Turnitin website release notes
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2024 June 6
Updated instructor management for administrators
We have made improvements to the administrator’s instructor list page to streamline instructor management and provide insights into Turnitin usage within your institution.
A search bar has been provided to easily search for specific instructors, and a new class details view is available for each instructor.
To access the new instructor list, select the icon within the Instructors column, as the Instructor tab has been removed to accommodate the new workflow.
Learn more about managing your instructors.
2024 April 9
Turnitin website restriction settings for integration users
We have continued to work on our website restriction settings and administrators can now fully restrict user access of the Turnitin website to a "disabled" status if the account is integrated with a learning management system. When enabled, instructor and student users will be able to log into Turnitin using the website and view their account name, but can only view and interact with their account on their LMS.
2024 March 27
Quick Submit daily submission limit
We have introduced an initial limit of 100 Quick Submit submissions within a 24-hour period. This limit will not affect student submissions or submissions made on behalf of students by their instructors. Check out our guidance to learn more about Quick Submit.
2024 March 19
Turnitin website view-only settings for integration users
Administrators can now restrict user access of the Turnitin website to a "view only" status if the account is integrated with a learning management system. When enabled, instructor and student users will be able to log into Turnitin using the website and view their existing class, assignment, and submission details, but they will be unable to create, edit, or submit.
2024 March 6
Turnitin assignment inbox enhancements
We have released an update to our web based assignment inbox for better management of assignments and student submissions. These changes are designed to streamline your workflow and lay the foundation for exciting enhancements in the future.
These changes include:
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New search bar functionality
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Dynamic flags column in the assignment inbox
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Automated paper deletion workflow
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Streamlined PeerMark assignment setup
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OneDrive submissions now supported
Learn more about the new assignment inbox.
This release also impacts how students will submit their work. Learn more about the student submission workflow.
2024 February 13
AI writing statistics
We have released AI Writing statistics to the Statistics page in the administrator area of Turnitin. AI Writing statistics are only available for accounts that have the AI Writing feature as part of their license type and the feature enabled by the account administrator.
When enabled, the AI Writing chart is visible at the top of the page. This chart is a visual representation of AI Writing scores found for documents submitted to the account during the specified date.
Learn more about how to access your account’s Statistics page.
2024 January 23
Approved paper deletions cannot be recovered
Once an administrator approves a paper deletion request from an instructor, the submission is immediately deleted and removed from our database and the assignment inbox. Once deleted, the submission can no longer be recovered by the administrator or our Technical Support team.
2024 January 1
The AI writing preview has ended
Preview access to AI writing detection has ended as of December 31, 2023. Access to this capability is only available to customers that license Turnitin Originality. Check out our resources to help you navigate important conversations about AI in written work.
AI writing admin setting
The AI writing detection setting is now controlled by the top-level parent account. Disabling the setting from the top-level account will disable AI writing access for all associated sub-accounts. When enabled at the top-level, sub-accounts can enable or disable the setting as needed.
2023 November 28
Secret question removed from password reset
To improve account security, the secret question and answer workflow has been removed as a method of resetting passwords for users with administrator and instructor accounts. Students are still able to use their secret answer as a method of resetting their password.
We are continuing to work on improvements to website access and security. Stay informed on upcoming updates through our release notes page.
2023 November 27
Updates to AI Writing
We will only process submissions for AI writing detection if your institution has the feature enabled.
If AI writing is disabled and then re-enabled, any submissions made while disabled will need to be resubmitted to receive an AI writing report.
2023 November 24
Missing QuickMarks and long loading time known issue resolved
Some of our users reported experiencing delays with loading QuickMark sets or have missing QuickMarks from sets in Feedback Studio. We investigated this issue and can now confirm it has been resolved. The known issue page has been updated accordingly.
2023 November 01
New Similarity Report experience now available for instructor users of Originality Check
The new Similarity Report experience provides a more robust look at instances of similarity for faster insights. Instructors will notice some new and familiar tools.
What to expect in the new Similarity Report
Overall Similarity - The overall similarity is the percentage of text in a submission that matches to sources in our database (calculated by dividing the number of matching words by the total number of words in the submission). Check out our guidance about interpreting the new report.
Match Groups - In this new default view, the overall similarity is divided into four categories based on the usage of in-text citations and quotation marks. Any material in the submission matched to a source is highlighted in the corresponding match group color. Check out our guidance about using the new Match Groups.
Match groups are only available for English language submissions.
Sources - This view displays a list of sources with the highest percentage of text matched for each submission highlight. Switching to this view will change the match-to-source highlights to a rotating color scheme. Choose the Show overlapping sources option for a list of every source matched to the submission, including sources matched to the same text.
Opt out of the new Similarity Report experience
The new report is still completely optional for instructors. Administrators are able to opt out of the new Similarity Report experience in the account settings. This will disable the new report completely for all instructors.
Check out our administrator guidance for opting out of the new Similarity Report experience.
2023 October 30th
Bug fix for Quick Submit
We have fixed a bug that was affecting the multiple file and zip uploads for Quick Submit. Entering the author’s full name for all Quick Submit upload options will allow for successful submission to Turnitin if they follow our file requirements.
2023 October 2nd
Single quotes can now be excluded from Similarity Reports
We are now able to detect the use of single quotation marks as a part of the quote exclusion setting for the Similarity Report, while continuing to ignore the use of apostrophes. To learn about the other quote formats that are recognized for this exclusion setting, check out our guidance.
2023 September 26th
Students must now be enrolled to submit on their behalf
Students must be enrolled in a class before an instructor is able to submit to an assignment on the student’s behalf. Check out our guidance on enrolling students or submitting on behalf of students. If your institution has reached its student limit, contact your Turnitin account administrator.
2023 September 12th
Password requirement updates
We have increased the requirements for creating or resetting passwords to improve your account’s security. New passwords must:
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have a minimum of 12 characters
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include at least one number (0-9)
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include upper and lower case letters (a-z, A-Z)
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include at least one special character
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not include blank spaces
Check out our password reset guidance if you would like to strengthen your password.
2023 August 23rd
Updates to the AI writing PDF report
We have added more information to the downloadable PDF version of the AI writing report to now include account, class, and assignment details when available.
2023 August 9th
Download the AI writing report
Users now have the ability to download the AI writing report as a PDF file. This new capability allows you to share the AI writing reports with ease, empowering you with a portable format for offline reference and collaboration.
Select the Download option from the top menu to begin the download.
2023 May 24th
AI writing detection updates to address our customers’ false positives concerns
New messaging for results between 1 and 20 percent
As a result of customer feedback and additional testing, we learned that AI writing detection results between 1 and 20 percent have a higher incidence of false positives. In order to reduce the likelihood of misinterpretation, we have changed the AI indicator and AI writing report to contain an asterisk for percentages less than 20 to call attention to the fact that the score is less reliable.
We have added a new tooltip and in-app notification to help users have a better understanding of the significance of low percentages.
Increased required word count to 300 words
Submissions will now require 300 words of prose text in a long-form writing format order for our model to provide an AI writing detection determination.
