Turnitin FAQs

Turnitin is a 'text-matching' software which is designed to educate students regarding appropriate citation and referencing techniques. Turnitin is also used to provide Busitema University with confidence in the academic integrity of students’ work. Turnitin does this by comparing a student submission against an archive of Internet documents, Internet data, a repository of previously submitted papers, and subscription repository of periodicals, journals, and publications. Turnitin then creates an 'Originality Report' which can be viewed by both lecturers and students, which identifies where the text within a student submission has matched another source.

Turnitin will only match the text within a student's assignment to text located elsewhere (e.g. found on the Internet, within journals or on databases of student papers). Correct interpretation of these results by both lecturers and students is essential for the successful use of Turnitin.

A large number of leading Universities across the world are currently using Turnitin to enhance the education experience they provide to their students.

Busitema University uses Turnitin both as a tool to educate students regarding appropriate citation and referencing techniques as well as to provide the University with confidence in the academic integrity of students’ work.

It is important to understand that Turnitin is not a punitive tool or a mechanism to 'catch students out'. The primary purpose of using Turnitin is to provide students with interactive means of understanding and applying citation and referencing techniques in their work.

Turnitin matches the text within an assignment by comparing a student's submission against an archive of internet documents, internet data, a repository of previously submitted papers, and subscription repository of periodicals, journals, and publications. Turnitin then creates an 'Originality Report' which can be viewed by both lecturers and students, which identifies where the text within a student submission has matched another source.

Turnitin also stores a record of all submitted assignments on the central database. This is done so that future submissions, for example assignments submitted to the University in future years, will be checked against previously submitted assignments.

While Turnitin retains a copy of submitted assignments, it does not reproduce these assignments or disclose them to third parties. This means that while a copy of your student's assignment is stored, it is never shown to a third party and the student retains ownership of their assignment.

A: Students are enrolled into Turnitin classes created by instructors. There are two options to enroll Students into a class.

Option 1 (Student Self Enrollment) – Instructors can give the class ID and enrollment password to students and have them enroll themselves. The class ID and password are created when an instructor creates a Turnitin class.

Option 2 (Upload Roster) – Instructors can upload a list of students.

A: See information below for different scenarios.

Students should contact the instructor for the code and password information. The class id is the number listed before the course title. To view the enrollment password, click the edit link after class name to view your class enrollment password.
Note: Instructors can change your enrollment password by updating a class or section. To update a section password, click the edit icon for the appropriate section of the master course.

Once a lecturer has created a Turnitin assignment within a class you are enrolled in, you will be able to submit your assignment.

A: Instructors first create a class with at least one assignment. Once a student is enrolled in a class, he or she can upload a paper into a particular assignment. Instructions for students are available.
Assignments can be uploaded from the computer, Dropbox or google drive.

By default, the Originality report checks the following sources:
A large set of public Websites including Wikipedia, news sources and other informational sources
Multiple databases of journal articles to which Turnitin has subscribed
A repository of previously submitted documents
English and non-English content

The 'Originality Report' is the report Turnitin creates after it has assessed a student submission against the Internet, repositories of previously submitted papers, and subscription repositories of periodicals, journals, and publications.
The 'Originality Report' identifies where content in a student's submission has been 'text-matched' to other sources. The 'Originality Report' shows the overall 'similarity index' percentage (the total percent of the submission matched against other sources), and provides a detailed breakdown of what text within the submission has been matched against what source (e.g. internet sites, journals or previous submissions).

A: Yes. First, you would need to click on the color box indicating the percentage of copied material in the paper. While viewing the Originality Report, click on the link to the copied material and the text from the original source will be displayed.

A: This can be done by editing the settings for a particular assignment to allow students to view Originality Reports in the Assignment Options area.

This will depend on how your Lecturer has created your 'Turnitin Assignment'. The default approach of Busitema University will allow students to submit their assignments to Turnitin, review their Original Reports, make any necessary modifications to their assignments, and then resubmit. This approach ensures ongoing education and feedback for students regarding the 'text-matches' identified within their submission, and any missing or potentially incorrect citations or referencing can be corrected prior to final submission.
Your Lecturer however may choose to take a different approach for a variety of reasons. If you have any concerns, you should discuss them with your Lecturer in the first instance.