Canvas and Turnitin

[dhulsey]

• Introduction
• What is "Feedback Studio"?
• Does Feedback Studio alter any functionality?
• As a local Canvas Administrator, how do I configure the Turnitin LTI?
• Can my institution enable both the API version and the LTI version as we transition to the LTI?
• What happens to API enabled assignments when the API version gets shut off?
• Do teachers and students have to sign up for an account at Turnitin.com?
• Does the LTI version of Turnitin have feature X?
• How does an instructor set up an assignment using the LTI tool?
• When creating an assignment, should I load Turnitin in a new tab?
• How do students submit to a Turnitin LTI assignment?
• How do students complete peer reviews?
• I want to set up an assignment sequence of rough draft, peer review, and final draft.
• How does the grading work?
• How do students receive their feedback?
• How can I tell if my students have viewed their feedback?
• Will Turnitin send a grade from Turnitin to the Canvas Gradebook?
• Can I use the Turnitin iPad app to grade?
• Where can I see the originality report for a paper?
• What happens when I copy a course in Canvas?
• How can I use Turnitin with an essay question on a Canvas Quiz to get an originality report?
• I want to check discussion posts for originality.
• I want to use the Turnitin LTI but need a Canvas rubric for grading / assessment
• Can Students submit to Turnitin LTI assignments from the Canvas mobile apps?
• Are there any complications with the Turnitin LTI tool?
• I have a question that is not answered here.
• I do not like something about the Turnitin LTI. Who should I make aware of my displeasure?

Introduction

Turnitin is well known for plagiarism and integrates with Canvas when an institution purchases a Trurnitin subscription. Many instructors rely on Turnitin.com services for plagiarism education, prevention, and detection. Turnitin is also a valuable tool for grading and peer reviews. Turnitin currently integrates with Canvas in two different ways, but Turnitin is phasing out the older method.

The oldest Turnitin integration with canvas is known as the API integration. Currently, Turnitin is phasing out this older integration, but still offers support to schools who are not having a good experience with the LTI.  

The newer method of using Turnitin is the LTI tool. Turnitin’s page for the LTI tool includes the official Admin, Instructor, and Student Guides

Tutorials from Instructure for using the Turnitin LTI can be found here: , How do I create a Turnitin assignment?, and How do I manage Turnitin assignments?

Canvas has also developed a more robust framework for plagiarism detection services: Spring Cleaning Is Coming: Plagiarism-Detection Improvements Headed Your Way! Turnitin has announced that they will be continuing the LTI plugin while also developing a new plugin using the framework canvas is developing. The target release for the new plugin is Fall 2017. This new plugin promises Turnitin assignment creation within Canvas's interface for those who wish to use Canvas for most operations but would like an originality report from Turnitin. Users who wish to grade in Turnitin or use Peermark will wish to use the LTI version. However, Turnitin says institutions will be able to run both the LTI and the new plugin simultaneously. 

What is "Feedback Studio"?

Feedback studio is the name for an interface overhaul for Turnitin that took place in mid 2016. You can see an interactive tour and demonstration of the interface (Note the ability to use bold, underline, italics and hotlinked text in Grademark comments).  The materials in this blog now refer to feedback Studio, but only Grademark and originality reports have been incorporated into Feedback Studio. Peermark and its interface has not changed at this time.

Does Feedback Studio alter any functionality?

Yes, but the changes only affect the grading functionality of Turnitin.  As of May 23, 2016, the ability to view the complete list of Grademark comments is missing. For students, the implementation of rubrics in Feedback Studio is clunky as I discuss in this video:

Thankfully, Turnitin is listening and refining Feedback Studio. As of early 2017, the ability to search for quick marks while grading has been restored.

As a local Canvas Administrator, how do I configure the Turnitin LTI?

There are multiple sets of instructions with varying levels of detail for local canvas Administrators on the Turnitin website. Here is the best set of instructions, and here is the current configuration of the Turnitin LTI at the account level for my school:

1. Name the configuration.

2. The consumer key is provided to your account by Turnitin.

3. The launch url is provided by Turnitin and is the same for all institutions. The launch url for Turnitin UK Users is https://submit.ac.uk/api/lti/1p0/assignment.

4. Completing the domain field with "turnitin.com" ("turnitin.uk.com" for UK users) enables Turnitin to launch from the Canvas speedgrader report icons.

5. Setting the privacy to public allows Canvas to share student names and emails with Turnitin.

6. Turnitin documentation states that the Custom Fields may be left blank. However, adding the code developed by canvas engineers adds several convenient features that sync information between canvas and Turnitin so that instructors do not need to enter information in both Canvas and Turnitin, including due dates, assignment id's, assignment titles, points possible, and availability dates. The graphic depicts all of the available codes.

Here is a short video demonstrating the syncing features added by the custom code.

Can my institution enable both the API version and the LTI version as we transition to the LTI?