Prose text contained in a long-form writing format means individual sentences contained in paragraphs that make up a longer piece of written work, such as an essay, a dissertation, or an article, etc.
AI writing detection model updates
We’ve released an update to our AI writing detection model, which includes:
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Adjusted how we aggregate sentences at the beginning and ending of the document.
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Improved handling of formatting and line breaks.
To learn more about our AI writing detection model, and to get continued updates, visit our AI writing detection model release notes page.
2023 May 16th
Administrator settings - AI writing indicator visibility toggle
We have released a setting for our administrator users that will allow them to toggle the visibility of Turnitin’s AI writing detection capabilities.
AI writing detection capabilities are enabled for all accounts as default.
If administrators would prefer that instructors in their account do not see our AI writing indicator, they can now hide this feature by going to their account settings, find the section for AI Writing, and deselecting the checkbox.
Once turned off, users will no longer be able to see the AI writing indicator in the Similarity Report. This means they will not be able to open the AI writing report.
To turn the visibility of the capabilities back on, administrators can select the same option from their settings page.
2023 April 4th
AI Writing Detection
Turnitin is excited to release our new AI writing detection capabilities. It is available for all non-student users who can access Similarity Reports, as well as those using them through an integration with a learning management system or Turnitin’s Core API.
AI detection will only work for content submitted in English. It will not process any non-English submissions. As we continue to iterate, we will keep you updated on developments around non-English language support.
When you open a Similarity Report, the new AI writing indicator in the side panel. After a short period of processing, the indicator will display one of three potential states:
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Blue with a percentage between 0 and 100: The submission has processed successfully. The displayed percentage indicates the amount of qualifying text within the submission that Turnitin’s AI writing detection model determines was generated by AI. As noted previously, this percentage is not necessarily the percentage of the entire submission. If text within the submission was not considered long-form prose text, it will not be included. Our testing has found that there is a higher incidence of false positives when the percentage is between 1 and 20. In order to reduce the likelihood of misinterpretation, the AI indicator will display an asterisk (*) for percentages between 1 and 20 to call attention to the fact that the score is less reliable. To explore the results of the AI writing detection capabilities, select the indicator to open the AI writing report. The AI writing report opens in a new tab of the window used to launch the Similarity Report. If you have a pop-up blocker installed, ensure it allows Turnitin pop-ups.
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Gray with no percentage displayed (- -): The AI writing detection indicator is unable to process this submission. This state means that the AI writing report cannot be opened. This can be due to one, or several, of the following reasons:
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Error ( ! ): This error means that Turnitin has failed to process the submission. This state means that the AI writing report cannot be opened. Turnitin is constantly working to improve its service, but unfortunately, events like this can occur. Please try again later. If the file meets all the file requirements stated above, and this error state still shows, please get in touch through our support center so we can investigate for you. |
The AI writing report contains the overall percentage of prose sentences contained in a long-form writing format within the submitted document that Turnitin’s AI writing detection model determines was generated by AI. These sentences are highlighted in blue on the submission text in the AI writing report.
Prose text contained in long-form writing means individual sentences contained in paragraphs that make up a longer piece of written work, such as an essay, a dissertation, or an article, etc. The model does not reliably detect AI-generated text in the form of non-prose, such as poetry, scripts, or code, nor does it detect short-form/unconventional writing such as bullet points, tables, or annotated bibliographies.
This means that a document containing several different writing types would result in a disparity between the percentage and the highlights.
The percentage, generated by Turnitin’s AI writing detection model, is different and independent from the similarity score, and the AI writing highlights are not visible in the Similarity Report.
How Turnitin has made this determination is complex. To help our users understand Turnitin’s method of detecting AI writing text, we have created an extensive FAQ. Learn more about how Turnitin detects AI-generated writing.
Our AI writing assessment is designed to help educators identify text that might be prepared by a generative AI tool. Our AI writing assessment may not always be accurate (it may misidentify both human and AI-generated text) so it should not be used as the sole basis for adverse actions against a student. It takes further scrutiny and human judgment in conjunction with an organization's application of its specific academic policies to determine whether any academic misconduct has occurred.
2023 February 7th
We've updated the default Class end date to 12 months (365 days)
The default end date when creating a new class is now 12 months (365 days).
Previously, unless instructors set a custom class end date, the system default was 6 months (185 days). This was causing classes to expire sooner than desired.
Instructors can still set a custom end date for any class or masterclass they create. View the Instructor help guides for creating a class and extending a class.
2022 October 5th
Administrators will now receive a weekly wrap-up email for Paper Deletion requests
Until now, each paper deletion request an administrator receives would be sent as a separate email. However, based on user feedback, we’ve changed this email to only be sent once a week.
We have seen the benefit of identifying large numbers of requests via our efforts to tackle misuse. While receiving multiple emails was not ideal for these institutions, they were able to identify cases of misuse where their accounts had been compromised far more easily than ever before.
As such, we have designed this new email to be the best of both worlds. While it is only sent once a week, Sundays, it will contain both the total number of pending requests and the number of new requests that have been added to the total since the last email.
To be clear, administrators can process a request at any time after it has been made. They will also continue to receive instant in-product messages for each request. This change simply consolidates their multiple emails into something that is far more actionable and insightful.
Accounts that have chosen to a designated email address to receive paper deletion requests will now receive this email.
2022 August 23rd
Administrators can now review and approve previously rejected paper deletion requests
Administrators now have the ability to view all rejected paper deletion requests and permanently delete papers there or download a log of rejected requests. Previously, when paper deletion requests were rejected by mistake or the paper needed to be deleted after further review, Administrators had to contact support to have the papers permanently removed from the repository.
We advise Instructors to contact their account administrator with any questions about rejected paper deletion requests.
Check out the administrator guidance to learn more.
2022 August 18th
Administrators can now designate an email address to receive paper deletions requests
Administrators can designate an email address to receive paper deletion requests in the account settings. Previously, the requests were sent directly to the account administrator. Users will now be able to send these requests to an email address of their choice to help effectively manage requests.
Only the account administrator can approve or reject a paper deletion request. Designating an email address will not allow that user to review requests and is simply to aid visibility within your institution.
In the account settings, find the Paper Deletion information section. From here you will be able to decide whether you would like the paper deletion requests to be sent directly to the account administrator's email, or whether you would like to designate a different email to receive requests.
Care should be taken to only designate an address that meets the data privacy requirements of your institution, as emails may contain personal information as a part of the request.
Learn more in this administrator guide.
2022 August 2nd
Paper deletions now feature enhanced data and security
Administrators can now see the email address of the user who submitted the paper deletion in their Deletion Requests tab. To further improve account security, instructors may only submit up to 50 paper deletion requests within one hour.
For Administrators, the experience remains the same by managing requests via turnitin.com/turnitinuk.com. Check out the admin guide to learn more.
For Instructors, the process for submitting requests is unchanged, unless the hourly limit is reached – at which point 60 minutes must transpire before they can submit another deletion request. View the instructor guide for more information.
2022 July 12th
Teaching Assistants now need an instructor profile to be assigned a class section
We’ve updated the Teaching Assistant (TA) feature within Feedback Studio to enhance account security. Now, an administrator must add any new TA to an account as an instructor before the primary master class instructor can assign them to a class section.
