Changes to Turnitin – Summer 2018

As some of you have already noticed, there are a few changes to the way that Turnitin appears in a module.

Rubrics / grading forms

When you are setting up a new assignment, you can now attach a rubric when you create the assignment. If you do, then students will be able to see the rubric / grading form before they submit the work.

Either use the drop down list to attach an existing rubric, or use the rubric manager to create a new rubric
Adding a rubric when assessment is being created

 

If students hover over the rubric icon, they will see a prompt - clicking the icon shows the the rubric
Students can access the rubric before they upload work

Report generation speed.

Turnitin has amended the setting that allows students to re-upload work before the deadline. It used to generate the first similarity report quickly, then have a 24 hour delay on all subsequent reports. This has now been amended so the first 3 reports are now generated quickly, then the 24 hour delay steps in.

Grading

Grading schema

If you are using the grading schema, you will now see that the Turnitin submission list shows the numerical grade only, while the Grade Centre shows the alphanumeric grade. Students will see the alphanumeric grades via My Grades.

screenshot
Turnitin’s submission box, showing the numerical mark

 

Screenshot
Blackboard’s grade centre, showing the Alphanumeric scale

In addition, if you are using Blackboard’s grading tools to grade the work (e.g. to allow you to upload a feedback file), the mark you allocate in the Grade Centre will now also show in Turnitin (though students will have to use My Grades to see the feedback, as before).

Other changes

There are some other changes, for full details see Turnitin’s release notes (the May 2018, March 2018, February 2018 and January  2018 changes).

Update: October 2018

We recognise that the change to the way that grades are displayed is disliked by many staff. I have contacted Turnitin to let them know – it’s due to a change in Blackboard’s APIs, so it was a change that Turnitin had no choice in.

Help page

CTIL’s help page, Setting up a Turnitin Assignment has been updated to reflect the recent changes.