Setting Up a Turnitin Assignment in Canvas

Turnitin, the university-supported plagiarism checker, provides Originality Reports for plagiarism checking and Feedback Studio for grading online assignments.

Turnitin is integrated with Canvas Assignments and should be accessed through Canvas. This integration is already set up system-wide in Canvas, so you don't need to integrate it into your courses separately.

There are now two ways to use Turnitin within Canvas. You can create and grade Turnitin assignments completely within Canvas, or use Turnitin's Feedback Studio tools for grading.

• If you prefer to use Canvas's Speedgrader, choose to set up your Turnitin assignment with the Plagiarism Framework. ^New!
• If you'd prefer to use Turnitin's Feedback Studio tools for grading, set up the assignment using the Turnitin LTI 1.3 instructions. ^New!
• If you are copying over an existing Turnitin Assignment and need to edit, see the instructions for Copying prior Turnitin Assignments.

Primary differences between the new Plagiarism Framework and Turnitin LTI 1.3

This article covers:

• Setting up and grading a Turnitin Assignment in Canvas using the Plagiarism Framework
• Setting up and grading a Turnitin Assignment in Canvas using Turnitin LTI 1.3
• Copying prior Turnitin Assignments
• Best Practices for Using Turnitin within Canvas
• Creating Draft Assignments
• Submitting a Paper Directly to Turnitin
• Student Instructions for Using Turnitin

Setting up a Turnitin Assignment using the Plagiarism Framework

To use Speedgrader to grade Turnitin submissions within Canvas you need to set up an assignment with the submission type Online and then enable the Plagiarism Framework within the assignment. If you use the Turnitin LTI 1.3 assignment set up, you will be unable to use the Speedgrader tools to grade submissions.

1. Go to "Assignments" and click "+Add" to create a new assignment. Add instructions, points, etc.
2. In the Submission type section, select "Online" from the menu.
3. Then, check the boxes for Text Entry or File Uploads (or both). A new set of options called Plagiarism Review will appear below Submission Attempts..
4. Select Turnitin from the Plagiarism Review dropdown menu. 
   
5. Set up the Turnitin-specific settings.
   1. Store papers in the Standard Paper Repository unless this is a Draft assignment.
   2. Select which repositories you want to compare the submissions against: Student repository, Website content and/or Periodicals, journals and publications.
   3. Choose to exclude the bibliography, quoted material and small sources as needed.
   4. Choose if you would like to Save these settings as default settings for future Turnitin assignments.
   5. Select when Originality Reports should be shown to students: Immediately, After the assignment is graded, After the due date or Never.
      
6. Choose if this is going to be a Group Assignment. If you choose to use Group Assignments, all group members will be able to see the Similarity Report, even if they did not submit the file themselves.
7. Add a due date.
   • Note: You must add a due date in Canvas for Turnitin assignments. By default, Turnitin will add a due date which will automatically be set as 12 months from the point of creation if none is present in Canvas.
8. Save and publish your assignment.
9. Add a Canvas Rubric if desired and it will be available for students and for grading in Speedgrader.

Note: You can use the Canvas Student View to test Plagiarism Framework Turnitin Assignments.

Grading a Turnitin Assignment using the Plagiarism Framework

Because the Plagiarism Framework is a part of a standard Canvas Assignment, you can use the Canvas Speedgrader to mark up, assign a grade and grade with a rubric just as you would with a standard Canvas assignment. To grade a Turnitin submission:

1. Go to the assignment and click on Speedgrader.
2. For each student submission you will be able to view the Similarity Report (and AI score) from Speedgrader.
   
   Note: Ignore the "Resubmit to Turnitin" button as that should only be used if a Similarity Report has not yet been generated. If you click on it, it will generate an error which can be ignored.
3. Click on the percent number to go to the full Similarity Report.
4. Use the Speedgrader tools and/or your Canvas rubric to grade the submission. Note: If you are using a rubric, click on the Details tab to find your rubric.

Setting up a Turnitin Assignment in Canvas using Turnitin LTI 1.3

The Turnitin LTI 1.3 integration is a direct link into the Turnitin environment and does not allow you to use Canvas' Speedgrader or rubrics to grade assignments. Instead, use Turnitin's grading tools and rubrics. Grades entered in the Turnitin tools do transfer to the Canvas Gradebook. By default, any current Turnitin assignments that are copied to a new class will become LTI 1.3 assignments. If you prefer to use Canvas Speedgrader to grade your assignments, use the instructions for the Plagiarism Framework to edit and set up your Turnitin assignment.

To set up an assignment using Turnitin LTI 1.3:

1. Go to the Assignments link in your Canvas menu.
2. Click on the Options button (3 vertical dots) in the upper right corner.
3. Select Turnitin from the menu.
   