Turnitin has offered varying answers on this question. The latest answer is yes. In an email sent to local Turnitin instructors on 4-11-2016, Turnitin states, "For those who are wondering, it is possible to run the legacy Canvas integration and Canvas LTI integration in parallel during the transition period."

What happens to API enabled assignments when the API version gets shut off?

In an email sent to local Turnitin instructors on 4-11-2016, Turnitin states, "When the previous Canvas integration becomes unavailable, classes and assignments originally created through the previous integration will remain accessible by logging into Turnitin directly. These older classes and assignments will not be visible in the LTI integration."  Although, I believe this access is limited to Turnitin administrators.

On the Canvas side, The API enabled assignments stay in Canvas and all Canvas functionality remains intact when the Turnitin API gets turned off. Submissions and grading in Canvas persists in Canvas once you turn off the API; only the link to Turnitin is lost, which means losing direct access to originality reports and any grading done in Turnitin. Although, with the API turned off and LTI turned on, you can currently see the icons and percent in the speedgrader for past assignments. If you try to click on the icon, you get this error message:

The text "Turnitin has been enabled for this assignment" persists in Canvas assignments when the API has been turned off but the LTI tool has not been turned on for that assignment even if the course is copied for a new term Of course, there is no way of knowing if this will change once Turnitin phases out the API altogether.

An instructor who wants to preserve grading in Turnitin from the API version for personal access, must save the grading as a .pdf one paper at a time before the API gets turned off. Originality reports can be saved one at a time, or reports can be reproduced by resubmitting the file to Turnitin and disregarding the first submission when interpreting the originality report.

When we turned on the LTI, I converted my existing assignments to use the LTI without issue.

Do teachers and students have to sign up for an account at Turnitin.com?

No one absolutely needs to create a separate Turnitin account. The tool uses the email address in the user's Canvas profile as an identifier, and log in from Canvas is seamless even for first time users. However, the instructor cannot use the Canvas test student for testing the LTI tool because the test student does not include a profile and email address. When I started using the LTI, I had a previous Turnitin account under the same email my Canvas profile uses, so the tool recognized me and put all submissions into my preexisting account.

If an instructor accessed Turnitin for the first time in the LTI and then later had a desire or need to access information in the web interface at Turnitin.com, the instructor can go through the forgotten password process at Turitin.com to set up a password and then can begin to use the webinterface. It is probably advisable for an instructor to have access to the Turnitin.com interface for using the iPad app, submitting for students at Turnitin.com, managing rubrics and saved grading comments, etc.

Does the LTI version of Turnitin have feature X?

Yes! All of the major Turnitin features are present in the LTI version, including originality reports and grading (with reusable comments, rubrics, etc.) through Feedback Studio, e-rater (automated comments), grade anything (PowerPoint Excel, etc.),  peer review (in Peermark), ios app, and cloud submit.

How does an instructor set up an assignment using the LTI tool?

Instructors add Turnitin as an external app to an assignment. This video demonstrates the process (assuming you have enabled the custom codes in your LTI configuration for Turnitin:

When creating an assignment, should I load Turnitin in a new tab?

I prefer to use a new tab, but there are pros and cons to both approaches. Probably the most important thing is to be consistent on your campus to avoid confusing students. Here is a video showing what each option looks like:

Update:  As of June 30, 2016, Instructors must no longer launch a Turnitin assignment to initiate the assignment in Turnitin. The Turnitin release notes state, "Students can now launch into an assignment and trigger its creation; this relieves instructors from being forced to have first interaction with the assignment before students are able to submit." However, the instructor must set an available from date and a due date in Canvas to allow students to initialize an assignment.

How do students submit to a Turnitin LTI assignment?

Go here for a .pdf tutorial on uploading a word processing file to a Turnitin assignment.

How do students complete peer reviews?

Here is a .pdf tutorial on using PeerMark.

I want to set up an assignment sequence of rough draft, peer review, and final draft.

You will need two assignments in Canvas / Turnitin. The first assignment will be for students to submit drafts and critique each other with Peermark. The second assignment will be for the submission of the final draft. This video tutorial demonstrates setting up an assignment and adding a Peer review component with Peermark. Note that only the grade on the paper in Grademark gets passed back to the canvas gradebook, so if you want to grade Peer reviews, you can add reviews into the paper grade (what I do), or you can set up an assignment with no submission and manually enter grades for the peer reviews:

How does the grading work?

An instructor can choose to grade using Turnitin's Grademark or Canvas's Speedgrader.

I do all of my grading in Turnitin's Grademark. I use the Quickmarks (saved comments I can reuse) with a rubric and enter the grade in Turnitin. The grade gets passed to the Gradebook in Canvas. It actually works quite a bit like the Canvas Speedgrader, and you can advance from student to student as well as quickly flip through all of a student's submissions for the term. I prefer Turnitin's Grademark because I can save and reuse remarks (with clickable url's!). Turnitin also can layer the originality report and Grademark, so the instructor can see the originality report while grading. Unlike the older API plugin, Quickmarks, rubrics, and PeerMark libraries persist across Canvas courses, so there is no need for importing or exporting Turnitin assets after the initial use.

