Turnitin offers a direct integration in Canvas. What this means for you as a teacher is that you can create an external tool assignment and still have access to the Turnitin features and submission portal…all within Canvas. How this works for your students, they will open the assignment and have access to the Turnitin submission window. There are some setup requirements that I would like to share with you to support your students.
First, Turnitin is already integrated, you will not need to add it. You can find it as part of assignment creation and the external tool submission options. To add the external tool submission type, create a new assignment, add title, directions and grading info per usual. Then make sure the submission type is “external tool.” You will then click “find” and scroll all the way down to “Turnitin.” Select it (and it does not do much). Finish your assignment settings such as date and who should receive the assignment…then Save (or Save and Publish).
Now you will see the Turnitin screen pop open (it may request logging in and use your previous username and password or sign up from here). You will then have the additional feature options that are available in Turnitin. You might notice it inherits the due date information from Canvas, but you can edit the Turnitin features per usual.
Students will open the assignment from Canvas (from assignments, modules, or course calendar). Students should have added their email to their Account Settings in Canvas (their ISD email and any other previously used emails associated with Turnitin). This should find them and prompt them to submit their Turnitin paper. Here is a video on how students can submit to Turnitin.
Once your students have submitted their work, you will be able to add grademark comments in Turnitin (you can access right in Canvas), but you can also access the assignment from Speedgrader in Canvas and use the DocViewer to add comments and feedback as well. If you are interested in adding a rubric prior to making the external tool assignment, check out this post on the rubric workaround. For the best compatibility, we do suggest using Chrome or the most recent version of Edge. Many of the external tools work best in an updated browser.
For support using Canvas or Turnitin, please contact your Ed Tech Lead or Ed Tech TOSA.
