FAQ for Turnitin
Account Setup
Q: Who is allowed to set up and use accounts at Turnitin.com?
A: Penn State faculty, Graduate Assistants, or staff who teach a bona fide Penn State course may create accounts at Turnitin.com. Requests for accounts relating to leginitmate Penn State purposes may be granted on a case by case basis.
Q: How do I create an account?
A: You will need the Penn State Turnitin ID and password. This password can be obtained by sending an email to turnitin@psu.edu. Once you obtain the Penn State Turnitin ID and password, log on to http://turnitin.psu.edu, select "instructor" level, click Next and follow the prompts. Complete directions are available on the Faculty information page.
Q: The account/class ID and password I have for creating an instructor's account at Turnitin.com don't work. All I get is an error message.
A: Be sure you are entering the ID and password correctly. The ID is a number. The password has lower case letters as well as numbers. If you are sure you entered the information correctly but are still getting an error message, try using a different browser. If you are still having problems, please contact us at turnitin@psu.edu. Only Penn State Access Account e-mail addresses will be accepted by this account.
Q: Is it possible to add my TA to one or more of my classes?
A: Yes, it is possible to add a TA to a class or classes by creating a master class. To create a master class, follow the steps for creating a class, but select "master class" instead of "standard class" from the pull down menu. Assignments can be added to the master class homepage and are then available to all of the sections of the master course. For more information about creating master classes is available at te Turnitin.com Help Center.
Q: How do I change my ID to match my Penn State WebAccess Account ID?
A: If you already have a Turnitin Account but you didn't use your Penn State WebAccess Account to create your Turnitin User ID, you will need to modify your User Profile so you can log in through http://turnitin.psu.edu.
Go to Turnitin.com and log in to your account using your existing User ID and password. Click the tab at the top of the screen labeled, user info.
In the very first text box labeled user name, change your current information to your Access Account email address. This needs to be the same User ID that you use to log in to Penn State's Web Access system.
Click the submit button at the end of the "user information /account settings" box.
You should now be able to log in to turnitin and access your existing classes and assignments by going to http://turnitin.psu.edu and entering your Access Account ID and password.
Student Enrollment Submissions
Q: How do I add my students to the class account I created?
A: You can give the class ID and enrollment password (NOT the Penn State Turnitin ID and password for creating an account) to your students and have them enroll themselves, or you can enroll individual students or groups of students by uploading a student list in MS Word, MS Excel, or plain text format.
Q: Can I enroll students myself?
Yes. Below are some options to enroll students individually or as a comma delimited list.
1. To add a single student to your class:
- From within a class, click the students tab.
- Click the add student tab, enter the student's email address and name, and click submit.
- The student will appear on your students list. If a student does not have a Turnitin user profile, the Turnitin system will generate a profile and email the information to the student.
2. To upload a student list to your class:
- From within a class, click the upload student list link.
- On the following page, click browse and navigate to the MS Word, MS Excel, or plain text document where you stored your student list. The names on the list must be in this format (one student per line): firstname, lastname, email address. For example: john, doe, jxd48@psu.edu
- Click Submit to upload the student list. Once you confirm that the names and email addresses contained in the text file are correct, the students will appear on your students list. If a student does not have a Turnitin user profile, the Turnitin system will generate a profile and email the information to the student.
- The date you enrolled the student will appear in a different color until the student logs in for the first time. If you want to resend the enrollment email to the student, you can do so by clicking the linked enrollment date.
Q: Is there a limit to the number of students that can be enrolled in a Turnitin class?
A: There is no limit to the number of students enrolled in a single class, however, Turnitin limits the number of students that can be uploaded at one time to 100 names. For classes with more than 100 students, multiple lists can be uploaded. There is also a limit of one instructor per class, regardless of class size.
If you would like to use Turnitin.com with a large enrollment course, you have two options:
- You can have each instructor/TA create an account for just the students they are responsible for and use the "master class" option to quickly add the same assignments to each account.
- To create a master class click the link on your my classes page to add a class."On the next screen, select to create a new master class from the drop down menu instead of a standard class.Complete the rest of the information and click the submit button.
- Additional information about creating and using Master Classes is available from the Turnitin.com Help Center.
- You can create one instructor account at Turnitin.com instead of through Turnitin.psu.edu for your entire class and share the ID and password with the other instructors/TAs. (For security reasons, DO NOT use your Penn State Access Account password for your Turnitin account or share your Penn State Access Account password with others.)
Here's what you do:
- Create a non-Penn State email account at someplace like Yahoo or Google. You will need to check this account periodically for communications from Turnitin.com.
- Use that email address as the account ID instead of your Penn State Access Account.
- Log in to http://turnitin.com and click the "New Users" link in the upper right corner of the screen -- create an instructor account using the NON-Penn State email address and the PENN STATE "join" ID and password from the Quick Start guide you received when you requested an account. Turnitin.com does allow the combination of non-Penn State email with the Penn State "join" ID and password.
- Share the non-Penn State email ID and the password you created for this new account with all of the TAs who will be working on the course.
- To access the account, you will always need to log in through http://turnitin.com, however, your students will still be able to access the class by logging in through http://turnitin.psu.edu.
Student Submissions
Q: How do I submit papers?