As of the August 29, 2015 update, the student submits the paper to Turnitin, and Turnitin sends a copy of the paper to Canvas. The copy of the paper in Canvas may be graded in the Speedgrader, but if you wish to use a Canvas rubric, you must add the rubric to the assignment before configuring the assignment submission as an external tool.

How do students receive their feedback?

Here is a tutorial for receiving instructor feedback through Grademark. If the instructor chooses to grade in the Canvas speedgrader, then the process is the same as it is for any other Canvas assignment except that the student can also click on the Turnitin icon to view her originality report.

How can I tell if my students have viewed their feedback?

If you use Grademark for grading, you can access the Turnitin inbox through the link on your Canvas assignment:

In the image above of a Turnitin assignment inbox, the eye icon indicates a student who has viewed feedback. The dots are students who have not seen the feedback.

Will Turnitin send a grade from Turnitin to the Canvas Gradebook?

Yes! Grades entered in Turnitin automatically get posted to the Canvas grade book. However, this is a one way link. Grades posted in Canvas do not show up in Turnitin.  

Can I use the Turnitin iPad app to grade?

I use it all of the time! In fact, the iPad Turnitin app does something nothing else does right now: you can download papers to the iPad and grade them without an Internet connection, using a rubric and Quickmarks (saved and reusable comments). Then, when you hit wifi again, the papers sync back to Turnitin (and therefore to Canvas).

Where can I see the originality report for a paper?

Icons for the originality report show up in the Canvas speedgrader and gradebook.  The full report can be seen by clicking on the icon in the speedgrader or accessing the LTI tool from the Canvas assignment or through the Turnitin iPad app.

What happens when I copy a course in Canvas?

The assignment, settings, instructions, and dates persist in Canvas when an instructor copies a course for a new term.The LTI assignment must be visited (if you load TII inside of Canvas or the LTI tool must be launched (if you load in a new tab) to reestablish the assignment and settings on the Turnitin side. Now, a student can access the assignment from Canvas to initialize the assignment in Turnitin; However, the instructor must set an available from date and a due date in Canvas to allow students to initialize an assignment.

How can I use Turnitin with an essay question on a Canvas Quiz to get an originality report?

There are two options.

The first option is to use a file upload question in the quiz. This allows students to upload a file in response to the question, and the instructor can bulk download the files from the quiz as documented in How do I create a File Upload quiz question?.  Once the students' files are downloaded in a zip file, the instructor could upload the zip file to the Submitting via quick submit https://guides.turnitin.com/01_Manuals_and_Guides/Instructor/Instructor_User_Manual/37_Quick_Submit on Turnitin's website. This is one good reason for instructors to set up accounts through Turnitin's interface and enable the quick submit in their settings.

The second option is to use essay questions in the quiz. After the students complete the quiz, the instructor can generate an item analysis. Download the item analysis and open it. Next, locate the column with the essay responses you wish to scan, and it helps here if you can search for a key word to locate the column. I always include the word "essay" in my essay questions, which lets me locate the columns I need quickly. Next, copy the column and submit it to Turnitin via cut and paste with Submitting via quick submit 

Here is a video that demonstrates using quick submit:

I want to check discussion posts for originality.

A feature request for using Turnitin on Canvas discussions is under review: . In the meantime, you can navigate to a discussion, select the entire page (ctrl A on Windows; Command A on Mac). Next, use Submitting via quick submit  on Turnitin's website and paste in the text. Some text you may not want will be included like the discussion prompts and your discussion replies to students, but if you can live with that, you can batch scan the posts, and what you copy even includes each student's name, so you know who wrote each post:

I want to use the Turnitin LTI but need a Canvas rubric for grading / assessment

Create your assignment as a Canvas assignment without linking it to Turnitin. Save the assignment. Add your rubric to the assignment, and edit the assignment to enable Turnitin. I

Can Students submit to Turnitin LTI assignments from the Canvas mobile apps?

Not at this time. As per Canvas iOS app and External Apps(LTI), Turnitin needs to make its LTI tool fully compatible for a mobile environment. However, it is possible for students to submit essays by using the browser on their mobile device. Additionally, Turnitin's iPad app supports student use for submitting papers  and viewing feedback. For students to gain access to the iPad app, they should go through the password recovery process after accessing Turnitin at least once through the canvas integration.

Are there any complications with the Turnitin LTI tool?

