What is Turnitin.com? Turnitin is an internet-based plagiarism detection service. Faculty can use the Turnitin.com plagiarism prevention program directly from the Assignments tool in Brightspace. As the system runs student papers through the database, it generates a report that identifies sources for quoted or copied material. Using Turnitin.com integration makes it possible for the faculty to deter plagiarism, verify sources, investigate the originality of student work, and provide a resource to assist in teaching research and writing skills.

As a plagiarism detection service Turnitin can be used:

• To ensure students are creating their own work.

• To authenticate outside sources.

• To assist educators in promoting academic honesty.

Turnitin and Brightspace

Accessing Turnitin through Brightspace Course Offering Site:

Turnitin is accessible in the Assignments Tool within Brightspace course offering. 
Instructions to create an assignment in Brightspace using Turnitin to leave student feedback and run similarity reports.

1. Navigate to the Brightspace course site, click on Assignments in the navigation bar.
2. On the New Assignment or Edit Assignment page, click the Evaluation & Feedback dropdown.
3. Click Manage Turnitin Note: Turnitin works for File Submission assignments only. Turnitin cannot check text entered into the text editor in Brightspace.
4. Check the box for Enable Similarity Reports to check submissions against the Turnitin repository.
5. Select Enable Online Grading to enable the grading and feedback studio.
6. To set more advanced options, click More Options in Turnitin. This opens the Turnitin Assignment window.
7. Click Save and Close.

Academic Honesty and Turnitin 

Academic Honesty:

"Marist is a learning community dedicated to helping students develop the intellect, character, and skills required for enlightened, ethical, and productive lives in the global community of the 21st century. Students are expected to pursue excellence in their education while being honest about their work and fair to other members of the learning community. All work presented to instructors for evaluation must reflect their own ideas and effort and must properly acknowledge any contributions of others. Students should expect this honesty and fairness in others as well. As members of the Marist learning community, all students should adhere to the principles of academic integrity as set forth in the Marist Academic Integrity Policy."

Statement on Turnitin:

"Use of Turnitin is mandated for this course. Turnitin is a service used by Marist faculty to compare a student's written work with its very large database of sources, student papers from other institutions, and the like, to check for originality. Work submitted to Turnitin will be used only for purposes of assessing originality, and will not be shared beyond Turnitin or used for any other purpose. Students must submit all assignments to Turnitin through the regular Brightspace submission process. Students who wish to remove their personal identifying information (name, student identification number, etc.) from the submitted file may do so but must notify their professor ahead of submission. Work submitted through Brightspace in this course will not be reviewed by the Professor or maintained by the college unless and until the Turnitin process is completed."

• Students are expected to uphold the school's standard of conduct relating to academic honesty (please refer to the Marist Student handbook for detailed information on the definitions and consequences for cheating and plagiarism). Students assume full responsibility for the content and integrity of the academic work they submit. The guiding principle of academic integrity shall be that a student's submitted work, examinations, reports, and projects must be that of the student's own work. Students shall be guilty of violating the honor code if they:

  • Represent the work of others as their own.

  • Use or obtain unauthorized assistance in any academic work.

  • Give unauthorized assistance to other students.

Plagiarism Prevention:

Marist is committed to the fundamental values of preserving academic honesty as defined in the Student Handbook. The instructor reserves the right to utilize electronic means to help prevent plagiarism. Students agree that by taking this course all assignments are subject to submission for textual similarity review to Turnitin.com. Assignments submitted to Turnitin.com will be included as source documents in Turnitin.com's restricted access database solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism in such documents.  Additional information about this system can be found at http://turnitin.com. 
IMPORTANT: Students are encouraged to review the resources at: http://www.plagiarism.org/ which will provide you with the information on how to properly cite sources and understand what is meant by plagiarism.

• Modify, without instructor approval, an examination, paper, record, or report for the purpose of obtaining additional credit.

• Misrepresent the content of submitted work.

• Evidence of cheating or plagiarism (e.g., presentation or written submission of other's ideas or work without proper citation) will result in a grade of "F" for that particular assignment. Multiple incidences of plagiarism or cheating will result in a grade of "F" for this course. If a student is unclear about whether a particular situation may constitute an honor code violation, the student should meet with the instructor to discuss the situation.