Once a Rubric or Grading Form has been uploaded into your Turnitin Rubric Manager it can be attached to any Turnitin Assignment on any Blackboard site you are an Instructor on.
To upload a Rubric or Grading Form: Follow Turnitin’s own guidance.
Category: Turnitin Ultra
Downloading Submissions from Turnitin in Blackboard Ultra
To download and archive papers from a Turnitin Assignment (submission point), access the Turnitin Assignment point by clicking on the name of the assessment e.g. FINAL Assessment 1 – Name of Assessment, to open the Assignment Inbox.
If you wish to only download specific submissions, select the check box next to the Author(s) name, if you wish to download all submissions, select the check box next to the title Author column heading.
Next select Download All to view the drop-down menu:
Downloading Original Submissions
- Select Original Files from the drop-down menu.
- A ZIP file will download to your downloads area of your PC.
Downloading Submissions with e-Feedback
- Select GradeMark PDF’s from the drop-down menu.
- A message will appear informing you that this might take a little while and that a notifications message will appear when ready:
- After a little while return to the Assignment Inbox
- A small red dot should appear next to the Notifications icon:
- Select the Notification icon to view the message.
- Click on the message to expand it:
- Select the .ZIP link within the message
- The ZIP file will download to your downloads area of your PC.
Check the Downloaded Submissions
Note: please ensure you check a few of the files once downloaded to ensure that the operation has completed successfully.
Turnitin Feedback and Marks in Blackboard Ultra
This section describes the types of feedback that can be added using Turnitin and contains advice for markers as a set of important considerations before adding feedback to students’ work using Turnitin. These include selecting the types of Turnitin feedback to use and managing the release of feedback to students in the context of the standardised University Turnitin set-up, the need to download and archive feedback for retention purposes and some limitations and risks involved in using Turnitin for feedback.
If you are new to providing feedback through Turnitin we would recommend that you start with the Important Considerations before adding Feedback section.
Adding Feedback and Marks to Turnitin submissions on Blackboard Ultra
A number of feedback options are available in Turnitin depending on the needs of the assessment. Below are a list of links to the different types of feedback and how to add them to a paper that you have opened for marking.
Access the relevant Turnitin Assignment and open the submission you wish to add feedback and mark: Accessing submissions to add feedback
Instructor Tour of Feedback Studio
Commenting Tools
Turnitin supports the following types of feedback. More about each one and technical instruction can be found on Turnitin’s own Commenting Tools page for Instructors:
- Adding a bubble comment
- Adding QuickMarks (that can be recycled between papers if generic)
- Adding inline comments
- Adding strikethrough text
- Adding text summary comments
- Recording voice comments *
- Assigning criteria to bubble and QuickMark comments
- Converting bubble comments to QuickMarks
* Note: voice comments are limited to 3 minutes and cannot be downloaded/archived. Please speak to your School’s Digital Academic Developer before planning to use this feature.
Rubrics and Grading Forms
Turnitin also supports Rubrics (scorecards) for all types of assessment, as well as Grading Forms for types where students might not be making an actual submission per se (e.g. to assess a form of performance). See the Rubrics and Grading Forms page and associated sections for more information.
Accessing Submissions to add Feedback in Turnitin on Blackboard Ultra
Within your module Blackboard, click on the title of the Turnitin Assignment you wish to view submissions for.
With the Assignment Inbox displayed either select the Title of the submission you wish to view or select the Pencil icon under the Grade column:
The submitted script will open in a separate window: Turnitin’s Feedback Studio for you to view, add feedback and mark.
If you are unable to open the submission to add feedback please see: Student submission cannot be opened for feedback.
Important Considerations before adding Feedback in Turnitin on Blackboard Ultra
How and When do Students see their Feedback?
Under the standardised University Turnitin set-up, students will see their Feedback at different times and in different ways depending on whether they submitted on time or late:
| Turnitin Assignment (submission point) | How and When Students See Their Feedback |
|---|---|
| Final (on time) | Students access feedback directly through Turnitin on the Post date |
| Final (after deadline) | Students access feedback directly through Turnitin on the (After Deadline) Post date |
Feedback for Late Submissions
The policy has been revised to improve efficiency of work processes. The agreed ‘best fit’ date (5 weeks minus 1 day) is set so that feedback will be released automatically to students on the Post Date. Please be advised if moderation is required after the Post Date has passed, feedback will need to be conducted outside of Turnitin.