There is some loss of Canvas functionality that may affect some instructors:

• Turnitin assignments will only accept one file per assignment.
• Using differentiated due dates as documented inHow do I assign an Assignment to an individual student or course section? breaks date syncing with Turnitin because Turnitin can only handle one set of dates per assignment. As a workaround, an instructor could set a date in Turnitin that corresponds with the last date in Canvas, allowing all groups to submit to the same assignment, but this only works if your school is not using the custom codes to automatically sync due dates with Turnitin.  Alternatively, an instructor could set up multiple assignments, releasing each assignment only to one subset of students.
• If an instructor wishes to alter a Canvas rubric on a Turnitin assignment, she must Turn off the LTI to alter the rubric and then reinstate the LTI when done editing the rubric. Warning: disabling the LTI after students have submitted will severe the connection between Canvas and the LTI; you should only do this if students have not submitted.
• It is not possible to use the Turnitin LTI (or any other external tool submission) with a Canvas group assignment; the option to assign to a group disappears as soon as "External Tool" is selected as the submission type.

I have a question that is not answered here.

You can comment on this blog, and I am happy to help, but I do not work for Instructure or Turnitin and have no inside information. I am an English Professor, and I use the Turnitin LTI tool in Canvas daily. 

I do not like something about the Turnitin LTI. Who should I make aware of my displeasure?

Most issues are going to be with Turnitin. File bug reports and give feedback at Turnitin - Support Wizard.  You can also contact your local Canvas admin to pass feedback to the Turnitin rep for your institution. I encourage you to do this. Let Turnitin know that Canvas users want and deserve their attention. Turnitin is a great product, but it is also an expensive one. Get the most for your money by getting your feedback to the right folks.

However, it is also true that Canvas and Turnitin are working together, and Instructure Employees have initiated discussions on the following known issues:

Turnitin + Canvas: submissions appearing on the wrong assignment

Turnitin + Canvas issue: "Resubmit to Turnitin" button occasionally results in submission getting st...

Turnitin + Canvas: Allow teachers to resubmit on behalf of students

Canvas + Turnitin: Retreive TII originality score again after due date has passed

Questions? If so, please don’t be shy!

Does Feedback Studio alter any functionality?

[RobDitto]

erinhallmark​, did anything happen with the ticket you opened about this aspect of the External Tool URL entry blank?

However, in testing this out some more I did figure out that you can't paste a URL without the tool already being configured for the course, so I submitted a ticket to see if our engineers can address that behavior.

[dhulsey]

I believe a lot of undetected plagiarism occurs during informal assignments like discussion posts. With some elbow grease, you can do some copying and pasting to check discussion posts, but wouldn't it be nice to have a more convenient way to check discussions? If you have not already done so, please consider voting for ​, and if you are going to Instructurecon, Turnitin reps will be on hand, so you might also consider mentioning to them how nice it would be to screen discussion posts for plagiarism.

[jfahs]

Thanks, Dallas. I will be providing such feedback to our CSM and will initiate a feature request (to Instructure) unless you would like to do so?

Joe

[dhulsey]

Go ahead, Joe! I will be happy to vote for the request.

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Rob,

My submitted ticket was treated as intended behavior, meaning if an external tool should be used in a course, it should probably already be configured. But if it's still doing that after copying a course where the tool is already configured, that may be something to mention to Canvas support.

Thanks,

Erin

[RobDitto]

Me too,  @jfahs ​!​

And thanks to erinhallmark​ for her answer above. Based on that, it sounds like the current design of the entry blank and Find button is considered to be working as intended for setting up new assignments. Thus, I'm happy to contribute to a feature idea about making new Turnitin LTI assignments easier to create.

[vrs07nl]

I have just set up Feedback Studio in our test site... seems to work ok- i like it a lot - except for fact not possible to see all comments in a list as can in standard Turnitin view.

I had a webcon with the developer last Friday to demo the usefulness of being able to see ALL comments so can edit, link to rubric etc and better tailor feedback for students and quality of feedback given. He has now said he said would look at creating a collapsible frame for comments like crocodoc and asked me to test when ready...

[jfahs]

Hi Dallas,

I met with members of our Canvas CSM team yesterday to discuss limitations in setting up Turnitin’s LTI tool in an Assignment.  Based on their feedback and user expectations I will write a draft feature request to enhance the external tools UX and post it here for review.

Joe

[dhulsey]

That sounds great, Joe. Thanks!

[jfahs]

Dallas and all,

Would you review this feature request draft? Let me know what you think!

FEATURE REQUEST DRAFT - ENHANCE EXTERNAL TOOLS SEARCH AND FIND

CURRENT INTERFACE

REQUEST 1: External Tools search is obvious, simple, and efficient

REQUEST 2: Find External Tools brings up single, scrollable list of all tools.

[RobDitto]

 @jfahs , your screenshot-powered explanation of these two needs is wonderfully presented.  Can't wait to vote/promote!  I do think the admin ordering of external tools would need to be its own idea.

[Chris_Hofer]

A few thoughts,  @jfahs ​...

