Turnitin

Turnitin is a tool to help faculty and students develop and evaluate written scholarship. The tool estimates the originality of written work so students can properly reference source material. Turnitin generates a “similarity report” by comparing an uploaded paper to a database of web pages, articles, books, and other uploaded files. When similarities exist, the tool highlights sections of the uploaded paper and displays the similarity source. The report provides an opportunity for constructive conversations about properly referencing sources.

AI Detection in Turnitin

The AI detection feature of Turnitin is currently disabled. For more information please visit the Poorvu Center page on AI Guidance.

AI Guidance for Teachers

Important Points for Using Turnitin

  • Optional for each course and assignment.
  • All Turnitin-enabled Canvas assignments MUST have a due date; otherwise, Turnitin sets it to 1 week after activity publishing.
  • Reports link to Canvas when:
    • Students submit/resubmit assignments before the due date.
    • On the due date, after submissions are stored in the Yale-only repository.
  • Available only through Canvas Assignments (no direct access to turnitin.com).
  • Student submissions for Turnitin assignments are NEVER shared with Turnitin or other institutions.

On this Page

This page will address the following information:

Why use Turnitin?

Turnitin is tightly integrated with the Canvas Assignment activity so it can be enabled and used quickly and seamlessly when needed. Though Turnitin is sometimes perceived as a “plagiarism detector,” it has limited value in this capacity, and the incidence of plagiarism at Yale is generally quite low. But faculty and students can use Turnitin to see patterns of source use and misuse, and these patterns can help guide teaching, writing, and revision practices.

Use Cases for Turnitin

A non-exhaustive list outlining what Instructors can use Turnitin to facilitate include:

  • Providing a high-level report of student source and citation patterns that can be used in writing revision / instruction
  • Sharing line-edit comments on student writing
  • Reviewing writing and citation use independent of course use

How do I get started?

To learn more about how to use Turnitin, please reference:

What will my students see?

Please reference our student guides below for more information on the student experience with Turnitin.

Additional Resources

Known Issues

Need Help?

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