Turnitin.com is a web-based plagarism prevention tool that compares documents submitted by students to a database of existing published articles and papers, in addition to all student papers submitted to the site. Through UMBC Blackboard, students can now submit assignments in any course to Turnitin.com's database. Each individual course in UMBC Blackboard has a corresponding course area on Turnitin.com.

For more information on Turnitin.com click here.

Before a student can submit a document in Blackboard to Turnitin, the instructor must "create" that assignment in a Blackboard Content Area.

From the course Control Panel, click on the content area in which you would like to create the assignment.

On the far, right-hand side of the Content Area window (for example, Course Documents or Assignments), click the dropdown menu.

Select Turnitin Assignment, then click Go.

Enter an Assignment Title (the student will see this when accessing Turnitin.com through Blackboard, and Special Instructions.

Choose whether you want the assignment available to students. If you select YES, students will be able to submit papers for the assignment.

You may also set the assignment's start date, and you must select the end date (used as the assignment's due date within Turnitin).

Click create the assignment.

NOTE: When a Turnitin assignment is created, it is automatically added to your course Gradebook to insert a grade.

Step 2 - Viewing Submitted Assignments and "Originality Reports"

To view submitted assignments, click the "Turnitin Assignments" folder in your course Control Panel. This folder is empty until you have created a Turnitin assignment and made it available.

When students submit their papers through the assignment you have created, each paper will appear after the screening process - this may take up to 24 hours depending on the size of the document they have uploaded.

Click the >> View link under an assignment to see a list of all student submissions.

To download a student's submission, click the download button, then save the document to your computer.

Clicking the Title of a paper (as entered by the student) will open a browser window from Turnitin.com that displays the text of the document as simple text - not as the originally formatted PDF, DOC, etc.

The Originality Score/Report will appear after the document has been screened through the Turnitin.com database (within 24 hours of the student's submission). Clicking on the percentage score will open a browser window displaying the student's document as simple text, and list sites from which material may have been used. After reading the document, you may decide to exclude some sources (for example, they have been cited properly), then have the document reanalzyed.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Bob Armstrong at 410.455.3885 or rarmstro@umbc.edu or blackboard@umbc.edu.