4. The Turnitin application will open. Select Standard Assignment which will create an assignment to perform similarity and integrity checks on text-based works and allow you to enter personalized feedback using the Turnitin grading tools.
   
5. The Turnitin assignment Settings will open. Enter all assignment information here rather than in a Canvas assignment.
   
   1. Enter the name of your assignment.
   2. Enter instructions for the students.
   3. Enter the number of points for the assignment.
   4. Enter the Start Date which is the date students can begin submitting to the assignment. By default, this will be the date/time the assignment is created.
   5. Enter the Due Date & time.
   6. Click on Optional Settings to set up specific Turnitin settings.
      1. Select whether to store papers in the Standard paper repository or not store the papers. If this is a Draft assignment in which students will later resubmit the final versions, choose to not store the papers so that the final version is not compared against the draft version.
         
      2. Check the box to the left of "Allow late submissions" if you allow students to submit past the due date. Otherwise students cannot submit once the due date has passed.
      3. If you want to use a rubric for grading, you will need to create it in Turnitin. To do so, select the checkbox to "Attach a rubric". The Turnitin Rubric Manager displays and can be used to create a new rubric or select an existing Turnitin rubric (which can be reused once created). See Turnitin's instructions for creating a rubric.
         
      4. Choose when to generate Similarity reports, whether to allow students to see them, and options for excluding material from matches.
         
      5. Choose which sources to compare with student submissions.
         
         
          
   7. Click on Submit to save and make your assignment available to students (based on the Start Date entered in Step 4.
   8. Assignment Categories or Weighted Assignments: Note that when you add the assignment, it will automatically add it to the Assignments Group in Canvas. If you are weighting your grades and need to move your assignment to a different group, you can drag and drop the assignment to a different group.

Grading Turnitin LTI 1.3 Submissions

If you set up your assignment using the Turnitin application, you will also need to grade submissions using Turnitin's grading tools. The overall grade will sync with the Canvas Gradebook.

To start grading:

1. Go to the assignment in Assignments.
2. You will see the Turnitin Inbox with a list of all of your students along with their submissions.
   
3. Click on the Similarity score to access the Similarity Report and grading tools. See Turnitin's Grading documentation for instructions on using their tools.
4. When you enter the final grade in the Similarity Report, it will sync with the Canvas Gradebook.
   

Copying Prior Turnitin Assignments

If you copy Turnitin assignments created prior to December 18, 2025, you will need to convert them to either the Plagiarism Framework or the Turnitin LTI 1.3 application. To do so:

1. Go to Assignments and locate the Turnitin assignment.
2. Edit the Assignment by clicking on the Options menu (3 vertical dots) to the right of the assignment name. Select Edit.
   
3. When the first edit window comes up, click on More Options to get the whole Canvas Assignment window.
   
4. Change the Submission Type from "External Tool" to Online Submission with File Upload.
5. If you have existing Due Dates in the assignment, you will need to update those dates for the new semester before setting you the new Turnitin assignment. Otherwise, you will receive an error regarding due dates. Once you have replaced the old due dates, you should be able to complete the assignment setup.
6. Follow the instructions above for the Plagiarism Framework to set up the Turnitin assignment

Best Practices for Using Turnitin within Canvas

• You should always add a Due Date for your Turnitin assignment. If you leave the Due Date blank, Turnitin will automatically set the due date to 1 year from the creation date or first availability date.
• Setting an Available Until date will prevent students from accessing their Originality Reports after this date, so we suggest leaving this date blank.
• Note: It's possible to submit PowerPoint files through Turnitin, but Turnitin converts the PowerPoint slide deck into a static PDF, leaving all text and images in their original format but leaving out features such as presenter notes, embedded video, and animations. Presenter notes are not evaluated as part of the Originality Report.

Creating Draft Assignments

• If you plan on having students submit multiple drafts for a paper, the best practice would be to create each draft as a separate assignment.
• If you're creating a revision/draft assignment, you should choose not to store the paper in Turnitin's student paper database. This will prevent subsequent submissions from being marked as plagiarized. In the Turnitin Settings, set "Submissions to this assignment will be stored in:" to "Do not store the submitted papers."

Viewing the Similarity Report

For information on using Turnitin and understanding the similarity report, please check out the Viewing the Similarity Report guide.

Submitting a Paper Directly to Turnitin

Do you need to submit a student paper directly to Turnitin? Instructors can use Quick Submit on the Turnitin.com site to submit a paper without first creating a class and assignment. 

Student Instructions for Using Turnitin

• Student guide to submitting to a Turnitin assignment 
• Student guide to accessing the Similarity Report 
• Student guide to interpreting the similarity score 

For more information on using Canvas, please visit the Canvas Community for comprehensive resources.