Multiple domains can now be authenticated for Draft Coach
Previously, only one domain (@exampleuniversity.com) could be authenticated when setting up Draft Coach. Now administrators can authenticate up to 10 individual domains to access Turnitin Draft Coach.
2022 June 28th
We've been busy! Turnitin Draft Coach is now available for Microsoft Word online
Turnitin Draft Coach for Microsoft has graduated from its beta phase and is now available to all users of Turnitin Feedback Studio or Turnitin Originality. All Draft Coach tools for similarity, citation and grammar checking are available to use in Microsoft Word online documents.
The Turnitin QuickMark Manager has a new look
We've updated the QuickMark Manager with a new look and enhancements which will take effect on accounts in the UK on June 28th, 2022 and globally on July 12th, 2022.
For Administrators, the QuickMarks experience is much the same. Check out the admin guide to learn more.
For Instructors, the QuickMark Manager has a few enhancements and can now be accessed from the homepage. Check out the instructor guide to learn more.
2022 June 7th
Grammar Guide statistics are now available for Turnitin Draft Coach
We've introduced a new statistic which will allow administrators to view the total number of grammar checks their students have used within a specified time period.
.CSV reports can now be downloaded for Draft Coach statistics
When downloading .CSV reports of usage statistics, administrators can now select Draft Coach as the data set. The .CSV file will provide the data for:
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Active users
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The number of similarity, citation, and grammar checks
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Similarity score percentage ranges from the similarity checks.
2022 June 7th
Paper deletion requests can now be made from within the LTI inbox
Building on the global release of paper deletion requests on April 13th, users can now directly request a paper deletion from within the LTI inbox.
For Administrators, the experience will continue to be exactly the same by managing requests via turnitin.com/turnitinuk.com. Check out the admin guide to learn more.
For Instructors, we’ve replicated the workflow from the core experience, but made it available in the LTI inbox itself. Check out the instructor guide to learn more.
2022 May 25th
Paper deletions are now available for Quick Submit submissions
Following on from our April 12th release, paper deletion requests can now be made for submissions that have been submitted via Quick Submit. Papers deleted in this way will still enter a 30-day window in which they can be restored by the account administrator.
2022 April 12th
Self-managed paper deletions are now available for your institution (Available in all regions)
Paper Deletion requests can now be fully managed within your school. Previously, to ensure that we had the legal basis to process a deletion request, we had to require that requests come from the account administrator and were confirmed directly by them. This very manual process required multiple steps of exchanging emails.
Now, instructors can make a request from directly within the Assignment Inbox. We then pass this request to the account administrator, who can approve or reject it immediately without any need to contact Turnitin.
Curious to learn more? Check out the full Administrator and Instructor guides for all the details.
This is now defaulted on for all users of turnitin.com. Turnitinuk.com users retain the setting they have already applied. Not quite ready for this change? Learn how to toggle it off for now.
This is now the primary method for deleting papers going forwards for users of turnitin.com, turnitinuk.com, and Blackboard Basic. It makes the entire process self-serve and allows you to take control of the legal requirements of your institution. Paper deletion requests coming via the old method will only be considered in exceptional circumstances.
As we need to ensure a more thorough deletion of all user data, this method can’t be used for GDPR requests. Please contact legal@turnitin.com, and we’d be happy to help.
‘Submit paper to’ becomes a core Turnitin setting (Available in all regions)
Our research into paper deletions taught us that many instructors rarely change the optional settings once initially configured. While we encourage users to regularly check these settings to tailor the assignment truly to your teaching goals, we’ve made this setting one of the core options at the top of the assignment creation page.
The setting will work exactly as it did previously, but will be far more prominent when creating a new assignment.
2022 January 28th
Instructors assigned to a subaccount will be removed from the primary account when the subaccount is deleted
When assigned to a subaccount, any instructor will appear in the list of instructors in the primary account too. This gives the primary administrator an overview of all the instructors within their school. However, when a subaccount was deleted, the instructors attached to it would still show in the list of instructor in the primary account. Trying to select one of these instructors would result in an error message, as the instructor no longer existed.
We've changed how we search for instructors when loading the account page now, so that instructors from deleted accounts will no longer appear.
2022 January 11th
Templates can now be excluded from Similarity Reports
Templates can now be entered during assignment creation so that they have no influence on similarity scores and will be automatically excluded from student Similarity Reports. To find out more, check out our guidance.
2021 December 16th
Download individual papers when using anonymous marking
Users can currently download submitted files for an Anonymous marking assignment in bulk before the post-date has passed, but have always been prevented from downloading individual files. You'll now be able to download individual files in the same way. The student's name will not be shown within the file name to avoid breaking anonymity.
If a student has added personal information to the submission it self, this is not stripped from the file like it wouldn't be if you viewed the file within the Turnitin viewer.
Correct links used on our Traditional Chinese login page
We've fixed a bug where the New User and Reset Password pages would not go to their localized version when following the link from the localized login page. They'll now go to the right place.
Grading templates are deleted immediately (UK Only)
Continuing the work from our previous release, we've made further refinements to the paper deletion process. Grading Templates do not contain any intellectual property or personal information that requires the account administrator to approve before deletion. You can still use the 'Request Permanent Deletion' button to delete these files, but they'll immediately skip the queue and be deleted.
After deletion, a grading template, and any associated grading, can't be recovered by the account administrator or by Turnitin.
2021 November 11th
Paper Deletion requests are now fully managed by the account administrator (turnitinuk.com only)
Only available on Turnitinuk.com, and UK users of Blackboard Basic and LTI.
Previously, to ensure that we had the legal basis to process a deletion request, we had to require that requests come from the account administrator and were confirmed directly by them. Now, instructors can make a request from directly within the Assignment Inbox. We then pass this request to the account administrator, who can approve or reject it immediately without any need to contact Turnitin.
This is now defaulted on for all users of turnitinuk.com. Not quite ready for this change? Check out the guide to learn how to toggle it off for now.
Paper Deletions have not been added to the LTI Inbox yet. However, these users can log in to turnitinuk.com directly to make a request. When a paper is deleted in this way, it won't be removed from the LTI inbox. Users of unsupported integrations can continue to use the manual process.
We’ll be rolling it out to all users, including via other integrations, in the coming months.
Once live for your geography or access path, this is the only way to make a paper deletion request going forwards, bringing the control entirely within your school. You won't have to contact Turnitin manually except in the most exceptional of circumstances.
As we need to ensure a more thorough deletion of all user data, this method can’t be used for GDPR requests. Please contact legal@turnitin.com, and we’d be happy to help.
2021 October 20th
Special characters will display correctly
A bug had caused some account names to not encode into the correct character. For example, Instructor Smith's Account would display as Instructor Smith's Account. This bug has now been fixed.
2021 September 23rd
Unnecessary pronouns removed from the paper view request email
Turnitin is committed to providing an equitable and inclusionary experience for everyone who uses our products. While this may be a relatively minor change, we are actively looking for areas we can improve in all aspects of Turnitin.
