Overview

This guide covers what to expect when the originality checking software Turnitin is being used on a Learning Space submission link for a written piece of work. These submission links should be in a section of the module page called "Assessment". If you need help locating your submission link, please contact your Module leader.


For more information about Turnitin and the similarity report, please visit Turnitin’s website at turnitin.com.

Contents

  • Introduction
  • Submission requirements
  • Turnitin licence agreement
  • Turnitin requirements
  • Viewing the Similarity Report

Introduction

Submission links for written work such as essays and dissertations will usually be processed through Turnitin. The submission requirements for Turnitin will be clearly displayed on the assignment submission page.


Submission requirements

You can only submit a text-based document saved as either a Microsoft Word document (.doc or docx) or an Adobe PDF (.pdf). If you use any other word processing software such as Apple pages or Google docs, you must export to either Word or PDF before submitting. You can only submit 1 file and the maximum file size will be 100MB. If your file is bigger than 100MB you must reduce the file size before submitting.


Turnitin licence agreement 

The first time you encounter a Turnitin enabled submission link you will need to read and accept the Turnitin licencing agreement (known as the "EULA"). It is important you agree to the terms and conditions or your work cannot be processed by Turnitin and will subsequently not be graded.

The licence agreement will appear automatically the first time you submit your work. You should always click “I agree”, the short video below demonstrates the process.



Turnitin requirements 

The similarity report generation is an automated process that requires the text-based document submitted to be formatted correctly. To ensure your work can be processed by Turnitin and subsequently graded follow the guidelines below.

  • Turnitin can’t read password protected, encrypted, corrupted or hidden files. Files with any of these features will not be processed.
  • Documents with images that appear at the start of a document before any text, for example a report with a cover image, will not be processed.
  • Turnitin can’t read text added as images. Documents that contain nothing but text as images will not be processed.
  • If a file only contains text and has no images or non-text based content there is a file size maximum of 2MB. It is highly unlikely a text only document will surpass this limit.


Viewing the similarity report

After you have submitted your work Turnitin will begin to process the file in order to produce a similarity report. On the submission status screen in Learning Space you’ll notice under your submitted file the word “Queued” will appear.

Depending on the size of your file and how busy the Turnitin system is, this can take between 20-30 minutes. Once processed “Queued” will be replaced by a document ID and a score. You can click the score to access your similarity report.

If the document isn’t processed or fails to process and produces an error message the most likely explanation is that the file has failed one of the Submission or Turnitin requirements. Try to correct these and resubmit your work, if your file still won’t process correctly you should report the issue to your Module Leader or Module Tutor.


Question mark icon Note that Turnitin only produces a similarity report right away the first 2 submissions. On the third and subsequent upload Turnitin will take 24hrs to produce the report. If you need to see your similarity report before you make your final changes and submit a file for the last time give yourself plenty of time.

Advice on interpreting your similarity report is beyond the scope of this guide. You can find out more about Turnitin and the similarity report from the links in the introduction at the top of this page. Should you have any questions or concerns regarding your similarity report that you wish to discuss, you can speak with your Module Leader or Module Tutor.

Question mark iconFurther Support

For general queries about the Learning Space, students should first contact their module leader or personal tutor. For any other comments or issues within this guide, please contact the Digital Learning Team via dlsupport@falmouth.ac.uk. Alternatively, please refer to the numerous help guides found on our Knowledge Base.


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