Turnitin is a text comparison tool that is available through your Blackboard module site. When you upload your work to Turnitin, it highlights any matching text and poor citations in a similarity report by comparing your work against the Turnitin database. 

The database includes:
• student papers from Sheffield Hallam University,
• the internet and archived copies of websites,
• academic journal articles,
• and student papers from other universities subscribed to Turnitin.

If your work is considered too similarly worded to other academic work, your tutor may give feedback on how to avoid this. If there is a suspicion of intentional plagiarism, you may be called to an Academic Concern Panel, where your Turnitin similarity report could be presented as evidence of cheating.

Referencing is an essential practice when including materials from academic sources. See the Hallam Library help page on referencing for further guidance. You can watch our Turnitin Guide for Students that shows how to use Turnitin in Blackboard, explains how to understand the report, and suggests tips for improving your score.

How to use Turnitin in Blackboard

How do I upload my work to Turnitin?

Previously, students needed to upload their work to a separate Turnitin point to generate their similarity report before submitting their work to the assignment submission point, but since the move to Blackboard Ultra, that is no longer necessary. Normally as you submit your assignment in Blackboard, it will also generate the similarity report in Turnitin. Occasionally, your module leader may require you to submit to a separate Turnitin point, but they will instruct you when this is the case. 

Academic staff have been advised to set submission points to ‘unlimited attempts’. This means you can submit your work to generate a similarity report, then rework it as needed, and then submit it again, repeating until you are happy with it. Please note that after a third submission it can take up to 24 hours to receive the similarity report. Academic staff will mark the last submission received. 

If you experience difficulties when submitting, please check Turnitin’s system requirements and supported browsers page.

Step 1. To submit your work, navigate to the submission point on the module Blackboard site. Usually, the submission point is in the Assessment or Reassessment folder. Click on the submission point to open it. 

Step 2. Click in the text box to make the tools options appear. 

Step 3. You can drag and drop your work into the text box, use the paperclip option to browse for your file(s), or you can click the (+) symbol to upload it from Cloud Storage e.g. your Onedrive account. 

Step 4. After a few seconds, the [Submit] button will become available. Click it to Submit your work. 

Accessing your similarity report

 Once you have uploaded your assignment, Turnitin scans the text in your work to check for matching sources to create your similarity report. This process can take a while, depending on the size of the file submitted.   

To access the similarity report:

Step 1. Click on Gradebook in the Blackboard site. 

Step 2. Here, you will see a list of your submitted assignments. Click on a title in the Item Name column to open that submission. 

Step 3. In this next view, click on the lozenge (highlighted in the image below) that says something like [x% match] (If there is no lozenge in the highlighted location, either Turnitin was not enabled on this submission point or the option was not selected to allow you to view the similarity report). 

This opens the similarity report for that submission. 

Step 4. You are now viewing the similarity report for that submission. 

Understanding a similarity report

Within your similarity report, you will be able to see your similarity score and the percentage of content that matches sources in its system (colour coded for ease of identification).

It’s perfectly normal for an assignment to match against some of the database. If you have used quotes and referenced them correctly, there might be instances where a match will be found. The similarity score simply makes you and your lecturer aware; this can then then be used to determine if the match is or is not acceptable.

Further reading is available from Turnitin's own guides Understanding the Turnitin Similarity Report and New Similarity Report Resource Center