There have been minor changes to Turnitin service at Brock University. No action is required by instructors, staff, or students, and overall impact will be minimal.
Please contact CPI with any questions at cpi@brocku edtech@brocku.ca.
Contents
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Turnitin Originality
The primary tool that instructors use, Turnitin Similarity Check, remains and will function exactly the same. The new version of the product (which exists under the umbrella of “Turnitin Originality” as opposed to “Feedback Studio”) offers a more refined experience and simply removes extra features that were previously included but not utilized by the Brock community.
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These changes have no impact on typical usage of Turnitin: how it is enabled in Brightspace Assignments and how it generates reports with student submissions remains the same. |
Originality Check retains…
The Similarity Report and all of its details, with source matching, flagging, exclusion options, etc.
The same paper repositories (including Brock’s internal repository) and related options.
The Brightspace integration via Assignments.
Direct access to the instructor tools within turnitin.com.
Brock’s usage of Turnitin does not and will not use the Artificial Intelligence detection features. These features were not engaged for a variety of reasons, namely the inability to test and configure the tool in any way and concerns over its transparency and overall efficacy. Brock has strengthened its stance on the usage of Generative AI detectors (in all forms) from “cautioning against” them to their use being “not institutionally condoned” (notes, dates?).
What is Turnitin?
As a reminder, Turnitin is a similarity and phrase-matching tool that can be used to scan submitted assignments. It is a learning tool that plays a role in supporting academic integrity and preventing academic misconduct. The Similarity Check does not itself detect plagiarism and both its use and the reports it generates should be examined critically and with an open mind.
As always, guidance and recommendations are available from Brock’s CPI staff (edtech@brocku.ca) and Academic Integrity Manager (acassamali@brocku.ca).
Refer to CPI’s documentation and guidelines on Turnitin’s implementation within Brightspace Assignments.
New interface/view
The update came with an optional new report interface that functions almost exactly the same as the current one. Most changes are stylistic and structural and all of the old features exist. Match information can be displayed in a few new and different ways.
It is possible to toggle back to the Classic View using the button in the top-left corner of the screen. This View retains all current features.
Both Views views share:
Match and Flag display togglestabs.
Detailed Match or Source view (click to view more).
Highlighted text showing Matches or Flags. Clicking this text in the new version will show the source information in the right-hand menu, as opposed to in a pop-up.
Filters and Exclusion options.
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The New View does not currently provide options to view matching sources in full. Immediate access to papers within the Brock local repository is not possible and the ability to request access to papers submitted to external repositories is missing. Switch to the Classic View to use either of these options.  |