How to enable Turnitin similarity reports within Moodle assignment activities

Table of Contents

1 Why use it?
2 Enabling Turnitin Similarity Reports
3 Turnitin Plugin Settings

Why use it?

Turnitin is a third-party service that matches text from student-submitted work against its extensive databases of previously submitted student assessments (submitted to either LSE or other institutions that also subscribe to Turnitin), websites and academic papers. Turnitin produces a similarity report and a score (%) of matched text. The similarity report contains any matches to sources along with the relevant links. Any ‘assignment activity’ created on Moodle can be configured to produce Turnitin similarity reports.

Enabling Turnitin Similarity Reports

Turnitin can be found among the settings options for a Moodle Assignment Activity, and can be activated when setting an assignment up for the first time or when editing an existing assignment activity. Turnitin can be enabled at any point up until the due date of an assignment. Please note that it is not possible to enable Turnitin once the due date of a Moodle assignment has passed.

For instructions on how to set up an assignment activity, see Assignment set-up guide (individual and group)

Turnitin Plugin Settings

The settings to enable Turnitin similarity reports are located within the ‘Turnitin Plugin Settings’ section found in the Moodle assignment settings menu. This section will contain various settings that can be selected as required depending on the Departmental Turnitin policy.

Note: Launch Quickmark Manager - This is a marking and feedback feature. For guidance on this, please see the Turnitin as a marking and feedback tool section of these guides.

Setting 1: Enable Turnitin

Select ‘Yes’ to enable the generation of Turnitin similarity reports.

Setting 2: Display Similarity Reports to Students

Choose whether students will be able to see their own similarity reports. (If ‘No’ is selected only markers will ever see the report.)

The ‘LSE Policy on the use of Turnitin’ requires that departments, in which students engage with essay-based assessments, allow students to view the similarity report for at least one formative assessment in every year of their studies.

If you choose to make similarity reports available to students, you should take care to set the Report Generation Speed in a way that suits your particular requirements.

Setting 3: When should the file be submitted to Turnitin?

This setting cannot be changed.

Setting 4: Allow submission of any file type?

If this is set to ‘Yes’, students will be able to submit files in formats that are not supported by Turnitin. Their submissions will be stored but they may not receive a similarity report.

For more on supported file types please see the Turnitin File requirements information.

Setting 5: Store Student Papers

Choose whether or not submissions for this assignment should be added to the Turnitin repository (i.e. database) for future reference.

What is the ‘standard repository’?

Work submitted to the standard repository is added to Turnitin’s database and becomes part of the collection against which new submissions are checked. This prevents submissions from being re-used by students in other universities or year groups.

When enabling Turnitin for an assignment, instructors may choose between the ‘standard repository’ and ‘no repository’ options. If ‘No repository’ is selected, submissions will be checked for similarity and receive a report, but will not themselves be added to the database. Re-submission of the same work in future will not be flagged.

We recommend the ‘standard repository’ option for summative work, and the ‘no repository’ option for formative work that will later be developed and resubmitted in a final form

How long are submitted papers saved by Turnitin?

Files submitted to the ‘standard repository’ will stay there as long as Turnitin are operating their service and are never removed.

Setting 6: Check against stored student papers

Choose whether to compare submissions to the database of student-created work on Turnitin. If you find a match to student work on another course or at another university, Turnitin will give you the option to send a request to see these materials, which are otherwise hidden.

Setting 7: Check against internet

Choose whether to compare submissions to Turnitin’s database of material found on the internet (e.g. Wikipedia).

Setting 8: Check against journals, periodicals, and publications

Choose whether to compare submissions to Turnitin’s database of published work.

Setting 9: Report Generation Speed

1. Generate reports immediately (students cannot resubmit)

A similarity report will only be generated for the first file a student submits for an assignment.

This setting would be appropriate if you do not wish to allow students to see their similarity reports and improve their academic writing before a final submission.

2. Generate reports immediately (students can resubmit until due date)

A similarity report report will be generated for every draft a student submits, overwriting each time.

Most commonly used for formative assessments, this setting can also be used for summative assessments.

This is the most flexible setting for administrative purposes and also offers pedagogical opportunities when used in conjunction with Display similarity reports to students being enabled.

3. Generate reports on due date (students can resubmit until due date)

A similarity report will only be generated for the final file a student submits for an assignment.

If you enable this setting, along with Display similarity reports to students, students will only be able to see the similarity report and score after the due date. This would prevent students from using the similarity report to improve the work for the assessment in question but allow them to reflect on and improve their academic writing for future assessments.

Setting 10: Exclude Bibliography

Set Turnitin not to display similarity count for text appearing in the bibliography, works cited or references sections of student work. (Markers can re-enable this on individual reports.)

Setting 11: Exclude Quoted Material

Set Turnitin not to display similarity count for text wrapped in quotation marks. (Markers can re-enable this on individual reports.)

Setting 12: Exclude Small Matches

Set this to either ‘percent’ or ‘words’, to choose not to display matches where similarity falls below a certain threshold. If you choose either ‘percent’ or ‘words’, you must set the exclusion value in the next setting.

How do I remove sources with very small amounts of similarity?/ What is 'Exclude Small Matches'?

Turnitin can be set to ignore any sources where the amount of matching material falls beneath a certain word-count or percentage of the student’s total word count. You may set these limits yourself. For example, setting ‘Exclude Small Matches’ to 2% will cause Turnitin to ignore sources that match less than 2% of the content of a student’s submission.

You can also filter out small matches when you are viewing a student’s report even if you have not done it when setting up an assignment. See: How to use and interpret Turnitin similarity reports.

Setting 13: Exclusion Value

Specify the similarity threshold for excluding small matches by percentage or word count.

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