Instructor quick start guide

New to Turnitin? We're glad to have you with us!

This instructor quick start guide is here to help you to get started with Turnitin. To begin, you must register with Turnitin and create a user profile. If you have already received an email from Turnitin, use the Create Your Password button to start setting up your account.

Adding a class

1. Select the Add Class button to start creating a class to visit the Create a new class page.
2. Enter a class name and an enrollment key. Your students can use the enrollment key to join your class.
3. The class end date is the date that your class expires.
   

   When a class expires, students can no longer submit papers or enroll in the class. The default duration for all classes is 6 months. If you want your class to last longer, you can change the end date at any time.

4. Select the Submit button to add the class to your instructor homepage.
   
   

Class information

The class will now appear in your class list on the instructor homepage. The number to the left of your class name is the class ID. Students will use this ID, along with the class enrollment key, to enroll in your class.

You can view your class enrollment key at any time by clicking the gear-shaped edit icon to the right of your class.

You should distribute your class ID and enrollment key to your students so that they can enroll in your class and submit their papers. Be sure to include this link to our Student quick start guide.

Don't share your enrollment key publicly outside of your institution. With a Class ID and key anyone, at any institution, will be able to join your class.

Create an assignment

1. Within your class homepage click on the Add Assignment button to create an assignment.
2. Enter an assignment title and choose a start and due date for the assignment.
3. The default assignment submission option is to Allow only file types that Turnitin can check for similarity. However, for non-writing assignments, instructors can select Allow any file type.

   If Allow any file type is selected, instructors can leave feedback on and download submitted files, but Turnitin may not be able to generate similarity reports or display the uploaded file within the Turnitin Viewer.

   Similarity Reports can be generated for the following file types:
   
   

   • Microsoft Word
   • PowerPoint
   • WordPerfect
   • PostScript
   • PDF
   • HTML
   • RTF
   • OpenOffice (ODT)
   • Hangul (HWP)
   • Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets (submitted via the Google Drive submission option),
   • Plain text files
   
   Students will be able to submit their papers to the assignment starting on the start date and until the due date passes.

4. Select the Submit button to add the assignment to your class homepage.
   
   

Submit a paper on behalf of a student

1. If you'd like to submit papers on behalf of your students, select View alongside the paper assignment name to open the assignment inbox.
2. Select the Submit Paper button.
3. On the paper submission page, enter the paper's title and select the author's name from the author drop-down menu of enrolled students.
4. You can upload a file from your computer, Dropbox, or Google Drive.
5. When you are done, select the Upload button to upload the paper.
   
   

Accessing the submission inbox

After you submit a paper, our system will begin processing the paper and will generate a Similarity Report within minutes for supported file types.

To view the report, select the Inbox button on submission confirmation page. Your assignment inbox will open.

You can open the assignment inbox from your class homepage by selecting the View link in the Actions column alongside the paper assignment.

Viewing Similarity Reports

1. The assignment inbox shows submitted papers with their similarity Reports. To open the similarity report for a paper, select the report icon.

   A grayed out report icon indicates that the report has not yet been generated. Please wait a few moments and click your browser's refresh button.

2. The Similarity Report will open in a new window. We call this the Turnitin Viewer. The Turnitin Viewer allows instructors to access each Turnitin product in one location and view all the products simultaneously as layers.
3. All the top sources found to match the paper submission are in the sidebar to the right of the paper contents.

   Top sources have the closest match (most matching words without variation) to the document's text.

4. To view all underlying sources for a top source, hover the cursor over the source and select on the arrow icon. The overlapping sources are listed below the top source.
5. To exclude a source from the Match Breakdown list, select the Select Sources to be Excluded button at the bottom of the source list.
6. Select the checkbox for each source you would like to exclude.
7. Once you have selected all the sources to exclude, use the Exclude (#) button at the bottom of the Match Breakdown list. If the sources that were excluded affect the Similarity Index, it will recalculate and display a new percentage of matching content.
   
   

Leaving feedback

From the Assignment Inbox, select on the blue pencil icon next to the paper title to open the paper with our online grading tools to grade the student submission online. Turnitin Feedback Studio contains several tools and types of marks that instructors can use in grading and assessing papers.

These include the following:

• Comments
• Inline comments
• QuickMark comments
• Rubric scorecards
• Summary comments
• Voice comments

For more information about online grading tools, check out the rest of our guidance.