Turnitin Student Guide

Document Overview:

1. Submit a Turnitin assignment using ICON setup
   1. Submit an assignment
   2. Check your Similarity Report
   3. Troubleshoot problems
2. Submit a Turnitin assignment using Turnitin setup
   1. Submit an assignment
   2. Check your Similarity Report
   3. Troubleshoot problems
3. Files that Turnitin takes

Getting Ready

1. Log into https://icon.uiowa.edu/
2. Click on the Canvas Home tab. Go to the home page of your course within Canvas (ICON).

Follow up:

If you have questions regarding this instructional technology, please contact the ITS Help Desk at its-helpdesk@uiowa.edu.

 

For future events and trainings, please refer to https://teach.its.uiowa.edu/events/upcoming.   

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PART ONE: Determine your assignment type.

1. Go to the assignments section of your course and find your assignment.
2. Open your assignment and look at the type.
   1. If it looks like the assignment below, it is an ICON assignment. Go to Part Two to upload.

1. 2. If it looks like the assignment below, it is a Turnitin assignment set to open in ICON. Got to Part Three to upload.

PART TWO: Upload an ICON assignment that uses Turnitin

1. Click the Submit Assignment button to the right.

2. Click Browse, select a file to check and click Open at the bottom of the box.
3. If you want to turn in more than one file, click +Add Another File and then Browse for and Open that file.
4. When done adding files, click the box next to I agree to the tool’s Ender User License Agreement.
5. Click Submit Assignment. The gold box to the right will say Re-submit Assignment.

Check your Turnitin Results

1. The screen will show that the assignment is submitted. To see the results of the Similarity Report, click Submission Details in the upper left. It may take a few minutes to run the report.

2. Click the Report flag to see the originality report as a student. The report will load in a new window.

Troubleshooting ICON Assignments

If your first attempt at uploading an assignment does not work, try:

1. Again! Try again and pay careful attention to all directions. Do not click away if the upload takes a few seconds longer than expected.
2. Switching browsers. ICON usually works best in Chrome, but personal setting and extensions can have an impact, especially if you are submitting a Google Doc, so if Chrome isn’t working, give Firefox a try.
3. Contacting the ITS Help Desk. The ICON team can take a deeper look at your assignment and what happened.

 

PART THREE: Upload a Turnitin Assignment (from ICON)

1. Click Upload Submission.

 

2. Enter a Submission Title, and click Select a file to upload. Find and select the assignment from your computer.

3.You will see a brief Uploading… message.

4. Verify your submission by clicking Submit to Turnitin button at the bottom right of the screen.

5.You will see a brief Submitting… message and then a Submission Complete one.

6. This should send you back to the Assignment Dashboard with a Submission uploaded successfully notification highlighted in green.

 

 

Check your upload

1. Click on the blue paper symbol at the right to download your digital receipt. This digital receipt is proof that you have uploaded your paper to Turnitin.

 

2. Once Turnitin has scanned the assignment (this may take a few minutes), you can refresh your page and it will appear as a % (the number will be the amount that is similar to other writing.) Click the % to see your full results.

Troubleshooting Turnitin Assignments

If your first attempt at uploading an assignment does not work, try:

1. Checking your set up. Turnitin does not work well with Safari, and it doesn’t work at all with the Canvas app. Make sure you are uploading from Chrome or Firefox.
2. Again! Try again and pay careful attention to all directions. Do not click away if the upload takes a few seconds longer than expected.
3. Switching browsers. Even if you aren’t using Safari, sometimes a new browser with different settings and cookies will help.
4. Contacting the ITS Help Desk. If they can’t help right away, we can contact Turnitin to see what’s going on.

PART THREE: Files Turnitin Accepts

Turnitin only checks certain files types. If your assignment is an ICON assignment with Turnitin enabled, then you have the ability to upload the wrong file type, but it will not be checked.

• The assignment title limit is 99 characters.

 

• Turnitin submissions require a minimum of 25 words, and maximum of 400 pages, and a file size maximum of 40 MB.

 

• If the assignment is set to allow only file types that Turnitin can check for originality, Turnitin will only accept files that can generate Originality Reports. This includes:
   
  • Microsoft Word (.doc/.docx)
  • OpenOffice Text (.odt)
  • WordPerfect (.wpd)
  • PostScript (.ps/.eps)
  • HTML
  • Hangul Word Processor file (.hwp)
  • Rich text format (.rtf)
  • Plain text (.txt)
  • Google Docs via Google Drive
  • Adobe PDF
  • Microsoft PowerPoint (.pptx, .ppt, .ppsx, and .pps)
  • Microsoft Excel® (.xls and .xlsx)

 

• Turnitin will not accept PDF image files, forms, or portfolios, files that do not contain highlightable text (e.g. a scanned file - usually an image), documents containing multiple files or files created with software other than Adobe Acrobat.

 

• If submitting with Google Drive, third party cookies must be allowed in your browser, otherwise, any attempts to sign into Google to upload from Google Drive will fail. Note that Google Drive functionality is not supported with IE8 or below. Do not upload Google Doc (.gdoc) files directly to Turnitin; a .gdoc file does not store the document, but contains a reference to it online, in Google Docs.

 

• Turnitin will not accept the following to generate Originality Reports:

 

• • Password protected files
  • Microsoft® Works (.wps) files
  • Microsoft Word 2007 macros-enabled .docm files
  • OpenOffice Text (.odt) files created and downloaded from Google Docs online
  • Document (.doc) files created using OpenOffice, as they are not 100% Microsoft Word equivalent
  • Apple Pages
  • Spreadsheets created outside of Microsoft Excel (i.e. .ods)
  • Text with visual effects

 

• Turnitin converts a PowerPoint slide deck into a static PDF, leaving all text and images in their original format but leaving out features such as presenter notes, embedded video, and animations. Text with visual effects is not supported, and it is recommended that any visual effects such as shadows and 3D be removed prior to submitting to Turnitin.

 

When converting a file to a new file format, students should rename their file with a name other than that of the original file. This will prevent permanent loss of the original formatting or image content of a file due to it being overwritten.

 

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