1. In your "Current Interface" example, I'm not sure why it is necessary for users to copy/paste the full api.turnitin.com URL (your orange text) into that text box.  As long as the Turnitin LTI is set up properly, when you use the "Find" button to select Turnitin from your list, it should fill in that URL automatically.  (Maybe I'm missing something in your explanation?)  For our Turnitin LTI instance, I never direct our instructors to manually enter a URL in this field.
2. I wonder if the window size of the available LTI tools could be increased via CSS?  I ask this because I know that we have added some CSS code to our global CSS file to increase the size of the window that opens up when adding content (Pages, Discussions, Quizzes, Assignments, etc.) to modules.  The window size wasn't large enough to see long names of content to be added to modules, so we added some custom code to make the text more visible.  Maybe something similar could be added in the global CSS to increase that window size for LTIs.
3. The ability to type the name of the tool and have it appear as part of your search is an interesting idea.  This would be nice...assuming that your instructors are aware of which LTIs they can use vs. which ones have not been set up and/or purchased by your school.  If someone started typing "Turnitin" into the search box couldn't find it, he/she may not know that the school doesn't have that integration set up yet.
4. I personally would not want to select an order for the tools that we made available to our instructors.  I think an alphabetical list (the way it is currently set up) works well.  It keeps things organized and LTIs are easy to find...at least for me.

[gncrum]

Another Turnitin LTI Troubleshooting Data Point: Student's being prompted to Login to Turnitin

An instructor came into my office this morning saying a few students in her class upstairs could not submit their to Turnitin assignments; when clicking on the Assignment, they were immediately prompted to login to Turnitin. Because these issues are nearly impossible to reproduce after the fact, I jumped at the chance to see this behavior live and in person.

There were three students seeing the issue. They were all using Mac and Safari. I was able to verify one user was on Yosemite 10.10.5.  I'm and not sure about the others. I was able to resolve the issue by having them Download and use  Google Chrome instead. When clicking on the assignment they were now able see the Turnitin Inbox. For the one user on Yosemite, I had him first clear his safari cache from the last hour, but this still did not resolve this issue.

So, I don't know there issue was some left over "funk" in their browsers or Turnitin  just works better on Google Chrome on Macs, but I thought I would pass this along as a verified case where "Using a Different Browser" actually worked to resolve one these random Turnitin LTI issues that is driving me utterly insane!   Anybody else see similar behavior?

Thanks!

Greg

[brendaa]

We have had several reports of this behavior, but it was all after the fact, so we weren't able to see what OS & Browser they were using. We had thought it might be a time out issue with students being logged out of Canvas and SSO but not realizing it, and then Turnitin did not recognize their credentials when they tried submitting there. If we get any more we will check out the browser and recommend Chrome (even more strongly than we already do!).

Brenda Adrian

Associate Director, Instructional Technology

St. Edward's University

brendaa@stedwards.edu

512-448-8729

[dhulsey]

This is a detailed and clear proposal, Joe. I agree with Rob about the separate proposal for the ordering of tools. However, it is also true that instructors can add LTI tools on the course level. I have a pretty long list of LTI tools in my classes, and I guess I am wondering what would happen to my course level tools when an admin adjusted the list of institutional tools.

[morris_admin]

This login issue is happening for us too and I've also noticed it as more of a Mac/Safari issue. I'll put in a ticket to TII and hope for a fix. Thanks for sharing so that I know it is happening beyond our account!

[jared_flaherty]

Anybody having issues with the LTI right now?      Everything is working as it should except that Originality Reports don't generate for us right now.    

[lindalee]

jjmorris​,  @gncrum ​, and  @brendaa ​: We also had students who were prompted to log into Turnitin.com. As a short-term fix, we recommended switching browsers. For a long-term fix, clearing browser cache or turnitin.com cookies often did the trick. For Mac/Safari users, often they had to change cookies settings to "always allow" to get this to behave properly.

[dhulsey]

High traffic times in the past have sometimes resulted in a wait for originality reports because the Turnitin servers are slammed with end-of-term papers. My reports for this morning seemed to take a little while to show up, but it was not a huge delay. Although, my sample size is pretty small so far this morning, but I will keep an eye on it.

[lindalee]

jjmorris​ and  @brendaa ​: We recommend loading Turnitin LTI into a new browser window, primarily because it makes it easier for students to find the Accept Submission-Save button -- especially on smaller displays.

[jared_flaherty]

They finally did generate for us...  no sure how long it took, but 2 of them definitely took over 24 hours...   it was somewhere between 24-48 hours.

[dhulsey]

Wow. That is a long time. I haven't seen delays like that since we switched to the LTI. With the API, delays like that were common though. That might be worth a bug report with TII If it continues.

[jfahs]

Hi Chris,

Thank you for your feedback. I wasn't clear:  the orange text refers to a separate process from Find. IF an instructor has the full TII URL api.turnitin.com/... then it can be pasted in the text box followed by Enter/Return to instantly create the TII assignment. That is why searching by name would be a substantial improvement. Instructors could still browse LTI's by clicking the Find button if they do not know the LTI name.