Accessible Feedback
Feedback Studio has been designed to be highly accessible across a range of devices and by users with a range of needs. Where students may find accessing their feedback difficult, a PDF copy can be downloaded and e-mailed to them (as per the Special Arrangements for Feedback for Late Submissions section above).
Choice of Presentation of Feedback
Choice of presentation of feedback in Turnitin may help to improve your learners’ understanding of assessment criteria, their motivation to engage with your feedback and their ability to do so.
The Technology-enhanced Assessment link in the Teaching Resources area of the Blackboard Institution Page contains guidance, examples and evidence for ways technology can support and enhance feedback. See the using technology to improve feedback section, particularly Use Turnitin ‘rubrics’ to encourage learners to engage with assessment criteria and using a range of feedback types in Turnitin. See also our own research on influences of presentation of Turnitin feedback on learners’ engagement with their feedback.
Special Arrangements for using Audio Feedback
Currently, Turnitin Voice Comments cannot be downloaded and archived for retention purposes. However, there are ways of linking audio, as well as screen-recorded, feedback to Turnitin feedback in a way which can be retained. Contact your School’s Digital Academic Developer for advice.
Ensuring Feedback is Downloaded and Archived
Where you need to retain feedback on work submitted to Turnitin, or a list of grades for a particular assessment, you will need download archive the contents of your Turnitin Assignment. You must do this before:
- the Turnitin Assignment is deleted,
- the Blackboard site is deleted
- you Refresh Inbox Data (update the list of students)
Failure to download and archive beforehand may result in lost feedback. See the separate Downloading and Archiving from Turnitin section for advice and instructions.
Risk of Losing Feedback added before the Turnitin Due Date
Under the standardised University Turnitin set-up, after a student has submitted to a Final (on time) Turnitin Assignment they can update their submission with a new file any time up until the submission deadline. This is useful in the case of accidental submissions of the wrong file (although they can only see their Similarity Report once, after the deadline). If you add feedback to students’ work before the submission deadline for Final (on time) submission points, you will see a prompt from your browser stating:
An embedded page at www.turnitinuk.com says:
This is a draft submission. Any and all marks will be deleted when or if the paper is resubmitted. Would you like to continue?
This does not mean the student has submitted a draft to self-check their work – there are separate submission points for this. It is a warning that, because you are adding feedback before the submission deadline, your feedback will be lost if the student updates their submission.
Note: this is not the case for Final (after deadline) submission points. Students can make only a single submission to these.
Ensure you save paragraphs of summary text comments before closing Turnitin
After typing paragraphs of summary feedback into the Text Comments side panel, in order to save this you must click out of the text box by clicking on another area of the screen such as the white space next to the formatting options.
If you close Turnitin before clicking outside of this Text Comments area, your feedback will not be saved. If you accidentally delete or overwrite feedback in this Text Comments area, you may be able to recover it by immediately Undo-ing. Clicking the right mouse button or the CTRL+Z keys will work on many (but not all) web browsers.
As Turnitin has a security time-out feature that locks open papers that have not been interacted with after approximately 10 minutes, we recommend that markers either save regularly by clicking outside of the Text Comments are or draft their feedback in a word-processor first and then copy and paste this in.
Limitations in Second Marking and Moderation
Turnitin currently has no built-in facility for recording second marker comments. Second markers can comment as additions to the first marker’s feedback but changes made to the first marker’s feedback are not tracked. Turnitin only shows the latest version. There is currently no provision blind second marking. The second marker will always see the first marker’s feedback. If your external examiner has instructor access to Module-level Blackboard sites containing Turnitin
Assignments, submitted work and feedback will be visible by them. However, the following limitations apply:
- you cannot restrict external examiners’ view to only a sample of work in Turnitin, they will be able to see all submitted work and feedback
- you cannot set Turnitin as ‘read only’ for external examiners, they will have the ability to edit or even delete submitted work and feedback
An alternative is to download a sample of submitted work and feedback as PDF for external examiners. Contact your School’s Digital Academic Developer for advice.
Limitations with Group Work
Turnitin has no built-in support for group work. You can only add feedback to an individual student’s submitted work. The only way to manage group work in Turnitin is to ask for a nominated member of the group to submit work on behalf of the group or ask all members of the group to submit a copy of the same work and write a duplicate set of feedback for each member. A single student’s feedback cannot be shared with several students online, in an interactive way. You would have to download a PDF copy of the feedback and distribute amongst the group outside of Turnitin. Also, a single grade would be entered by Turnitin into the Module-level Blackboard site Gradebook. You would have to manually duplicate the grade for other group members. You cannot copy a whole set of Turnitin feedback between students. You would have to copy and paste individual comments from one student’s feedback to another’s.
