Using Turnitin with PebblePad Assessments

PebblePad assessments can make use of the Turnitin originality checking service to produce reports similar to those obtained through Blackboard. The following steps detail the main process for activating this feature and sending assessments to be checked by the service.

Setting up Turnitin

First, the Turnitin feature needs to be activated for the workspace and assessment(s). This only needs to be done once and can be done at any time, not just when initially setting up the workspace and submission points:

Step 1:  Open the relevant workspace, click the 'Management' button and then the 'Turnitin' button on the row of additional buttons that appears.

Step 2: If you can see a tick in the row with the workspace's name, then Turnitin has already been set up for the Workspace, otherwise click the leftmost button in the 'Actions' section of the row to activate Turnitin.

Step 3: If you can see a tick in the row related to the assessment you are interested in, then Turnitin is already activated, otherwise click the leftmost button in the 'Actions' section of the row to activate Turnitin.

Step 4: Once Turnitin is active, you may want to configure the default settings for the service. The easiest way to do this is from the same screen that you used above, but this time click the 'cog' button next to the relevant assignment. This will open the assignment details page and you will see a new button underneath the deadline dates boxes called 'Show Advanced Turnitin Settings'. Click this and the extra settings will appear,  allowing you to decide when and what parts of the submissions are checked for originality.

Sending Submissions to Turnitin

Once everything has been set up it is ready for you to send submissions to Turnitin whenever you wish. To do this go to the 'Submissions' page of the workspace.

You can send specific submissions to Turnitin by ticking the box to the left of the relevant submission(s) and then clicking on the 'Turnitin' button towards the top of the page and select 'Submit to Turnitin'. This will send them to be processed and you will receive an email once all of the reports are ready.

Alternatively, you can send all submissions to be processed. The easiest way to do this is to click the 'Turnitin' button, then the 'Turnitin' option from the list that appears. This will show you a status page for the assessment and you can click the 'Submit All to Turnitin' button to send all submissions. As above, you will receive an email when the reports are ready for you.

Viewing Originality Reports

Once the originality reports are available, you will see a new icon on the 'Submissions' screen. At the extreme right of each row with a report there will be a Turnitin icon, clicking this will show you a link that will take you to the originality report for that submission.

Synchronising Turnitin and ATLAS

If you sent submissions to Turnitin in batches and now want to look through all the reports, or want to share the reports with students, you should synchronise ATLAS and Turnitin before you do so. This ensures that all of the scores are updated to reflect any changes that might have occurred due to students submitting new versions or new submissions that share content with others that were submitted earlier. It will adjust the scores for all submissions in ATLAS to ensure that they are as accurate as possible. To do this you should go into the 'Submissions' page, click the 'Turnitin' button and select the 'Synchronise with Turnitin now' option. Once everything is synchronised you will see any updates to the similarity scores in the relevant column for the submissions.

Releasing Originality Reports to Students

Depending on the options that you've set up for the assessment, you can give students access to the originality report for their submission. To do this you should first synchronise Turnitin and ATLAS (see above), then click the 'Turnitin' button again and select the 'Turnitin' option. Click the 'Release Turnitin feedback' button on the screen that appears and the scores and reports will be made available to students. They will receive an email informing them that their report is available, but can also access it directly from the 'Submissions' page within the workspace.