Yes, I think that CSS code would be helpful in resizing windows and hopefully Canvas can address that within the interface so there is no need for customization.

I will remove the reordering option from the feature request.

Joe

[jfahs]

Thanks, Dallas for your feedback.

The feature idea is at:

Joe

[jfahs]

Thanks again, Chris.

The feature idea is here:

Joe

[jfahs]

Thanks Rob!

I submitted a feature idea:

Joe

[lindalee]

We're in the process of testing Turnitin LTI for school-wide use, and I've run into some unexpected snags with resubmissions. I'm wondering if anyone has seen this, and whether this is the expected behavior. (Deactivated user​ -- any suggestions here would be most welcome!) If a Turnitin LTI assignment is set to allow resubmissions (and thus, more closely resembling the typical behavior of Canvas assignments), and a student resubmits an assignment, there seem to be problems/delays both in generating and displaying the compatibility report scores/links within SpeedGrader.

For resubmissions, there's an expected 24-hour delay in generating a new compatibility report. The percentage results of the first compatibility report remain visible in SpeedGrader (if the previous submission is selected within SpeedGrader), though the first originality report stops being available. After a new originality report is generated (24 hours after resubmission), the link in the first submission will take you to the updated originality report for the new submission. (This is problematic because the originality report displayed now is for a different submission.)

Additionally, another unexpected problem is what is available in SpeedGrader for the new submission. Initially, there is a "clock" icon indicating that the Turnitin Similarity Score - submission pending. Eventually -- but long before the new originality report is generated 24 hours later -- this is replaced with an error message (exclamation icon) indicating that "Turnitin has not returned a score after 11 attempts to retrieve one." Users are then presented with an option to "resubmit to Turnitin" from within SpeedGrader. Selecting "resubmit to Turnitin" does not seem to do anything. The "submission pending" message remains even days later.

I know that one workaround is for faculty to access the compatibility reports by going to the Turnitin LTI assignment dashboard and launching Feedback Studio/Turnitin Classic. However, for faculty who are doing the majority of their grading using SpeedGrader, this could be problematic.

Any advice or suggestions would be appreciated! Thanks!

[dhulsey]

I see the problem for sure, Linda. The only thing I can think of takes a bit of elbow grease and planning and will not be a perfect solution.

First,  I would disallow resubmissions in the Turnitin LTI tool and operate on a one submission per assignment philosophy. (Easy for me to say because it is what I have always done 😞

When students need to resubmit, I would create a new assignment.

If all students are submitting and resubmitting as part of a rough and final draft sequence, I would set the rough draft to not store the submitted papers. That way, the final draft submissions will not get flagged as matching the rough drafts.

If not everyone needs to resubmit, I would create a new assignment and use selective release in Canvas to release the assignment only to students who need to resubmit. If only one grade occurs, I would use "EX" in the grade book on the original assignment for students who resubmit. The downside here is that the instructor will have to open the originality report and manually exclude the student's first submission to get an accurate originality report. I have not tested this, so I don't know what excluding sources does to the icons in Turnitin; I am not sure if they would update.

While this takes some work, it preserves an originality report for every submission and avoids delays in generating reports for resubmissions. That isn't perfect, but maybe it helps?

[lindalee]

 @dhulsey ​: Thanks so much for offering these suggestions! And this process is what I'd use for my own class.

However, we're trying to determine how best to set up assignments for faculty (and recommendations for faculty setting up their own assignments) who are accustomed to using Turnitin API or regular Canvas assignments. Ideally, the settings will mimic existing functionality as closely as possible, so that most faculty don't need to remember which kinds of assignments behave in which way. We have a couple departments that use Turnitin a lot, and many faculty who do not set up their own assignments -- so a solution that requires a lot of elbow grease isn't ideal.

Deactivated user​: Do you know if this is the expected behavior, of if is this a bug that we should report?

[stevenwilliams]

 @lindalee ​, I just wanted to thank you for so thoroughly outlining your challenges with the LTI tool. These are the kinds of issues that are keeping my university on the Legacy plug-in for as long as possible; as you stated, the workarounds that Dallas described may be acceptable to some users on an individual basis, but are completely unsustainable from the perspective of individuals like me who are responsible for administering and training thousands of faculty on a large campus.

[dhulsey]

Happy Monday! I just updated the blog for Feedback Studio. I added some new tutorials, new videos, and new Turnitin strategies.

Having played with Feedback Studio for a few days, I think it looks pretty good. However, I am sad to say that the ability to search Quickmarks is missing from feedback Studio. I am hoping this is simply a bug, but I filed a feature request on Turnitin's Roadmap site to restore search capacity. Feel free to vote for it.

Also, here is a video with some thoughts about changes I hope to see in Feedback Studio:

I hope you find the updates to the blog helpful. Have a good day!

