Part 1 - What Turnitin Does

Turnitin allows students to submit their written assignments online. On the students’ MyUCLA web page, there is a link to Turnitin under each course in which the student is enrolled. Upon clicking that link the student is taken to the Turnitin “homepage” for that class (if the instructor has set one up). There, the assignment(s) are listed with a submit icon for each. When the student clicks the “submit” icon she is taken to a page where she chooses her name from a drop-down menu. Once she selects her name she is then asked to enter the paper title. Finally, she is asked to click on the “Browse” button which then allows her to point to the file on her computer. Once the correct file has been located, the student clicks the “submit” button and the file is uploaded to the Turnitin database. That’s all there is to it. The submissions go into the Turnitin database and are compared to the existing papers in its database and returns to the instructor an “originality report” which highlights strings of text that match other documents. The originality reports “are based on exhaustive searches of billions of pages from both current and archived instances of the internet, millions of student papers previously submitted to Turnitin and commercial databases of journal articles and periodicals” (Turnitin.com 2006). For each paper submitted Turnitin generates an “originality report” that rates the amount of text matching source files in the database on a scale from 0 to 100 percent. The report is presented in a very intuitive and detailed manner which allows the instructor to spend valuable time addressing the causes of the plagiarism rather than searching for the plagiarized sources.

Figure 1
Turnitin Originality Report

When the instructor enters the homepage for the course, he will see the assignment(s) and an icon beside each named “inbox.” Clicking that icon reveals the roster of enrolled students and the status of their submissions. It will either say “no submission” or it will have the title of the students’ paper. To the right of the paper title is a color-coded report icon that reports the percentage of material in the students’ papers that matches other sources. By clicking on that report icon, the instructor can then see the entire originality report. (Please see Figure 1 above).

After clicking on the originality report icon in the student roster, the instructor is presented with a new window which displays the originality report. The report is divided into essentially three areas: the header, the student paper and the list of matched sources.
Let’s begin with the header.

Figure 2
Turnitin Originality Report Header

The header contains a great deal of information such as the paper title, the student’s name, the date and time the paper was processed, the paper identification number and the word count. There are also links to “print,” “save” and “refresh” the reports, “prefs” (display preference settings for the originality report), and a link for “help.” (The image in Figure 2 does not show the “prefs” link). Additionally, there are links to move to the originality reports for the “previous” or the “next” paper according to the list in the student roster. In the gray bar that separates the header from the rest of the report you will find the “Overall Similarity Index,” which displays the percentage of similarities between the students’ papers and outside sources, including its accompanying color code. To the right of this similarity index are two links that allow the instructor to exclude quoted materials and the bibliographic information. The instructor should only click on these links after reviewing the paper to determine that the quotes are properly cited and the bibliography is correct. Once these things are determined, the instructor can eliminate the quoted materials and bibliographies from the comparison. (Once these links are engaged expect the “Overall Similarity Index” to drop, often significantly). To the right of those links is a drop down “mode” menu that allows the instructor to investigate the suspect sources one at a time or all together. There is also an option to view the paper in what is known as a “quick view” or “classic” report. I have found that the “show highest matches together” option presents the instructor with the most efficient means of verifying the paper’s content and checking suspect sources.

Below the header and the gray bar are two windows, or the body of the report. The window on the left displays the student paper and the window on the right displays the matched sources. When Turnitin detects similarities between the student paper and an outside source, it bolds the text, turns the text to red, places it in a highlighted box and assigns it a number. That number corresponds to an entry in the window on the right side, which is where Turnitin displays suspect outside sources. The sources are listed according to the percentage of the match with the highest percentage coming first. When the instructor mouses over the highlighted text in the student’s paper the corresponding source on the right illuminates letting the instructor have a quick view of the suspect source. When the instructor clicks on the numbered text box in the student’s paper a “Direct Source Comparison” window appears displaying the matching text within the context of the suspect source. The matching text is blocked out and highlighted as in the student’s paper for easy comparison.

Figure 3
Turnitin Originality Report Body with
Direct Source Comparison Window

The “Direct Source Comparison” window offers a link to the source as it appears on its original web page and “up” and “down” scroll arrows to see the previous or next matching text. (In Figure 3 above, you will find an image of the body of the Originality Report, including the “Direct Source Comparison” window). If the matching text is not from the web, but is from a student paper previously submitted through Turnitin, the instructor is presented with the following message: “Because submitted papers remain the intellectual property of their authors, instructors, and respective institutions, we are unable to show you the content of this paper at this time.” If the instructor stills wants to view the paper he may click on the button “Send a Request to View This Paper.” Upon clicking the button a request is sent to the student’s school and the instructor who handle such requests on a case-by-case basis. (Usually, they give their permission and within two days or so the instructor receives an email with the entire contents of the student’s paper). By checking the suspect sources an instructor can decide whether the matching text is used in properly cited passages within the text. If this is the case, then it is safe to click on the “exclude quoted” link in the gray bar of the header that will then re-access the paper and return a new originality report. If the student papers’ “references” or “bibliography” sections are causing matches, the instructor may choose to remove them from the comparison by clicking the “exclude bibliography” link which will also re-access the paper and return a fresh originality report. As mentioned, if the instructor chooses one, or both, of these links the “Overall Similarity Index” should drop significantly. The new report will more accurately reflect the amount of plagiarized material in the students’ papers.

At UCLA, we have access to two of Turnitin’s five main functions, plagiarism detection and the discussion board. (The others, “Peer Review,” “GradeMark” and “GradeBook” are presented briefly below). The discussion board is a very useful tool that allows students to submit and respond to topic postings. In my course, the discussion board was utilized to engage students in online dialogues about complicated issues pertaining to the global dissemination of music such as, issues of copyright, appropriation, adaptation, transculturation, cross-cultural use of sound, and globalization. For the purposes of this course, the discussion board was a mandatory weekly activity. The discussion board was not moderated, which meant that when the student posted a comment, it did not need the approval of a moderator and was immediately viewable on the web. However, if there is a posting that the instructor deems inappropriate he has the ability to delete it from the thread. Using the discussion board feature helped create a sense of community among the students of my class and gave them the opportunity to share interesting information with their peers (and me). It also provided an extremely useful format for discussing the weekly required readings, which alleviated much of the time spent doing so in class, allowing me to better concentrate on delivering the lessons. While UCLA Humanities and Social Sciences have their own course management systems (CMS), which include discussion boards, the School of Arts and Architecture has no such support. With the availability of the Turnitin discussion board, this problem is solved without the school having to invest in the IT equipment and support personnel to offer this service to its departments.   

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