About Turnitin
Turnitin is an online plagiarism detection tool, which screens student work against a digital database of publications, papers, and websites. In addition to plagiarism checking, Turnitin offers various grading tools for annotating and commenting on student work. Turnitin is available to use with Canvas assignments.
Turnitin in Canvas
Turnitin's Plagiarism Framework Tool
Turnitin’s Plagiarism Framework tool streamlines the process of creating Turnitin assignments within Canvas. With the Plagiarism Framework tool, Turnitin features are configured within Canvas Assignment settings. The new integration also works with Canvas Peer Review and Group assignments. Instructors can use the Canvas Speedgrader to grade these Turnitin assignments.
To learn how to create Turnitin assignment within Canvas using the Plagiarism Framework tool, visit the Turnitin Guide on Creating a Canvas Plagiarism Framework assignment.
Turnitin's External Tool
Alternatively, instructors can use Turnitin’s External Tool if they prefer to use Turnitin’s online grading and peer review features. You can create a Turnitin Assignment within Canvas using the Assignment tool. Under the assignment submission type, Turnitin is an “External Tool” option.
To learn how to set up and grade Turnitin assignments within Canvas using Turnitin’s External Tool, visit the Turnitin Guide on Creating a Turnitin LTI Assignment in Canvas.
Important Considerations
- For graded Turnitin assignments, the external tool must be embedded within a Canvas Assignment using the method described above. You can then add the assignment to a Module, but you should not add Turnitin directly to a Module if you want the scores to sync with the Canvas gradebook.
- If you use Turnitin rubrics and quick comments when grading submissions via Turnitin, your students can only access this feedback by opening up the Turnitin document viewer within the Canvas Assignment. If students try to access your comments from their Grades page, they will be redirected to the default SpeedGrader view in Canvas which will not contain any Turnitin feedback and reports.
- Assigning grades to papers within the Turnitin iPad app will cause syncing issues with Canvas. It is recommended that you use a web browser if assigning grades to your Turnitin assignments.
Additional Help
To compare the features offered by Plagiarism Framework tool and the External Tool, view the Turnitin Canvas integration matrix to learn more about what each tool offers.
If you have additional questions or would like to use Turnitin independently of Canvas, visit the Faculty Technology Center for in-person support in Oviatt 33, Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., or contact by phone at 818-677-3443 or email at ftc@csun.edu.
Return to the Learning Technologies page.
