Turnitin

Last updated on February 27, 2024

Turnitin is a web-based assignment evaluation tool that can be used by both instructors and students at UW–‍Madison. Used for evaluating students’ online assignment submissions, Turnitin promotes originality in student work by comparing submitted assignments with similar content from multiple sources. It can help students check for proper formatting of citations in their work.

Turnitin is part of the Learn@UW suite of learning technologies. More information about Turnitin, updates, events and how to work with the Learn@UW–‍Madison learning technology consultants are available on the DoIT Academic Technology website.

As of Feb 5, 2024, Turnitin’s new similarity report is available at UW–‍Madison. Instructors and students can switch back and forth between the classic and new report formats by using the button in the top left of the similarity report screen. For more details on how to interpret the new and classic similarity reports, please refer to these links:

Getting started

Turnitin is integrated directly within Canvas. Instructors can simply enable Turnitin when setting up a Canvas assignment that requires an online submission, as well as access access Turnitin similarity reports through Canvas. For instructions, please see the Learn@UW–‍Madison Turnitin getting started KB document.

Students are only able to access the similarity reports Turnitin if the instructor enables this option on a particular assignment.

Pricing

Turnitin is available at no cost to students and instructors in for-credit, timetable courses.

Key features

  • Highlights similarities to a collection of internet, academic, and student content from UW–‍Madison and other sources and generates a similarity score
  • Allows instructors to provide students the option of viewing their similarity report when submitting assignments or after assignments are graded
  • Offers Feedback Studio, a feature that allows instructors to place drag-and-drop comment bubbles in the content and annotate student submissions
  • Seamlessly integrates with the Canvas interface, including the Gradebook and SpeedGrader

Support

The DoIT Help Desk provides instructors, staff and students with free tech support and troubleshooting help by phone at (608) 264-4357, email and chat. In-person support is also available at the DoIT Help Desk in the Computer Sciences building. Visit helpdesk.wisc.edu for hours and more information.

The Learn@UW–‍Madison team is also available to consult with instructors and instructional staff on selecting and using appropriate learning technology to improve student success. You can request a consultation by contacting the DoIT Help Desk. In addition, the Learn@UW KnowledgeBase offers helpful documents for instructors, course owners and students.

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