Announcement from Turnitin.com 12/3/07
On Tuesday, December 4th we launched a few small updates for the Originality Report. These updates were based on feedback we have received from our users and include:
1. The ability to allow students to view Originality Reports on an assignment by assignment basis.
Previously instructors had to set the preference to allow students to view Originality Reports on a class by class basis. Giving the instructors more flexibility in this option (by allowing it to be set assignment by assignment) allows instructors to use the service to fit the needs of their individual classes. This option is available in both standard and master classes. If instructors decide to permit their students to view Originality Reports, information regarding students' viewing paper submissions and accessing Originality Reports is available in the Turnitin Student User Manual, which is available at http://turnitin.com/static/training.html.
This option will be found under the advanced assignment options in the assignment
creation screen. The available advanced assignment options are described on pages 16 to 19 of the Turnitin Instructor User Manual, which is available at http://turnitin.com/static/training.html.
2. Information on how many times a paper has been submitted to an assignment.
In the upper right corner of the Originality Report there will now be a field
marked "Submitted:" followed by a number. The number will indicate
the number of times the paper has been submitted to the assignment. In cases
where instructors allow students to resubmit to the assignment (using the advanced
assignment option to allow overwrites until the due date) this new informational
field will give instructors the ability to monitor their students' submission
activity.
3. A lower match priority for matches to the student paper database
Many instructors have informed us that if there was a match between two student
papers and a match for the same text to the internet, they would prefer to
see the internet match first (as they believe the internet to be the most likely
original source of the text). In the past there was no priority set on any
database in our system (matches to internet matches were as likely to be displayed
as matches to student papers). We have changed this so that if the same quality
match for a section of text is found in both the internet database and the
student paper database, we will display the match to the internet in the cumulative
view of the Originality Report (both matches will still appear in the Single
Source mode of the Originality Report).
4. If a match to a paper in one of the instructor's own classes is found the source link will display the class, assignment, paper id, and author information
Previously if an instructor had an Originality Report with a match to a paper in his or her own class, the text of the matching paper would be displayed but the instructor would receive no indication of where the paper came from. This change will give the instructor information regarding the origin of the matching paper. Please note, this information will only be available for matches to papers in the instructor's own classes; matches to papers in other instructors' classes or in other institutions will not display any of this information. This information will not be displayed in the student view of the Originality Report (the text of the matching paper is also omitted from the student view of the report). If the text of a paper turned into your class matches another paper turned in by another student in the class, you will have access to the paper and the identical text will be highlighted.
5. The sources Turnitin checks papers against
Student papers can now be checked against the student paper database, the Pennsylvania State University paper database, current and archived Internet, periodicals, journals, and additional publications.
6. Originality Report Options
Instructors can now select one of four Originality Report Modes: cumulative view, single source, quickview, and direct source comparison. Addtional information describing these four modes can be found on page 42 of the Turnitin Instructor User Manual, which is available at http://turnitin.com/static/training.html.
7. Additional options available under Excluding Quoted or Bibliographic Material
Instructors can now exclude block quotes if there is block indentation of the quoted text. Before, quoted material had to be surrounded with quotation marks for it to be excluded. For more information on excluding quoted or bibliographic material, see page 46 of the Instructor User Manual available at http://turnitin.com/static/pdf/InstructorManual.pdf.
8. Instructors can upload more students at one time
Instructors can now upload up to 100 students at one time. For classes with more than 100 students, multiple lists can be uploaded.
9. New options available in the Preferences tab
A class link, an option found under preferences, is now one of the options available to course instructors. By accessing this feature, instructors can develop a homepage link for a particular class.
To access the class link option:
- Click on the name of the class
- Click on the preferences tab
- At the bottom of the class preferences box, the instructor can type in the class link URL and the class link name.
- Click submit
In the class preferences box, instructors can also select the option to allow their students to submit discussion topics.
To access the discussion topic submission option:
- Click on the name of the class
- Click on the preferences tab
- In the general preferences box within the class preferences box, instructors can select to allow their students to submit discussion topics.
- Click submit
10. Assignment Library Feature
If instructors are interested in viewing past assignments and the accompanying originality reports, they can do so by clicking on the assignment library link. The assignment library link is located next to the create a new assignment link. Both options can be accessed by clicking on the name of the class. For additional information about the assignment library, please see pages 120 to 121 of the Instructor User Manual available at http://turnitin.com/static/pdf/InstructorManual.pdf.
Another feature of the assignment library is the ability to import assignments. By using this option, instructors can copy an assignment used in a previous class and use it for a subsequent class. For additional information on how to import assignments, please refer to pages 120 to 121 of the Instructor User Manual available at http://turnitin.com/static/pdf/InstructorManual.pdf.