Turnitin is an academic integrity support and plagiarism detection tool which can be accessed through Moodle. One of Turnitin's primary features is a "Similarity Report" that compares student work against content online or in Turnitin’s database, in order to identify similarities between assignment submissions and existing sources.

NC State’s license for Turnitin provides access to Turnitin Feedback Studio, which can be accessed through Moodle. In a Moodle course, instructors can add Turnitin functionality in multiple ways:

• As a standalone Turnitin Assignment
• As an additional setting within Moodle's Assignment, Forum, and Workshop activities

Additional details about each method can be found below. 

Important Considerations

Turnitin functionality must be enabled before any students have submitted work in the activity, because Turnitin will only process the work that is submitted after it has been enabled.

Students are required to accept an acknowledgement that their work will be processed through Turnitin the first time they upload to an activity with Turnitin enabled. The acknowledgement cannot be accepted retroactively once the student has already submitted their work.

*Note this agreement can not be completed if the first time the student interacts with Turnitin is via a Forum activity.

Turnitin Assignment Activity Features

The Turnitin Assignment activity is similar to the default Moodle Assignment activity, but it offers a number of additional features:

• Grading Interface
  • The Turnitin Assignment uses its own interface for student submissions and grading. Although Turnitin Assignments reside within Moodle, they have a look and feel that is different from other Moodle activities.
• Similarity Report
  • This feature allows instructors to automatically check student submissions against multiple online databases. The activity generates a score that represents how much of the submission is similar to content that already exists, either in other papers in the databases, or on websites that Turnitin has indexed.
  • For example, an Similarity Score of 100% means that all of the submitted paper matches existing content, while an Similarity Score of 0% means that none of the paper’s content matches existing content.
• GradeMark
  • This feature allows instructors to add a rubric to the assignment and grade submissions according to the rubric.
  • Optionally, it also evaluates the submission’s writing and provides feedback on elements like spelling, grammar, style, and mechanics. Instructors can select and customize the types of feedback they wish to give to students.
• PeerMark
  • This feature allows for an instructor to add a peer review activity to the assignment.
  • Once a student's PeerMark assignment has been submitted, it can no longer be edited. There are no late submissions allowed with PeerMark.
• AI Writing Detection
  • This feature is designed to flag text that may have been created by a generative AI tool. Remember that AI detection tools can be prone to false positives and should not be used as the sole basis for identifying instances of academic misconduct.

Adding the Turnitin Assignment Activity

To add a Turnitin Assignment activity, follow the instructions in the "Adding a Turnitin Assignment Activity" article.

Using Turnitin with Moodle Assignment, Forum, and Workshop

Turnitin can generate a Similarity Report for text-based submissions to Moodle Assignments, Forums, and Workshops.

To enable Turnitin features on Moodle activities, follow the instructions in the "Adding a Turnitin-Enabled Activity to Moodle" article.

*At this time, there is a known bug with Forums where, after submitting a Forum post to Turnitin for the first time, a student may receive an error message regarding the Turnitin End-User License Agreement.  The best way to resolve this issue is to have students submit to a Turnitin Assignment or a Turnitin-enabled Moodle Assignment before making their Forum post.

Additional Resources

Turnitin YouTube Playlist (DELTA YouTube)

Moodle LTI 1.3 QuickStart Guide (Turnitin Support)

Student Hub (Turnitin Support) 

Understanding the Similarity Score (Turnitin Support)

Turnitin Feedback Studio demo (Turnitin Support)

PeerMark Assignments (Turnitin Support)

Using Turnitin for Administrative Purposes (DELTA Knowledge Base)

For additional assistance, please contact the LearnTech Help Desk at learntech@ncsu.edu or (919) 513-7094, or via the Get Help form on the DELTA Knowledge Base.