Preventing Student Plagiarism: A Guide for Faculty

Turnitin is a plagiarism detection tool that is embedded within Canvas. By applying Turnitin to a Canvas assignment, you can check the originality of student work against the expansive Turnitin database. Turnitin can be used for both group and individual assignments and is a great way to prevent, as well as detect plagiarism within student writing. Turnitin can also be used as a formative tool to help students learn appropriate citation practices.

To set up a Turnitin assignment: 

1. Select the “Assignments” link in your course.
2. Select “+Assignment.”
3. Provide an assignment description in the content area.
4. Select: 
   1. A Point value for the assignment.
   2. The Assignment Group for the submission.
   3. The Submission Type as an “Online” submission. 
      1. Select “File Uploads” or “Text Entry” – these are the only two options with which Turnitin will work.

5. Select “Turnitin” from the Plagiarism Review dropdown menu. 
   1. Review and adjust the Turnitin submission settings to include the repository to check student work against: (e.g. Student repository of assignments; Website content; and/or Periodicals, journals and publications). If you are going to have students submit multiple drafts, it’s recommended that you choose not to store student submissions.  
   2. Choose "Similarity Report" preferences. 
   3. Select “Show report to students” at a specified time (Immediately, After the assignment is graded, After the due date, or Never).

6. Select if the assignment is a Group Assignment and associate the Group Set.

7. Select “Require Peer Reviews,” if required.

8. Assign to everyone or select student(s). Then enter: 
   1. Due: when the assignment is due. 
   2. Available from: when the assignment is available to students to submit. 
   3. Until: the time until which students can submit their assignment (this may be past the due date but will be marked late).

9. Select “Save & Publish” to publish the assignment.

Developed by Emily Sullivan, CET&L