Turnitin

Turnitin is an anti-plagiarism service integrated into Canvas that checks student papers against public web sites, academic databases, and previously submitted student papers to Turnitin. It also claims that it can detect writing that has been generated by artificial intelligence (AI) sites like ChatGPT.

Turnitin is used to not only determine if students are copying someone else’s work, but it is also used as a deterrent to cheating. Instructors can choose to use Turnitin when creating writing assignments in Canvas.

If they so choose, each student’s submission will be checked before returning a similarity report and an AI report. These reports shows what has and has not been copied and what has and has not been purportedly detected as written by generative AI, respectively. It is then up to the instructor to determine if there is a problem. Instructors also have the ability to copy and paste any student text in Canvas, such as discussion board postings, and manually submit it to Turnitin.

When writing assignment instructions, instructors should tell students that their submissions will be checked for plagiarism and AI. You can include a link to Turnitin's user guide for students. You should also include a link to the FRC's Policy on Academic Integrity, and somewhere in your course, include a link to a more thorough explanation of plagiarism. 

Go to the Faculty Resources page in Canvas to see more about using Turnitin.