Jump to Navigation

Assessment - Turnitin

Turnitin is available via Blackboard and enables a course co-ordinator to set an assignment for which all student submissions are compared to resource databases and the internet to confirm their originality.

Students may be required to submit their assignments via Turnitin in their Blackboard course, and all students should be aware of how to do this.

View the list of assignments

To view the list of assignments in your course, click the Assessments link in the left-side menu. A screen similar to the one below will be shown:

Turnitin assignments are displayed with the Turnitin logo (as shown above), and clicking View/Complete will open a page on the Turnitin website within Blackboard.

Note: As Turnitin is an external, off-net website, using Turnitin to submit assignments will count against your student dialup download quota - even though it is being viewed within a Blackboard frame. When View/Complete is clicked, and the Turnitin page loads, a page will be displayed providing the option to upload a file for checking.

Submit a Turnitin assignment

There are two ways to submit assignments: File Upload and Cut & Paste, which can be selected from the Submit a paper by: list box.

File Upload

This is the recommended method and will probably be selected by default. If another method is presented, change the option in the Submit a paper by: field to file upload before starting.

  1. Type the name of your submission in the submission title field as shown at right .
  2. Click Browse... to open a window which will allow you to locate your desired file. Note that Turnitin can only accept these file types:
    1. Word
    2. WordPerfect
    3. PostScript
    4. PDF
    5. HTML
    6. RTF
    7. Plain text
  3. Select the file and click Open. The window will close, and the full file name and path will be displayed in the main browse window.
  4. Click submit to send the file to Turnitin for checking and to your course co-ordinator for assessment.
  5. Look for and take a note of the Turnitin Digital Receipt number - if you do not see one, you must resubmit until you get a receipt number.

Submitting an Assignment With Turnitin

This video demonstrates how to submit an assignment with Turnitin.

Cut & Paste

This method is not recommended as the submission will not include formatting. Without formatting your submission may be difficult to read.

  1. Create your submission in an separate application such as Microsoft Word.
  2. Highlight all of the text that forms your submission and copy. (In most applications, this can be performed with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-C).
  3. Open your browser and access the Turnitin assignment.
  4. In the Submit a paper by: field , select cut & paste.
  5. As with the File Upload method, type the name of your submission in the submission title field .
  6. Click in the large Cut & paste your paper: field and paste the submission (Ctrl-V or, from the browser's menu, Edit » Paste)
  7. Click submit to send the file to Turnitin for checking and to your course co-ordinator for assessment.
  8. Look for and take a note of the Turnitin Digital Receipt number - if you do not see one, you must resubmit until you get a receipt number.

Check The Turnitin Report

At the end of this process Turnitin will display the Assignment Inbox screen, displaying the assignment and your submission. If your course co-ordinator has activated this feature, a percentage value will be displayed here indicating the proportion of the report that appears to be sourced from elsewhere once Turnitin has checked this submission for originality (allow 24 hours). Usually the lower this percentage score, the better.


Click this percentage icon (as indicated above) for a more detailed originality report, including possible sources for submission content. The assignment can be read from the title link . The percentage figure shown indicate how much of the file is unoriginal . Every submission will have its own unique identity number . Your course coordinator may indicate how many Turnitin submissions you can attempt.

Quizzes

There are many different kinds of potential online quizzes that are available in Blackboard. Here are some of the most common:

  • Multiple Choice - Provides a multitude of choices. In multiple-choice questions, you indicate the correct answer by selecting a radio button.
  • True/False - Choose either true or false.
  • Fill in the Blank - Enter the answer in the text fields provided. Those answers are evaluated based on an exact text match.
  • Multiple Answer - Multiple answer questions allow you to choose more than one answer.
  • Matching Questions - Pair questions to answers.
  • Essay Questions - Instructors provide you with a question or statement. You are given the opportunity to type or cut and paste an answer into a text field.
  • Calculated - Contains a formula with a number of variables. The correct answer can be a specific value or a range of values.
  • Calculated Numeric Response - Resembles a fill-in-the-blank question except a number is entered to complete the statement. The correct answer can be a specific number or within a range of numbers.
  • File Response - Uploaded files are used to respond to the question.
  • Hot Spot - A specific point on an image is used to indicate the answer.
  • Fill in Multiple Blanks - Multiple responses are inserted into a sentence or paragraph.
  • Jumbled Sentence - A sentence with a number of variables within it.
  • Opinion Scale/Likert - A rating scale used to measure attitudes or reactions.
  • Short Answer - Similar to Essay questions; answer length is limited.
  • Either/Or - A statement with a pre-defined choice of two answers.
  • Quiz Bowl - An answer appears; the users uses a who, what, or where question to respond.

Important: Some of these quizzes have a set time limit in which to complete them. Always check if your quiz has a time limit PRIOR to commencement. Internet Explorer users will see the elapsed time in the bar at the bottom of the browser window.

Check Your Progress in the Quiz

When you are undertaking a quiz it is recommended that you save your responses as you progress through the questions. You can view which questions you have saved at any time by clicking on the arrow to open the Question Completion Status .

Any question numbers listed on the Question Completion Status list with a floppy disk icon have been saved, while the others have not. Click a question number on this list to view, answer and save that question.

When you have completed all questions of a quiz, ensure that you click the Submit button to submit your work for assessment.

Viewing Grades

You will find grades and results of assessment items under the left-side menu item Tools.

Click Course Tools in the left-side menu, then choose My Grades from the list of Tools on the page.

This screen will display the assessment item along with the grade, the maximum points possible, the class average and the weighting given to that item, as well as a weighted total.

Clicking the Grade for an item will display (if available) more details on your attempt at that assessment.