Turnitin

Turnitin is an "originality checker" platform and service available within Canvas. 

When students submit assignments electronically, Turnitin will compare the text against billions of other documents on the Internet, including papers submitted by other students around the world and in commercial databases of journal articles and periodicals. Whenever similarities between the text in a student's paper and the text in an existing document are found, Turnitin highlights those similarities, providing an annotated Similarity Report showing both the student's paper and the original source.

Turnitin has launched AI writing detection capabilities in their products including Feedback Studio and Similarity. Although stating that these tools can detect "the presence of AI-assisted writing with 98% confidence and a less than one percent false-positive rate in a controlled lab environment," in long form prose of at least 300 words, this tool should not be used as a definitive judgment of plagiarism, but rather as a learning moment to discuss academic integrity in the classroom. 

Explore these Turnitin resources to better understand how to factor in the use of AI in your assessment strategies:

Students can use Turnitin Draft Coach on their web version of Microsoft Word as a guide when drafting an assignment before submitting it to their course. Turnitin Draft Coach allows students to run a Similarity Score Check to prevent unnecessary plagiarism, fix any citation and references mistakes with Citations Check, and correct any grammatical errors with Grammar Check. 

Turnitin Draft Coach is automatically enabled on the Microsoft Word web version available to CSULB students through Single Sign On (SSO). If Turnitin Draft Coach is not enabled, visit How to Add to Microsoft Word. Watch a brief video for an overview of Draft Coach for students.

Visit the  Understanding Turnitin Draft Coach guide to get started.

For the latest updates, visit these Turnitin resources:

User Instructions for Instructors

Note: If you are unsure about which version to use, don't worry! ATS Instructional Designers (IDs) are here to help. You can schedule individual consultations with them to get personalized guidance and support in making the right decision. 

User Instructions for Students