackboard at the University of Cumbria. Other leaflets are available which include: Using the Blackboard Assignment Feature Using PebblePad to feedback and grade assignments 3
Submitting Assignments via Turnitin within Blackboard. TurnitinUK is a third party plagiarism detection tool which is fully integrated into Blackboard. The use of TurnitinUK at UOC is primarily aimed at students improving their writing style and ensuring references made in their assignments are correctly acknowledged using Cite them Right format, the university approved referencing system. Early adoption in the use of Turnitin is recommended. Creating a TurnitinUK Assignment within a Content Area 1) Choose where you want to add your Turnitin assignment, for example, Assignments or Course Information. 2) Select Create Assessment 3) Then choose Turnitin UK Assignment from the drop-down menu. 4
Select Paper Assignment and click Next Step. [You can also set Assignments for Peer Assessment and Revision Assignments, but for the purposes of this guide, we will concentrate on a Paper Assignment.] 1) Give the Assignment a name. 2) Enter the marks available for the assignment. 3) Enter the date you wish the assignment to appear within Blackboard (the default is now). 4) Enter the due date for the assignment. 5) Enter the date the marks will be posted onto Blackboard. 6) Click on Optional Settings for further choices. Rolling the cursor over the blue question mark icon will bring up a context help box that looks like this. This is help with the topic associated with the chosen icon. 5
Optional Settings - explained 1) Enter any special instructions, eg. word limit, special format, etc. 2) Choose whether to allow submissions after the due date by selecting 'Yes' or 'No'. If you select 'Yes', students will be able to submit their work to the assignment link even after the due date has passed, but only if it s their first submission. Any submissions made after the due date will be highlighted accordingly (the date on which the work was submitted will appear in red text in the instructor's view of submissions). 3) Select Yes for the Generate Originality Reports for Submissions - [Originality reports identify instances of matching text found on online resources such as ebooks, ejournals and internet sites]. 4) Decide when originality reports will be generated 6 Immediately (First report is final) - Originality reports will be generated upon student s first submission. No further submissions will be permitted and this originality report will be the definitive report used. Immediately (Can overwrite reports until due date) - Originality reports will be created immediately each time a student submits, overwriting the existing originality report. This is normally the option chosen at the University. On due date - Originality reports will be created once the due date has passed. 5) If you wish to exclude bibliographic materials from the Originality report, this can be changed here.
Optional Settings (contd.) 6) Decide whether you wish quotations to be excluded from the originality report. 7) Small matches of text can be excluded here. You can choose how many words can be excluded, eg, a string of 10 words may be acceptable. 8) Allow students to see Originality Reports? It is recommended that students see their reports to learn about correct referencing and writing style. The default setting is No but should be changed to Yes. 9) Select Yes to this option to prevent the early release of grades. 10) Enable anonymous Marking allows instructors to obscure students names. Selecting Yes will obscure all student names in the Assignment Inbox, Originality Report and Grademark until the assignment s post date. Clicking on the anonymous marking enabled button reveals the student s name for the paper. Selecting No allows instructors to see their students names at all times. 11) Choose whether to opt-out of your submission being added to the widely available, standard paper repository, perhaps for confidentiality reasons. The default is to opt-in. 12) Choose the sources to check when comparing submissions. You can check against existing papers which have been submitted to the system, as well as various Internet sources. 13) A rubric can be attached to the assignment - when setting-up the assignment, roll your cursor over the blue icon for more detailed information. 14) When you re ready, click the blue Submit button near the top of the page. 7
Your Turnitin Assignment has now been created. Click OK on the confirmation screen and you will see the assignment in the content area where it was created. 8
How Students Submit to a Turnitin Assignment Area. To submit their assignment, students should go to the content area where the assignment was created. When View/Complete is clicked the following screen is displayed: The screen above shows that the assignment has not been completed yet (the Submit button is still blue) and also shows the start, due and post dates,. If you roll-over the information icon (as above), any special instructions you entered will be shown. When students click the Submit button the following submit paper by file upload screen will be shown. 9
Step 1 Students can upload a single file, which must be in a selectable text format e.g. a Word doc (or docx), rtf, most pdf files, but not PowerPoints or images etc. The yellow box shows what file size and types Turnitin will accept. Alternatively, they can select, cut & paste text directly into a box. Normally students will use the single file upload function. * All fields marked with a red asterisk need to be completed. Students can browse their computer to locate the relevant file. Click Upload. Step 2 Students are able to preview their paper to ensure it is the correct file. NB. Any images, or formatting of the text will not show in this preview box. Once they are sure they have chosen the correct file they should click Submit. 10