In this change, we found that the Paper View Request email unnecessarily gendered the instructor and did not account for users who do not identify as a binary gender.
Before this change:
This instructor has found a '23%' match to this paper in a paper submitted to his or her 'Natural History' class.
After this change:
The requesting instructor has found a '23%' match to this paper in their 'Natural History' class
Draft Coach stats will load correctly
A bug in how we populate Draft Coach statistics in on the account statistics page could prevent from any Draft Coach statistics from loading correctly. This has been now fixed and you can continue to see insights into how your students are engaging with Draft Coach.
Top-level administrators can now see the instructors for sub-accounts they do not administrator
Top-level administrators were always supposed to be able to have full visibility into any sub-accounts they create. However, a bug would cause a 500 error when attempting to access the instructor list a sub-account that another administrator manages. This bug has now been fixed.
2021 September 16th
Text-Only Similarity report will no longer show hexadecimal code
In some very rare situations, the text-only Similarity Report would encounter character encoding it didn't know how to interpret correctly and would show hexadecimal code in place of a character (such as 0x7f483164e4c0). The Similarity Reports themselves were not affected and still showed an accurate representation of what we found in the document. We've fixed this encoding issue and users should no longer see hexadecimal code in the text-only view.
2021 August 23rd
Grammar Guide in Turnitin Draft Coach now provides detailed examples for each grammatical issue.
Detailed examples of each grammatical rule are now available to further a student's understanding of the issue and build their confidence to correct their own writing. Grammar Guide will surface the examples at the bottom of their applicable issue card if any grammatical issues are found after running a check.
2021 August 4th
Criterion headers will be correctly ordered in the Online Grading report
The Online Grading Report will now respect the order chosen from criterion within a rubric. Previously, the report would change them to be sorted alphabetically. We hope this change will help you find even more value from the Online Grading report's insights. Sorted!
[ ] Rubrics now allow you to use square brackets in titles
A bug had prevented the use of square brackets within the title of a rubric's title. This has been fixed. Sometimes, it's hip to be [].
2021 July 28th
Setting up Turnitin Draft Coach just got easier!
Previously, administrators would have to "Request Turnitin Draft Coach" and wait for us to add the product to their institution’s account. Selecting "Request Turnitin Draft Coach" from the Integrations Configuration page will now send administrators directly to the setup page without them having to wait for a confirmation email. Please note that the setup page may take up to 10 seconds to load.
2021 July 27th
Enhanced synonym swapping detection
One way people try to get around similarity matching is by changing words within plagiarized content to similar synonyms in the hope that we can’t detect these changes. With this release, we will catch more instances of this method of academic misconduct while not increasing false positives.
This enhancement will help to improve the accuracy of the Similarity Report and provide actionable insights instructors can use to promote original writing with their students.
As this is a refinement to how we generate the Similarity Report, you don't have to do anything to enable it. Any Similarity Reports generated from now on will simply be even more accurate than they were before if someone tries to cheat in this way.
2021 July 21st
Grammar Guide is now available within Turnitin Draft Coach
As well as having access to Similarity and Citation Checks, students can now benefit from our new Grammar Guide. Similar to our Citation Check tool, Grammar Guide will highlight any US-English grammatical errors (not including spelling) and provide in-app guidance on how they can be resolved. The tool will automatically appear in a tab alongside similarity and citations for anyone newly applying the add-on to a document; any existing documents with Draft Coach may need to refresh the page for Grammar Guide to appear.
2021 June 24th
View Turnitin Draft Coach statistics on our redesigned Admin Stats page
We’ve introduced four new statistics that provide meaningful insights into how your institution is helping students to create original work and learn how to use citations correctly.
The new insights you now have access to are:
Active student users - The number of students who made at least one Similarity or Citation Check in the chosen period.
Times Added - The number of unique documents created with at least one Similarity or Citation Check. Multiple checks on the same document are not counted.
Similarity Checks - The total number of Similarity Checks during the chosen period. Students are limited to three Similarity Checks per document.
Citation Checks - The total number of Citation Checks during the chosen period.
To help reduce clutter, these new stats will only appear once Turnitin Draft Coach has been configured for your account.
That’s not all! We’ve also taken this opportunity to give the statistics provided for Turnitin Feedback Studio a refresh too. While they still represent the same statistics, we’ve changed the associated labels to make them easier to understand. Look out for a few more usability improvements coming to this page soon!
2021 June 23rd
Download original file as PDF without error
One of the options when downloading a file from the assignment inbox is to download a version of the original file that has been converted to a PDF. Files that can't be converted to PDF will no longer be included in the zip file we generate.
2021 April 6th
Sign in to Turnitin using Clever Single Sign-On
If your institution uses Clever, you will now be able to sign in to Turnitin Feedback Studio using Clever SSO.
Once SSO has been set up by a District Admin, you will be able to log into Turnitin using your Clever account by selecting the Log in with Clever button on your Turnitin login page, or by selecting the option from your Clever Portal.
Log in with Clever SSO as an instructor using this guide.
Log in with Clever SSO as a student using this guide.
2021 March 18th
Thanks for the Feedback!
Thanks for the feedback! We are so pleased that users are keen to work with us to make Turnitin a tool that truly reflects your needs. The user interview sign-up form will be going away for a little while as we start our first phase of testing. Worry not! It will be back later when we should have some exciting things to show you.
You can opt-out our user research at any time by following the 'Unsubscribe' link found in any email we send you.
2021 March 11th
Introducing the Learning Analytics Report
Now found in your Class Homepage, you'll find two columns. 'Class Summary' allows you to download the class usage statistics you'll already be familiar with. New, as of this release, you'll also find the 'Learning Analytics' column.
The Learning Analytics Report gives you actionable insight into how students have interacted with class assignments and the feedback you have provided them with. Together, both reports provide a holistic understanding of student engagement with your class. Be sure to pass on the guide so others can learn how to download the report.
2021 March 4th
Turnitin’s similarity scores become more accurate and informative today
Similarity is at the heart of Turnitin and we always look for methods to make our reports more accurate and representative of the wide variety of sources students now have access to. Recently, we’ve refined how our similarity scores are calculated, and we’re excited to share it with our you.
While any changes to individual reports are relatively minor, it continues our commitment to providing Instructors with a reliable and genuine representation of a submission’s similarity.
This release includes:
- Better detection and exclusion accuracy of quotes
- Better prioritization of internet sources (for example prioritizing a match against wikipedia.com instead of randomblog.com)
- Better matching more content across our various databases
As always, all submissions to Turnitin are checked against our latest and most accurate similarity technologies. You may notice a small percentage of previously submitted papers experience minor changes as we continue to innovate.
Any questions? Check out our FAQ.
2021 February 17th
User Feedback Button has been added to Feedback Studio
Let’s talk! We want your help to shape the future of Turnitin. A User Feedback Button has been added to the Similarity Report viewer, allowing you to volunteer yourself to possibly become involved with surveys, one-on-one interviews, or previews of potential new products and features. This button is only visible for instructors.
If you would like to get involved, simply select the gray icon of the waving person on the panel within a Similarity Report. Complete the Sign-Up form to be entered into our database of potential participants. If you change your mind at any time, simply unsubscribe to any participation emails you receive.