Risk of using the Turnitin iPad App in Marking Teams
The Turnitin iPad app enables offline marking and feedback (see separate guide). However, due to the way it synchronises between the online Turnitin Assignment online and your iPad, there is a risk of feedback being lost when marking in teams. Contact your School’s Digital Academic Developer for advice.
Turnitin Similarity Checking in Blackboard Ultra
This is advice for markers on using Turnitin to prevent and help detect plagiarism in line with the University policy. It describes how similarity checking in Turnitin works, including its limitations and University requirements for the use of Turnitin. It also contains advice on interpreting Similarity Reports and managing requests to view papers from other Institutions.
- How Similarity checking in Turnitin works
- Limitations of Turnitin
- Turnitin Requirements to return a Similarity Report
- Technical Instructions: Quick Start
- Turnitin’s own Guidance
- The Similarity Report explained
- Interpreting the Similarity Report
- Similarity Score ranges
- Downloading the Similarity Report
- Viewing Similarity matches
- Viewing Sources
- Refining the Similarity Report
- Generating a new Similarity Report
- Accessing the text-only Similarity Report
- Multicolour highlighting in the Similarity Report
- Flags
- Document Details (This is only available as part of our one year pilot of Turnitin Authorship)
- Similarity Report Exclusions
- Paper View requests
- Helping students to interpret their Similarity Report
- When do Students and Markers see Similarity Reports?
Technical Instructions: Quick Start Turnitin Similarity in Blackboard Ultra
Select the name of the Turnitin Assignment to open the Assignment Inbox:
Click on the % Similarity next to a student’s submission. The student’s Similarity Report will open.
For further instructions, please refer to Turnitin’s own online guidance:
The Similarity Report explained
Interpreting the Similarity Report
Similarity Score ranges
Downloading the Similarity Report
Viewing Similarity matches
Viewing Sources
Refining the Similarity Report
Generating a new Similarity Report
Accessing the text-only Similarity Report
Multicolour highlighting in the Similarity Report
Flags
Document Details (This is only available as part of our one year pilot of Turnitin Authorship)
Similarity Report Exclusions
Managing Turnitin Assignments in Blackboard Ultra
The below links will guide you through a variety of steps you may need to modify or manage certain aspects of a Turnitin Assignment.
- Changing Assignment Name or Dates – Editing a Turnitin Assignment in Blackboard Ultra
- View Submissions to a Turnitin Assignment in Blackboard Ultra
- Update list of student names displayed in Turnitin (Refresh Inbox Data)
- Clearing a student’s submission from a Turnitin Assignment in Blackboard Ultra
- Moving a student’s submission from Turnitin in Blackboard Ultra
- Submit work on behalf of a student to a Turnitin Assignment in Blackboard Ultra
- Deleting a Turnitin Assignment in Blackboard Ultra
- Changing your Turnitin Assignment in Blackboard Ultra to allow for 24-hour extension
Changing your Turnitin Assignment in Blackboard Ultra to allow for 24-Hour Extension Period
In the event of a Blackboard/Turnitin outage, Academic Administration will confirm whether programmes are required to extend submission deadlines by 24 hours for all Turnitin Assignments (submission points) for assessments due that day, regardless of whether the assignment was due before or after the time of the outage. Please refer to the University Assessments Procedure for further guidance.
To allow for the 24-hour extension you need to change the Due Date on each of the two Turnitin Assignments for the assessment:
| Turnitin Assignment | Action |
| Final (on time) | Extend Due date by 24 hours. Do not change ‘to allow late submissions‘. |
| Final (After Deadline) | Update to be to one minute after the extended due date on the Final (on time) Turnitin Assignment. |
Please note that it is not typically advisable to change the setting of a Turnitin Assignment retrospectively as there can be unintended consequences. The method outlined here will not affect any submissions already made.
Repeat the following steps for each of the two Turnitin Assignments, adjusting the Due Date for each by 24 hrs.
Should the extension period be extended further (i.e. in the event of an ongoing Blackboard/Turnitin outage) this date will need to be moved forward in parallel with the outage (please consult message that would be posted to the top of the Blackboard Institution Page / StaffNet for ongoing updates).
Please see Editing a Turnitin Assignment in Blackboard Ultra for the steps to change the dates and times on a Turnitin Assignment.