A: Papers can be submitted by either the instructor or the students, depending on the settings you choose when you create an assignment. Instructors can submit papers one at a time, or in batches. It is strongly suggested that instructors retain local electronic copies of all student papers uploaded to Turnitin in case the desired papers become inaccessible at some point through Turnitin. Having students submit copies of their papers to ANGEL dropboxes in addition to uploading them to Turnitin is a good way to obtain and store backup copies. To submit papers, log on to Turnitin.psu.edu, click on the name of the class you set up, then click the "Submit" icon for the assignment for which you want to submit papers.
Q: How can I select additional settings for the type of resources against which the papers will be checked?
A: When creating assignments, you can see additional choices for settings by clicking the "more options" link at the bottom of the "new assignment" screen. Using the available advanced options, you can select the type of comparative resources against which the papers will be checked as well as several other submission options. See the Turnitin.com Help Center for more information.
Q: How do students submit their own papers?
A: Students will need the class ID and enrollment password (NOT the Penn State Turnitin ID and password for creating an account) to create a Turnitin account and access the class space set up by the instructor. The class ID is assigned by Turnitin.com; the class password is set by the instructor. Once a student has set up an account, she will have access to the class space and can submit papers. For more details, please read the Student Quick Start Guide, which is available at http://www.turnitin.com/static/new_tii_training.html.
Q: Do students have the choice of attaching a document or cutting and pasting text?
A: Yes. Students can select the file upload option or the cut and paste option.
Q: What kinds of assigment files can Turnitin review?
A: Turnitin checks MS Word, WordPerfect, PostScript, PDF, HTML, RTF, and plain text documents. Turnitin.com does not check files in graphic formats such as TIFF, EPS, PSD, JPEG, PICT, etc.
Q: Can students submit multiple drafts of an assignment without having the drafts compared against their previous submission(s)?
A: If your students have already submitted their papers to an assignment and you want to let them submit another draft, you can create a revision assignment. When a student submits a paper to a revision assignment, the submission is not compared against the student's previous submissions.For additional information on revision assignments, see pages 19 to 20 of the Instructor User Manual available at http://www.turnitin.com/static/new_tii_training.html.
To create a revision assignment:
From within a class, click the create a new assignment link. On the assignment creation page, choose revision assignment from the create a new pulldown menu at the top of the assignment form. Choose a paper assignment using the based on paper assignment pulldown menu on the revision form. The revision will be added to the assignment you have selected. Click the submit button to add the revision to your class homepage.
Q: How do I view the items submitted to a class?
A: To access the assignment inbox, from within a class, click the name of the assignment for which you want to view Originality Reports or papers. To view the Originality Reports, click the colored icons in the "report" column. To download a paper, click the paper icons in the "file" column. To view the paper without downloading, click the title of the paper.
Q: How do I view all of one student's submissions?
A: To view all submissions by a student in your class, click the students tab to open your students page. Click on the name of the student to open a portfolio containing all of his or her submissions to your class.
Q: If the copied material indicated in the Originality Report is from an Internet source, is it possible to see the actual text of the document?
A: Yes. First, you would need to click on the color box indicating the percentage of copied material in the paper. While viewing the Originality Report, click on the link to the copied material and the text from the original source will be displayed.
Q: I forgot my class id number and enrollment password. How can I access this information?
A: Log in to http://turnitin.psu.edu and view your list of courses. The class id is the number listed before the course title.
To view the enrollment password, click the edit link (gear icon) after class name to view your class enrollment password. You can change your enrollment password by updating a class or section. To update a section password, click the edit icon for the appropriate section of the master course.
Q: Can we submit papers to Turnitin in from ANGEL?
A: The Turnitin plugin for ANGEL is not activated at Penn State. Instructors can download the contents of an ANGEL Dropbox and upload the files to Turnitin.
Evaluating Originality Reports
Q: How do I know if a student is cheating or not?
A: After papers are submitted, the Turnitin system creates an Originality Report for each file. The Originality Report only indicates if there is copied text. The instructor must still evaluate each assignment submission to determine whether the copied material has been cited correctly or not.
Q: How does an instructor give students access to their Originality Reports?
A: This can be done by editing the settinga for a particular class to allow students to view Originality Reports. See details at http://www.turnitin.com/static/helpCenter/ability_to_view_ORs.php
Q: What kinds of Internet files are searched by Turnitin.com?
A: Turnitin.com searches MS Word, HTML, WordPerfect, RTF, PDF, plain text, and PostScript.
Q: How is plagiarism defined at Penn State?
A: Plagiarism is the act of stating or implying that another person's work is your own. For more information see http://tlt.its.psu.edu/plagiarism/facguide and http://its.psu.edu/turnitin/Faculty.html. Instructors should consider how they will determine whether an apparent instance of plagiarism is accidental or intentional, what percentage of plagiarism (either accidental or intentional) will be tolerated, and what the consequences will be. These criteria may vary from course to course and assignment to assignment.
Additional Questions
Q: Are the Grademark, eRater and PeerMark tools available? Can they be activated?
The only tool currently available through the Penn State license is the "Originality Report." It is possible to access these tools through an individual license, but the instructor would be responsible for the cost of the license. In addition, instructors with individual licenses would not be able to compare submissions with those from other Penn State students.
Q: Where else can I go for information?
Additional Support resources and contacts are listed on the Turnitin Faculty information page.