We look forward to working with you!
2021 January 27th
Apostrophes are allowed in rubric titles
While including an apostrophe in a rubric title would still allow you to create it, a bug had prevented these rubrics from appearing in the list shown creating an assignment. This bug has now been fixed and rubrics with an apostrophe can be attached to an assignment like any other rubric.
2021 January 21st
Turnitin Draft Coach has been fully released
Turnitin Draft Coach has graduated from its beta phase and is now fully released! Together, let’s encourage students to review and revise their work so that they can refine their draft into something great! Since its initial beta release, we have made some improvements and additions based on the feedback provided by users.
- Easier setup
- We have slimmed down the initial set up process, making it easier for administrators to configure to their account.
- In-app guidance
- We have added in-app guidance to instruct students how to best use the similarity and citation checks, and make corrections.
- More to come!
- Although Draft Coach is no longer in beta, throughout 2021 we are continuing to add features and access points to make it a more formative and available tool for your students.
2021 January 15th
Digital Receipts reflect the latest draft
When a file is submitted to Turnitin, we record the date and time it reaches us. A bug had caused us to only show the time of the first upload, even when we have received multiple drafts. Now, the date of the digital receipt will reflect the latest draft.
2021 January 6th
Reflection and Revision assignments have been deprecated
To simplify assignment creation, we have removed the ability to create a reflection and revision assignment. This functionality echoed what was already possible with a standard assignment but with added unnecessary steps.
If you used this functionality, worry not! We have prepared a guide on how you can use a standard assignment to retain the similar functionality. By creating a standard assignment in this way, you can tailor the assignment exactly to your assessment needs.
2020 November 17th
Changing academic sessions updates roster sync
When an academic session is changed within your student information system, updates to your relevant class dates in Turnitin will be updated, as you would expect.
If you tried to use this feature prior to this release, updating your academic session will push the updates to Turnitin.
2020 November 4th
Printed and all other versions of the similarity score are now aligned when viewing the translated Similarity Report
A bug had caused the translated matching Similarity Report to not take into account exclusions when calculating the similarity score. This bug caused a mismatch when viewing the printed report, as it would apply the exclusions.
View the submissions of dropped students when using Roster Sync
When a student is dropped from a class using roster sync, you can now view their previous submissions as if they were still a member of the class. The student will effectively be locked and unable to interact with the class further. If you later re-add a student, we will match this data to them automatically. To completely delete a student and all of their data, a request can be made to our support team by your account administrator via our support center.
2020 October 13th
Faster saving voice comments
Audio comments will now save to Turnitin significantly more quickly. If you've experienced a delay in comments saving in the past, you'll now notice that the process will only take a matter of a few seconds.
2020 October 8th
View submissions for locked students
You can now view the submissions of students that have been locked as you would for any other student. This can be used in academic integrity investigations to still view potential problem areas of students who you don't want to interact with their assignment further.
2020 September 30th
Welcome emails with special characters send successfully
Welcome emails that contained characters non-Latin alphabets had unsuccessfully sent. We've fixed this bug as a matter of priority as we can't wait to have new users join our community of educators.
If you think one of your users may have been impacted by this bug, you can redirect them to our account setup page to get started!
On this page all they need is the email address you used that didn't receive the email and their Family name to confirm we have the right person.
Alternatively, you can resend the welcome email by following this guide.
2020 September 23rd
Voice comments now use HTML5
At the end of 2020, Adobe will deprecate their Flash technology in favor of other open standards. As a part of this, all major browsers have also announced their removal of support.
To help ensure an effortless transition between the two technologies, we have made the change earlier than the deadline. As of this release, we now use HTML5 to record voice comments for users. You should notice little to no difference in how you use Turnitin (except things might be just a little faster!).
2020 September 17th
A new 'Paraphrasing' QuickMark set
When referenced correctly, paraphrasing can be perfectly acceptable in a well-written essay. This new QuickMark set will give students an extra helping hand by giving you a simple and clear way of indicating parts of an assignment than might need a little extra attention. You'll find this QuickMark set already available to you in your QuickMark library.
2020 September 16th
Create grading templates when 'Student's choice of repository' is selected
When 'Student's choice of repository' was selected for an assignment, an error would occur when trying to set a Grading Template causing it to not attach to the assignment. We've fixed this bug, and the two features can be used together once again!
2020 August 7th
Switch between languages
On some browser versions, a bug had prevented users from successfully changing the language used in the interface of Turnitin. This bug has been fixed as a priority and we’re happy to report that full functionality has been restored for all languages.
2020 August 4th
All Users. All Integrations.
Check for common integrity Flags in a submission
Flags are a simple way of checking a document for common forms of academic misconduct. A Flag is not necessarily an indicator of a problem. However, if you find one in a submission, we'd recommend focusing your attention there for further review.
There are two forms of Flags available at launch - Replaced Characters and Hidden text. Both are methods touted on social media as ways of circumventing similarity matching.
Replaced Characters will highlight any time an author has used a character that is different from the rest of the document — for example, Swapping a Latin O with a Greek omicron Ο. To the naked eye, these are difficult to spot; now we’ll Flag them for you!
Hidden Text is an attempt to blend text in with a white background. This can lead to an artificially inflated word count or attempts to turn plagiarized text into quoted text, so it is excluded from the Similarity Report.
Certain Turnitin licenses. All Integrations.
View authorship data for a submitted file
Document details are just that - details about a document! All files have metadata that is attached by the computer they use and the software they use. Metadata is simply data about data; in this case, data about the file a user submits.
Depending on file type, this can include fonts used within the paper, the paper size, the author’s name, software used to compose the document, and a bunch of other useful information!
These details can be used to investigate multiple avenues of academic misconduct. For example, multiple fonts used in a document may indicate that content has been copied from the internet. A different author’s name may suggest that a student has used an essay writing service. There can be genuine reasons for these matches, but we’d recommend further investigation when something doesn’t look right
2020 July 30th
PeerMark reviews are contained to their PeerMark Assignment
It's possible to have multiple PeerMark assignments for a single primary assignment. However, if a student had reviews assigned in both PeerMark assignments, they would be displayed as if they belonged to a single assignment. We'll now correctly display the reviews a student has to do in the Assignment Inbox for each assignment.
More characters sets are now supported in .zip file upload file titles
Special characters and non-Latin character sets are now better supported when used in the file title of a .zip file. Previously, some character sets would cause Turnitin to reject the .zip file as we were unable to process the characters. We're happy to report we've improved how these files are processed and they'll now successfully upload.
2020 July 1st
Students can now view their submission and instructor feedback without receiving error messages
It was discovered that a small number of students were receiving error messages when attempting to open their submission or view QuickMarks left by their instructor. This has now been resolved and students can view their papers and feedback without issue.
Grading Form bugs have been resolved
Our engineering team have been working on a few intermittent bugs that have been interfering with applying grades to Grading Forms. You may have experienced one of the following:
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Grades may not have updated if they were applied or edited by navigating quickly through submissions using the arrows within Feedback Studio.
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A grade may not have saved if applied before Feedback Studio had loaded fully after opening.
