Typical Procedure
Normally when Moodle sends a submission to Turnitin it can take several minutes to an hour for the similarity report to become available depending on the amount of requests Turnitin is receiving.
Typically, a notification will appear for a submission to indicate that it is being queued with a Turnitin ID being assigned shortly afterwards.
A similarity percentage score should then appear in the assignment submission area shortly afterwards through which the similarity report can be accessed by clicking on it.
While Turnitin similarity reports are typically generated as expected there are times when a report is not generated for a submission. If similarity percentage score and report have failed to generate for a submission then you will likely see a red ‘X' where the percentage score would normally be visible. In some cases, the Turnitin status may have remained as 'Pending’ for some time after the submission deadline which also can indicate that the percentage score and report have failed to generate.
There are several reasons why a similarity percentage score and report might not be generated. This could be due to with the Moodle assignment settings, the submitted file type, the acceptance of the End-User License Agreement (EULA) or potential Turnitin service disruption.
1. Report Generation Speed
Firstly, if a number of similarity reports have yet to be generated it is important to check the Moodle assignment settings to determine whether reports are set to generate on a particular due date or upon submission to the Moodle assignment activity. This is managed by the Turnitin plugin setting called ‘Report Generation Speed’.
If the assignment has been set to generate reports immediately (students can resubmit until due date), the similarity reports will be generated for every draft a student submits, overwriting each time. After the third submission there will be a delay of 24 hours between generation of reports.
If the assignment has been set to generate reports on the due date (students can resubmit until due date), the similarity reports will only be generated for the final file a student submits for an assignment and will become available once the assignment due date/time have passed.
2. Submitted File Type
If the Moodle assignment setting for the report generation speed appear to be correct with 24 hours having passed since the last submission or the due date/time having passed then the issue may be that an incompatible file type has been submitted particularly if only a limited number of similarity reports have yet to be generated.
Incompatible File Type
If any file type is allowed, Turnitin will not generate a Similarity Report for the following:
Password-protected files
Microsoft® Works (.wps) files
Microsoft Word 2007 macros-enabled .docm files
OpenOffice Text (.odt) files created and downloaded from Google Docs online
Document (.doc) files created using OpenOffice
Spreadsheets created outside of Microsoft Excel (i.e. .ods)
Apple Pages
Text with visual effects
Incompatible PDF Generator
To ensure PDF submissions can be read by Turnitin, the following PDF generators should not be used:
LaTeX PDF generator
OpenOffice PDF generator
LibreOffice PDF generator
3. Accepting EULA
4. Turnitin Service Disruption
First you should check your assignment settings to see whether reports are set to generate on due date or on submission. (See: When will I/my students see their originality reports?) If only a limited number of students are having this problem, the issue may be that they have submitted the wrong file type. (See: What file formats does Turnitin accept?.) Finally, the problem may be due to a delay on Turnitin’s side. (See: What happens if Turnitin is down?) If the problem persists, please contact eden.digital@lse.ac.uk for support.