[Stef_retired]

Voted! (I used 3 of my 10--I'm holding fire in case you submit or recommend others,  @dhulsey ​). Here's the link: https://turnitin.uservoice.com/forums/219534-welcome-to-turnitin-s-uservoice/suggestions/13940805-se...

[lindalee]

There are several Canvas feature ideas related to the new Turnitin LTI integration that folks following this discussion might be interested in knowing about and voting on. Several recent feature ideas got Panda-Catted due to insufficient community support (for example: ; , and ). I'm hoping that you'll consider voting or commenting on some of these ideas that are currently accepting votes, or will be up for voting soon:

• (Currently under consideration; votes still accepted)
• ​ (Gathering additional info; votes still accepted)
• ​ (open for voting June 1-Sept 7, a resubmission of " modifiedtitle="true" title="Support Group Assignments with External Tools (LTI) Assignment Types)
• ​ (open for voting June 1- Sept 7)
• ​ (open for voting July 6-Oct 5, a resubmission of )
• ​ (currently *awaiting response*, hopefully will be open for voting July 6)

Thanks in advance for considering!

[vrs07nl]

So another submission deadline today and two new issues

a) two students who successfully submitted to to Turnitin via ii LTI but whose work not showing in - one who is late so i will have to resort to workaround ( submitting to a new canvas only submission point to avoid 100% Tii match). THe other who was able to resubmit before due date ok but whose Tii score is not showing - see b)!

b) Our set up this time was multiple attempts before due date but OR only after due date - as aresult

• Tii submission point showing submissions and Originality Report %s
• Grades NOT showing any % colours- all grey for @ 80% of submissions
• Speedgrader not showing Originality Report %s for that @80% got error message saying Tii unable to send % after 11 attempts.
• THe promt was to resubmit so did so now all ok except for two students (one who did the resubmission in time and another who submitted late)  - unalbe to resubmit hours after actual submission - message is saying submission still being processed

I have raised a ticket #01384852

[lindalee]

Hi vrs07nl​,

I'm sorry to hear that you are continuing to have problems. We've seen that error message, too, when allowing resubmissions. A couple of questions/notes:

• When do you have Turnitin LTI set to generate the compatibility reports (immediately, or after due date)? In the case of resubmissions, Turnitin has a 24 hour delay for generating a new report, so that could account for some of what you are seeing.
• Regarding the gray Turnitin indicator you see in Gradebook -- I believe that's what it shows if the % score isn't showing yet in SpeedGrader. If you have it set to generate compatibility reports on the due date (rather than immediately), this might be consistent with not all reports being generated yet.
• In Canvas, you get that error message if Canvas can't access data from Turnitin, and I've seen it when papers have been resubmitted. Here's the response I got from Instructure for the ticket about this that we opened (case 01363790, in case that's helpful): "The "TurnItIn has not returned a score after 11 attempts" is an error we generate when we attempt to access the Data on the TurnItIn side but no data is returned; this can be due to a variety of factors." 

My impression is that the error message you see in Canvas is misleading -- it suggests that there's data to be retrieved, but in the case of the student who resubmitted, there may not yet be (if it's still within 24 hours).

Let us know what you learn.

[vrs07nl]

Thanks for the reply

it was set to generate reports after due date - about 80% did not- 24 hour rule should not apply!

will report back... will refer help support  to your ticket

[lindalee]

That's certainly frustrating. It sounds like Canvas currently isn't well-equipped to handle any kind of delay in the generation of compatibility reports -- whether that's due to the 24-delay for resubmissions, or to the reports being generated at the due date. In both cases, when Canvas looks for the compatibility report, it's not there.

This perhaps suggests a reason to avoid the setting to generate compatibility reports on the due date, and instead generate them immediately -- there might be problems for resubmissions, but hopefully a less serious problem.

I wonder if this is an artifact from the legacy API integration? Any ideas, Deactivated user​?

[vrs07nl]

We have tried two of the three settings for summative work. We have a dedicated practice area on another course with OR generation set to immeidately as multiple attempts allowed. We are reluctant to use that all in set up for summative owrk- partly becuiase canvas stores past attempts and markers can sometimes end up marking wrong submission via speedgrader

[vrs07nl]

Me again ... another separate issue

I have just noticed today that an instructor, TA or other staff  see the Feedback Studio when they view Turnitin % reports from any access point but students still see the classic view.

I have not turned Feedback Studio on in our live site so not sure why this has happened! For now i have advised markers to click return to classic view ( partly because i have not finalised my guides on using it and partly because it should not be appearing yet!). I will raise tickets but has anyone else noticed this?

Canvas Ticket nos is 01386110

[vrs07nl]

Hi Linda

I am still waiting to hear from  Canvas on two outstanding issues

a) why originality reports did not generate after due date as per set up for @80% of submissions regardless of whether one-offs or resubmissions

b) why resubmit to turnitin via speed grader not working for two students so no % showing there (one with resubmission within 10 mins of first and well before due date but whose OR % can be accessed via Tii submission point; other who resubmitted in time but after original submission deleted whose work appears in Canvas but NOT Tii submission area and where speedgrader view says submission pending)

I need a work around for the second student so marking and OR% checking can be done. What have you done?