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Selecting Apply to Grade may not have saved the criterion or rubric score.
These have all been resolved.
2020 June 17th
More accurate bibliography exclusions
For English language papers, Turnitin no longer requires the use of beginning and terminating phrases to identify a Bibliography. We now use a machine learning algorithm to understand the paper on a deeper level and dynamically exclude content with much greater accuracy. You should notice far fewer 'false positives' in your Similarity Reports when excluding the bibliography.
Read more on our bibliography exclusion page.
2020 June 10th
Code no longer automatically replaces certain text within Feedback Studio comments
If an instructor were to include an ampersand (&) or the word "prompt" within their inline comment on a student's paper, it would appear as & and < respectively. This has now been resolved and these phrases and symbols can be used as normal.
2020 June 9th
Changing your password will now end your current session
Adding an extra layer of security to your account, we will now require users to log in again after changing their password via the user info page. After changing your password, your current session will end and your old password will no longer work.
Simply use your new password to log back in to continue using Turnitin.
2020 April 22nd
A new notification before your session expires
Striking a balance between user convenience and account security is important to us. When we expire a session, we only do it to ensure that the person who returns to continue the session is still the person who started it.
We start the clock once we stop receiving any active input from the user. After three hours have elapsed without input, we will show a notification. This notification says that in 10 minutes your session will expire, but that you can use the Extend Session button to keep grading. Once the 10 minutes have passed, you'll have to log in again.
If you are writing a particularly long comment, and know you are about to take a break, navigate outside of the comment box to ensure that it saves.
When we expire a session, all unsaved work is lost. Saving happens automatically when we detect input from the user. However, in some cases, it's possible that the sync didn't happen because the rest of the page wasn't interacted with.
2020 April 1st
AP exam rubrics and grading forms have been added to TFS (excludes UK)
We have added rubrics which are inline with the 2019/2020 scoring guidelines of Advanced Placement exams to assist teachers with their grading of online examinations.
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Annotated Bibliography rubric and grading form - Grading Form and rubric suitable for annotated bibliography assignments in higher education, but may be adapted for high school.
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AP History DBQ and AP History LEQ to TFS Global Rubric - Rubric aligned to the scoring guidelines for the Document-Based Question and the Long Essay Question of the AP History exam.
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AP English Literary Argument - Rubric aligned to the 2019-2020 scoring guidelines for the Literary Argument free-response question of the AP English Literature exam.
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AP English Rhetorical Analysis - Rubric aligned to the 2019-2020 scoring guidelines for the Rhetorical Analysis free-response question of the AP English Language exam.
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AP English Synthesis - Rubric aligned to the 2019-2020 scoring guidelines for the Synthesis free-response question of the AP English Language exam.
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AP Eng Prose Fiction Analysis - Rubric aligned to the 2019-2020 scoring guidelines for the Prose Fiction Analysis free-response question of the AP English Literature exam.
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AP English Argument Essay - Rubric aligned to the 2019-2020 scoring guidelines for the Argument Essay of the AP English Language exam.
Roster Sync now recognizes account changes and multiple account registrations
Previously, roster sync was unable to recognize if a user had moved to a different account and would not update the enrollment details. Roster sync was also unable to support users who were enrolled to more than one account. We have made changes which now allows enrollment details to update as well as being able to recognize if a user is enrolled within multiple accounts.
2020 March 13th
Security updates on changing your password
Security is important to Turnitin and we want to ensure your accounts are as secure as possible. We have made changes to the password section of your user information page. Now, if you wish to change your password from this page, you will be required to enter your old password first before your new password will be accepted. If you are having difficulties remembering your old password, you can change it from the login page by following these steps.
Improved error messaging for roster sync
There are certain things we need in order to process your roster file and complete the set up of roster sync for your institution, but we weren’t very clear about this. We have added clarity to our error message, informing you if we have not received, or cannot read the required manifest file.
2020 March 3rd
UK onboarding emails now contain a link to our Quick Start guidance
Our onboarding emails contain a link to our Quick Start guidance to ensure that you have as many resources as possible to get you started with Turnitin. It was brought to our attention that the link to this guidance was broken for the emails sent to UK customers. This has now been resolved and is once again available to all regions.
Administrators are now able to share rubrics across their account
We received reports of administrators encountering errors while attempting to share rubrics across their institutional accounts. We have resolved this issue and administrators are able to take advantage of our sharing feature once again.
Text contrast improvements
We are continuing to make improvements to the accessibility of our text-only report. Our latest focus has been ensuring we use sufficient contrasting for text so that the similarity report content is understandable however it is viewed.
2020 February 26th
Fixed a known submission issue affecting the Safari browser
We have fixed a known issue that was affecting students attempting to submit to Turnitin on a Safari browser.
Accessibility improvements for PeerMark
We discovered that there was an accessibility issue with PeerMark. When accessing the ‘Write Reviews’ link, the focus did not move to the start of the dialogue. This caused problems for users using a screen reader or keyboard only. We’ve now resolved this issue.
Turnitin Feedback Studio Viewer session extension
After listening to customer feedback, we’ve extended the session time for our viewer from one hour to three. This change means instructors will have longer to grade and leave feedback without worrying about being timed out.
2020 February 6th
Localized digital receipt emails now contain the paper ID
Students that selected a language other than English as their preference may have found that their emailed digital receipts would not contain the paper ID of their submission. We have made changes to ensure the paper ID’s are now included in all supported languages.
We are now fully compliant for the release of Chrome 80
With the release of Chrome 80 fast approaching, we have ensured that users will be able to use our products in Chrome without further disruption. We have made the required changes to our cookies for all of our LMS integrations and Single Sign-On integration Shibboleth to ensure that users will no longer encounter warnings about 3rd party cookies if they are enabled.
2020 February 5th
Star rubrics and grading forms for easy access
Time for a little (early) Spring cleaning! This new feature allows you to star up to five rubrics and grading forms. Starring a rubric or grading form will move it to the top of the Rubric and Form manager for easy access. Starred rubrics and grading forms will stand out amongst all the others in this and future assignments.
Learn how to star a rubric or grading form, remove a rubric or grading form, or how to view the ones you have starred already
These changes are only available via the Feedback Studio viewer. The viewers found during assignment creation and the account libraries retain their original functionality.
2020 January 22nd
Changes to multiple user upload formatting
Previously, in Turnitin, administrators and instructors were able to add multiple users to an account or class by uploading user details in a variety of file formats, including Microsoft Word (.doc) documents. Now, Microsoft Word (.doc) documents are no longer compatible for uploading lists of users, but Microsoft Excel (.xls), comma-separated value (.csv), and plain text files can still be used as normal. For more information, check out our guides on this updated process for admins and instructors.
Microsoft Word documents are only incompatible when attempting to upload a list of multiple users. Students can still submit work as Microsoft Word documents.
2020 January 15th
A new sub-menu for rubrics and grading forms
By default, we provide many rubrics and grading forms to help you get started with your Turnitin account from the very first time you access it. However, as we have a global community of instructors and institutions, it is only natural that not every rubric is relevant to every instructor. To help with the organization of rubrics and grading forms, we’ve moved them to their own sub-menus within the Rubric and Grading Form Manager. This sub-menu is more visible on the screen, making it easier to scroll through and find the one you would like to attach to an assignment. The currently attached rubric or grading form is always visible from the top-level of the menu.