When Submit is clicked the following screen is displayed (this is step 3). This screen is classed as a digital receipt. An email is also sent from Turnitin, to the students university email address confirming receipt. Students then click on Go to portfolio to access their Turnitin record for this assignment. The following Class Homepage screen will open: The area called Similarity will show the word processing for a few minutes, and then show a coloured square (coded from blue to red depending on degree of similarity) and also a percentage which shows how much of the submitted text matches online documents, and those in Turnitin s document repository. Note the grey Resubmit button - this is because, in Point 4, Generate originality reports for student submissions (p6), the following option was chosen, Immediately (Can overwrite reports until due date), allowing multiple submission of assignments to Turnitin. First submissions are returned from Turnitin fairly quickly, however students are advised that 24 hours should be allowed for Similarity Reports for any resubmissions of amended work. They should allow for this, making sure there is enough time before the due date of the assignment. Rolling the cursor over any of the areas or buttons will bring up a black context help box, as described on page 5. Clicking on the view button will show the submitted paper. Once the Post Date has passed, clicking the view button will allow the student to see any feedback that s been left. If a student clicks on the coloured square they can see their originality report (if this has been enabled). 11
The text of the essay will appear on the left-hand side of the screen, and any matches found will be highlighted in colour on the right-hand side of the screen. If you wish to see the original text (if available) you can click on any of the numbered links on the right-hand side. Interpretation of Originality Reports The interpretation of originality reports can be a difficult issue. No fixed acceptable figure has been set by the University of Cumbria. A high originality report percentage may not automatically demonstrate that work has been plagiarised, as long as any extracts used have been correctly acknowledged and referenced. It may however, demonstrate that students need to work on their writing style rather than be an instance of plagiarism. Further training in writing skills and referencing can be provided to students by LISS (Learning, Information and Student Services). Worth remembering: Turnitin searches online resources only - ebooks, ejournals and websites, and does not search any items which are not currently digitally available. Please contact CDEPP (cdepp@cumbria.ac.uk) if you need any advice with the interpretation of Turnitin reports. 12
Using Turnitin to Mark Assignments and Provide Feedback Online Using the Control Panel, click on the Course Tools box and then select TurnitinUK Assignments. On the next screen choose the Module you wish to mark and click the title. The following screen will appear: Click the Title link to each item to view the contents (there may be lots of files submitted by individual students - click on the link next to each students name to view the contents of their work). Click on the pencil icon opens a new page in a new window (or tab). This page contains the functions which can be used to add comments/feedback to the paper including a grade. There is even an option to leave audio feedback for the student. 13
When comments are added click Save at the bottom of the comments box. Any editing is then automatically saved when you move away from the page. Assignments can be printed using the print icon at the bottom left of the page (highlighted). How to Record Voice Comments 1. Click the icon (bottom-right) to open comments page. 2. The General Comments area appears, showing Voice Comment and Text Comment options. Make a General Text Comment by clicking the pencil icon (left). To delete the comment click the dustbin icon (right). 3. When recording a voice comment, you need to have a microphone connected to your PC. The Flash Player Settings box will appear when the icon is clicked. Check Allow and click close to allow Turnitin to access your microphone. 14
4. The Voice Comment box changes to Recording. You can record up to 3 minutes, as shown in the top-right of the box. Click the blue stop button to end the recording. 5. The box changes to Recording stopped. You can save the recording using the blue arrow button, or discard it by clicking the dustbin icon - the box then returns to the Voice Comment state (No 2 of this section). How Students View Their Marked Assignments Once the due and post date have passed, students marks will be released to them via Grademark. Students access Grademark by the same route as they originally submitted their assignment (in this example via the Assignments menu link), and clicking view/complete. This takes them to the Class Homepage. Clicking the View button shows their Grademark page where they can access comments, similarity report and their mark for the assignment. 15
My Grades Students can also view their mark by using the Tools option on the Navigation Menu and then clicking My Grades. Students are able to view the marks for all their assignments that have been submitted online in the My Grades area. 16
Turnitin and Grade Centre Turnitin is fully integrated with Grade Centre. This means that every Assignment created within Turnitin is automatically added to Grade Centre. Grade Centre is the area within a Blackboard course where all students marks are brought together in one place. [See the leaflet entitled, Using the Blackboard Assignment Feature, for more detail about Grade Centre]. This guide is intended as a brief introduction to online assessment using Turnitin within Blackboard. Other forms of online assessment features are available via Blackboard and PebblePad. CDEPP offer more in depth, tailored training to course teams and groups thinking of using online assessment. To book a training session, please contact us via: Telephone (01524) 590860 email cdepp@cumbria.ac.uk - CDEPP June 2012 17
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Centre for the Development and Enhancement of Professional Practice CDEPP - June 2012 20