Turnitin is a plagiarism detection service used by educational institutions to check the originality of students' work. It compares submitted papers to a database of academic content, internet sources, and previously submitted student papers to identify similarities and potential instances of plagiarism. The service generates a similarity report that highlights matched text and provides a similarity score, helping educators ensure academic integrity and students improve their writing by citing sources properly.

To create a Turnitin Assignment in Canvas, follow these steps:

  1. Open your course in Canvas.
  2. In the course navigation menu on the left, click on "Assignments".
  3. Click the "+Assignment" button to create a new assignment.
  4. Fill in the assignment name and descriptions in the fields provided.
  5. Scroll down to the Submission Type section.
  6. Select "Online" from the dropdown menu (note: Turnitin only works with “online” submission types).
  7. Check the "File Uploads" option.
  8. Under the "Plagiarism Review" section, select "Turnitin" from the dropdown menu.
  9. Adjust the Turnitin settings according to your preferences:
    1. Store submissions in: Choose between "Standard Repository" or "None."
    2. Compare submissions against: Select the repositories Turnitin should check against (e.g., student paper repository, internet, and periodicals, journals, and publications).
    3. Report Generation Speed: Decide if the report should be generated immediately, on the due date, or allow resubmissions until the due date.
    4. Exclude Bibliography: Choose whether to exclude the bibliography from the similarity report.
    5. Exclude Quoted Material: Decide whether to exclude quoted material from the similarity report.
    6. Exclude Small Sources: Choose whether to exclude small sources and set the word count or percentage threshold.
  10. Set the number of points for the assignment in the Points field.
  11. Choose an assignment group if you have different groups.
  12. Set a due date and availability dates if needed.
  13. Scroll down and click "Save" to save the assignment.
  14. If you are ready for students to see the assignment, click "Publish". If not, you can publish it later when you are ready.

For more information, visit Turnitin Instructional Resources website.