This change only affects the Rubric and Grading Form manager found within the Turnitin Feedback Studio viewer. Other methods of access, such as the manager found during assignment creation or in the Rubric/Form Library, retain their standard functionality.
2020 January 14th
Roster sync now available
Roster sync allows you to securely connect your student information system with Turnitin using the OneRoster standard to provision multiple new classes, users, and enrollments at once. It empowers you and your institution to take ownership of class and user management from a single point of control.
Get in touch with your Turnitin account manager to enable it for your account, and then check out our extensive documentation to guide you through the set-up process.
2020 January 3rd
Assignment instructions display in full
When creating an assignment, it's possible to set assignment instructions to give your students more context or information about their assignment. They can access these instructions from their Assignment Inbox. However, a bug caused these instructions to escape their display box, making it difficult to read. We've fixed this bug, and the instructions will now display correctly.
2019 December 5th
Error messages will now show relevant metadata about the problem
When creating, or editing, an assignment you are able to set a start, due, and post date to help organize your year and ensure that students know when assignments need to be submitted by. When changing these settings, it is possible to choose a date that is after the classes' end date. However, as the student wouldn't be able to then access that class we show an error message asking you to choose a date before the class ends. Now we'll also include the date within this error message to help you pick a date that works better for you!
Don't forget, you can always change the dates for the class if you need the assignment to fall on your originally chosen dates!
2019 October 30th
Change repository options when using quick submit
Quick submit allows you to upload papers and generate a similarity report without having to create a class or an assignment. This is perfect when you'd like to spot-check a student submission. However, up until now, student submissions submitted this way would be automatically added to the Turnitin database. This could cause some problems if the student then tried to upload their own version of the same file, resulting in a 100% match.
When you are on the 'Customize your search' page, you now have the option to pick a repository that these papers are added to. Learn how to activate quick submit for your account, and how to use it.
Translated matching similarity score will be reflected in the tool-bar icon
A bug had prevented the updated score of a translated matching similarity score from appearing in the similarity score icon found in the Feedback Studio tool-bar. Now, you’ll find the updated score reflected in both the similarity score icon and in the similarity side panel.
French users can now upload files again
A bug had prevented users of our French language interface from successfully submitting a file. During this time, it was still possible to switch to another language to complete the submission process. We fixed this issue as a matter of priority and we are happy to report that users of our French interface can once again successfully complete the upload process.
2019 October 23rd
Match overview percentage now appears for translated matches in English
A bug had prevented the overall percentage from showing after switching views via the ‘View English Sources (beta)’ button. We're happy to report that this bug has been squished and the match overview percentage will now display as expected.
2019 October 11th
Continued accessibility improvements
Screen reader text detection updates made to the submission upload workflow
In our ongoing efforts to improve accessibility, the screen reader tool can now detect and announce when the Single Upload File confirmation window has appeared on your screen and it alerts you when you're hovering over the previous and next page links in that window. The screen reader can also now distinguish and announce if a link will expand to show more text or if it will take you to a new page when clicked.
Interactive elements now ordered more logically in the submission upload workflow
Similar to the updates above, the Feedback Studio teams ordered the interactive elements in the upload workflow so they flow more logically. In other words, if you use the keyboard to tab through the file upload workflow, the system will now move through the interactive elements (e.g., buttons, links, text boxes) from left to right and top to bottom.
Uploaded files are now processing correctly again
Our support teams heard that a handful of you were unable to open your uploaded files in the document viewer and generate similarity reports if you had uploaded multiple files to an assignment in close succession. We're happy to report that this issue has been resolved.
2019 October 2nd
Users of our Japanese language interface can now create classes
A bug in our Japanese language interface had prevented users from successfully creating a new class. We identified this bug quickly and using any supported language with Turnitin should work as intended.
Continuing accessibility improvements
Table headers now have contextual titles
We show some data within Turnitin in table format. However, for users accessing Turnitin via an assistive technology, it can be difficult to understand the structure of the table when the first cell is blank. We have added extra titles to these columns to make them contextually relevant. For example, the column that shows the title of a student’s submission is now titled ‘Assignment Title’.
Keyboard focus in the assignment inbox is now indicated visually
Displaying keyboard focus visually helps users to understand which element of the page is currently selected when navigating Turnitin using a keyboard. A blue border will now appear around the element that the keyboard is currently focused on.
2019 September 25th
Translated matching has been upgraded!
Translated Matching is an optional service offered by Turnitin, which allows your students to submit content in a non-English language, whilst retaining the ability to match against our vast database of English language content.
We've upgraded the translation engine harnessed by Translated Matching to use state-of-the-art neural machine translation, which results in a more accurate translation of non-English content into English. In turn, this means that the similarity reports generated using this feature are more reliably accurate.
This upgrade does not require any effort by instructors, and the new system will be used in any future assignments. If you would like to take advantage of these improvements in older assignments, you can regenerate similarity reports when viewing a submission.
2019 September 24th
Teaching assistants can no longer join a master class using a join key
Continuing our effort to improve account security that was started last year, we have reviewed how teaching assistants are able to join a master-class. Teaching assistants are no longer able to self-join and create their own class segments. Instead, the primary instructor on the account must create a new class section and assign the TA as the instructor for that part of the master class.
This change will impact teaching assistant access only. Student join keys can still be used to access Turnitin; however, we ask that your institution removes any student join keys from public circulation.
2019 September 18th
Similarity colors are now displayed correctly
When we show you student papers in the assignment inbox, they are colour-coded to show you at a glance which papers may need investigating further. A green tag means that 1 to 24% of the submitted file similar to content that can found in our databases. However, a bug had cropped up where 0% matches were also being assigned the green coloring. 0% matches should display as blue, as in a well-referenced paper we’d expect a minimum of 1% of the paper to match. We’ve fixed this bug and 0% matches will display as blue again.
New repository option descriptions
There have been no changes to how our repository options work, but we’ve changed the descriptions we include when choosing one to be clearer about any data-privacy concerns you may have.
Continued accessibility improvements
Tooltips in the student assignment inbox can now be read by a screenreaderl
When a screenreader processed the student assignment inbox, tooltips were being read as images and weren’t read to users. Our tooltips are now accessible and will be read like any other text on the screen.
Tabs in the assignment inbox now have titles and will be unlined when active
HTML titles give screenreaders a better idea of the purpose for elements on the screen. For example, a link might have the title of ‘Link to Status Page’ but the text as it normally would be read is ‘Status Page’. While we endeavour to make things like links descriptive to begin with, this extra information can be used to provide extra context. All of the tabs found at the top of Turnitin Feedback Studio will have title attributes.
Previously, the only indicator of which tab was active was a change in color and contrast of the tab. Knowing which tab was active was potentially difficult for users with color vision deficiency. We will now also underline which tab is currently active.
