TurnItIn

TurnItIn is an easy-to-use plagiarism-detection tool that can analyze file uploads and text entry assignments submitted within Canvas courses. It can analyze for both similarity concerns and for AI-generated text. While TurnItIn does provide scores for both of these areas, it does not determine whether academic dishonesty has occurred and it makes no claims otherwise.

Similarity

Similarity is how TurnItIn refers to what would typically be described as plagiarism. How much of the student-submitted work is similar to or matches text found in other locations? This compares student submissions to both published work, website content, and TurnItIn student-work repositories. While plagiarism is to be discouraged, a high similarity score by itself does not mean the work submitted was plagiarized. Instructors are encouraged to go over the Similarity report with a trusted colleague and/or departmental team before making any determinations (or accusations) regarding the student.

AI Writing Indicator

TurnItIn also gives uploaded submissions an AI-writing indicator. This score (shown as a percentage) indicates the amount of qualifying text that the system identified as AI-generated text. Instructors are cautioned to not make any decisions or accusations of plagiarism based solely on this indicator. At the most, this should be considered a reason to start a conversation with the academic department and/or student if necessary.