I am thinking of either deleting the submission from Canvas and adding student to the extension already created for original assessment and resubmitting for the student; or deleting submission, excusing from original assessment  and creating new assessment just for him and submitting work there. Prefer first option as easier work around. But not sure either will provide the solution need for now ...

[dhulsey]

Sort of. I had some issue with which version (Classic or Feedback Studio) was displaying for students after we switched on Feedback Studio. I was told they (TII) were working on it. However, generally, switching back and forth between the two versions means you can't be sure which version will display the next time you load TII.

I haven't seen the other issues you describe, Nicola, but I am not using the settings you have and don't grade in Speedgrader for TIII submissions.

[themidiman]

Some of our instructors find it helpful to know that they can see the entire Turnitin UI and assignment history/usage by logging into Turnitin.com with the email address that is set to be their primary email address in their Canvas profile. Here's how (UK instructions may differ slightly):

1. Visit Turnitin.com at : http://turnitin.com/en_us/login
2. If you don't already have a password you will want to reset it here: Turnitin - Reset User Password​. The username will be the primary email address in the instructor's Canvas profile. The reset password link will be sent to that email address.
3. If the instructor is brand new to the institution and is accessing Canvas for the first time, an assignment created via the LTI API and visited at least once by the instructor must have occurred prior to attempting to access Turnitin.com outside of Canvas for the first time.

[kroeninm]

Thanks so much for putting together your thoughts on the new Feedback Studio  @dhulsey , I'm not familiar enough with Classic view to really note the differences but now I can highlight them to faculty that are starting to ask.

- Melanie

[lindalee]

Hi vrs07nl​,

Regarding possible workarounds: There are a few options, depending on whether the faculty member has to see both the preview (for grading purposes) and the similarity score in SpeedGrader. It sounds like your plan to add the student to the existing extension and resubmitting there is probably the simplest approach. As long as it's submitted to the same Turnitin assignment, it won't trigger a 100% match. However, it risks running into the same problem of originality report scores not appearing in Canvas for resubmissions. If you do need to create a separate assignment, you can either delete the student submission to the first assignment (to avoid triggering a 100% match) or show the instructor how to exclude that source from the originality report.

In cases where we've had to resubmit on behalf of students (via masquerade) after the deadline, we typically download the file from the Turnitin LTI assignment inbox, change the assignment due date within Turnitin (if possible), and resubmit with a comment indicating the student's original submission time, etc. if it will be marked late within Canvas. This approach is more complicated if Turnitin LTI uses a substitution variable to carry over the due date from Canvas to Turnitin.

Best of luck!

[dhulsey]

That is good advice, Jeffery!

Melanie, you are quite welcome. The change in Feedback Studio that bugs me the most is not being able to search and use Quickmarks across different sets of Quickmarks, but I am going to campaign until that functionality gets added back.

[anthonem]

We've run into circumstance when faculty want to check just a handful of student papers inside Turnitin after students have already uploaded to a Canvas assignment. Similar to JEFHQ12951's situation, we direct faculty to log directly into theTurnitin website for this (since you can no longer submit a single paper for a Turnitin check using Canvas Student View - dah!)

The process for setting up the direct Turnitin login and paper submission is pretty cubmersome, so we created a custom guide: Guide - Using Turnitin to Check Specific Student Papers.pdf: Canvas Help Center  -- hope this helps others!

[Chris_Hofer]

We have the LTI app set up (also using the new UI).  Is anyone seeing this kind of error from the student side when trying to submit a Turnitin submission?  I am using a dummy student account that has an e-mail address, and as far as I can tell, the availability dates (June 1 through June 30) of the assignment and the due date (June 24) I have set shouldn't be an issue.  The Feedback Release Date in the TII LTI is set to today (June 15) at 11:30 a.m.  I've used this same account in the past to submit dummy submissions without issue.  Not sure what has changed.  :smileyconfused:

[themidiman]

That is an awesome resource, Mark​

Thanks for sharing!

[RobDitto]

 @Chris_Hofer ​, that's the message I typically see when accessing a Turnitin LTI assignment as a non-enrolled administrator. Since you were logged in as that dummy student, I wonder if the enrollment for that student is concluded, or something similar.

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi  @RobDitto ​...

Hmmmm...  Well, the assignment is located in my sandbox course (no start/end dates in the course and no start/end dates on the term).  My sandbox course isn't concluded.  The dummy student account is enrolled in two courses as a student...nothing more.  I'm perplexed on this one, and I agree with you about typically seeing that kind of message as a non-enrolled administrator.  Seems like I'm doing everything right to set up a new TII assignment...like I've done in the past...and then testing it out with that dummy student account.  Any other thoughts?