Navigate to elements temporarily hidden by the expanded submission preview
During the submission process, it is possible to view a zoomed-in preview of the file you have uploaded to check for any potential formatting issues before sending the file to us for processing. However, when using a screenreader if this view was accessed it was not possible still access the other elements on the screen to navigate by. Now, these ‘hidden’ elements can be found by keyboard navigation, even when the zoomed-in view is active.
2019 September 13th
Continued accessibility improvements
Focus order for interactive elements is more logical
When a screen reader looks at a page, it goes through the elements on the page in a set order. We have changed the tab order within our text-only viewer to add a more logical progression through the page.
New ‘Skip to Content’ link as the first navigable element in the text-only viewer
When using the ‘Show highest matches together’ or ‘show matches one at a time’ modes of the text-only viewer, you’ll now find a ‘skip to content’ link as the first element that is reachable when using the tab key. Following this link will jump you to the first part of the similarity report.
2019 September 3rd
Fixed a bug causing Turnitin Feedback Studio Viewer to freeze
A pesky bug was found that would cause the Turnitin Feedback Studio Viewer to freeze when creating a comment. We squashed this bug as part of our ongoing commitment to improving the Turnitin Feedback Studio Viewer.
2019 August 30th
New source credibility QMs with linked instructional videos released
We've got some incredible news. We just released a set of source credibility QuickMarks (QMs)! Available in American and British English, these QMs will make it easier for teachers to provide meaningful feedback on how relevant and trustworthy students' chosen sources are, and how credible a source's author seems to be. But wait, there's more. Most of these QMs even include links to a corresponding video aimed at helping students further understand how to evaluate the credibility of any source. We hope these new source credibility QMs are a great source of happiness as you start your weekend.
• QuickMark Set: Source Credibility
2019 August 29th
Improvements to the Turnitin Feedback Studio Viewer performance
We’re continuously working on improving the speed and usability of the Turnitin Feedback Studio Viewer. This release will help reduce the slowness experienced by users.
2019 August 23rd
Japanese users are able to set the way their names are displayed
Turnitin allows you to choose from three different ways of displaying your name. However, a bug in our Japanese language interface had prevented users from being able to change this setting. When a user left the User Information/Account Settings page, any changes to this setting were not saved. All users in all supported Turnitin languages can now change the way their names are displayed.
Next and previous buttons in our text-only viewer have alt text
We recommend our text-only viewer for users using a screenreader should they have difficulties with our standard document viewer. We've made an improvement to this view by adding extra alt text to the images used for the next and previous buttons to help make navigation easier.
2019 August 21st
The undo prompt will now disappear as intended
When you delete a QuickMark, we show an undo prompt at the top of the screen to help you recover from any accidental misclicks. This undo prompt will vanish a couple of seconds after your next interaction with the viewer. A bug had made this prompt stay on the screen permanently. Now, deleting a QuickMark should only show the undo prompt for the intended amount of time.
2019 August 16th
Improvements to the Turnitin Feedback Studio Viewer to help reduce instances of slowness or freezing
We’ve heard from users over the past couple of months about how the Turnitin Feedback Studio Viewer can become slow or freeze altogether. These issues are particularly noticeable on networks with high latency. There is no single root cause to these issues but in our commitment to providing a stable service, we have made some initial changes to help reduce the impact experienced by users as we continue to investigate.
Comments freezing - When there is high latency on your network, it was possible to create a QuickMark in the Turnitin Feedback Studio viewer and start writing before the command had reached Turnitin to create the QuickMark in our database. This would cause the comment creation to error and result in the freezing event users have experienced.
We’ve rewritten parts of this feature to help prevent freezing of comments from occurring.
Freezing when changing settings for e-rater - While accessing the e-rater layer of the Turnitin Feedback Studio Viewer, it was possible to cause a freezing event if the settings were changed too quickly in a short period of time. This problem has been fixed and switching between settings will no longer freeze the viewer.
New confirmation dialogue when deleting summary text-comments
When you delete a summary text-comment by using the trashcan icon, it will clear the text box so you can start afresh. We’ve added an extra step asking you to confirm the deletion to prevent any accidental misclicks.
The right QuickMark is added when dragging one from the side-panel
When a QuickMark is deleted from a paper, a message appears allowing you to undo the deletion if necessary. If this message wasn’t dismissed and a replacement QuickMark was dragged from the side panel, an incorrect QuickMark might be added to the paper.
We can now report that this has been resolved. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.
2019 August 2nd
Submissions that produce a grading template will now retain their file name on bulk-download
Turnitin allows students to upload any file and receive feedback on it, even if the file is not viewable as a text document. We call this using a grading template. However, when using our bulk-download functionality to download these files again, it would cause the file name to be lost. Now, file names will be retained when using bulk-download.
2019 July 31st
New science QMs and rubrics now available in Feedback Studio in the UK
Fill up your teacups and break out your Punnett squares. Our UK market can now access three sets of science-related rubrics and accompanying QuickMarks (QMs) written in British English in Feedback Studio. Broken out for younger and older students, these resources will make it easier for teachers to score and provide meaningful feedback on both shorter and longer pieces of writing in science and STEM classes. Please note that these Ada-Lovelace-approved rubrics and QMs are already available in the US and our other global markets.
2019 July 25th
Classes are now initially ordered by Active
Classes are now ordered in a more logical order inside the Instructor and Student inboxes. We first order by the 'state' of the class. Active classes are shown first and are displayed first by the oldest start date, then oldest end date, then alphabetically by Class Name, and finally numerically by the class ID until each entry is sorted uniquely. Following active classes, are Upcoming ones, expired, and finally inactive. This ordering will help you find the classes that are most relevant to without obscuring any old classes you may still need access to.
There are four classes: Class A, Class B, Class C, and Class D.
Class A has expired. Classes B and D are active classes and have the same start date. Class C is an active class but its start-date is after Classes B and D but all three share the same end-date.
The initial order for these classes in the inbox would be: Class B (first alphabetically), Class D, Class C (created after B and D), Class A (expired, so appears after the active classes).
Class C
ELA short answer QMs and rubric now available in the UK:
We’re making the Bard proud today. Our UK market can now access the ELA short answer rubric and accompanying QuickMarks (QMs) set written in British English in Feedback Studio. This Language Arts (ELA) rubric and QM set are both perfect for instructors to use when asking their students to directly, but briefly, defend a claim or explain a topic in an English class or other humanities course. Please note that these Virginia-Woolf-approved rubrics and QMs are already available in the US and our other global markets.
- Rubric & QM: ELA Short Answer
2019 July 17th
New social studies short answer QuickMarks and rubric now in Feedback Studio
Stressful scoring and confusing comments are things of the past. The Feedback Studio and Teaching and Learning Innovations Teams just released a new rubric and accompanying QuickMarks set for social studies short answer questions! Available in American and British English, these resources will make it easier for teachers to score and provide meaningful feedback on pieces of writing in which students are briefly defending a claim about or explaining a historical topic.
• Rubric & QuickMarks: Social Studies Short Answer
In-app survey now visible to admin and instructors in Feedback Studio
An in-app survey will now appear on the homepages of instructors and admins using Feedback Studio via turnitin.com and turnitinuk.com. This quick, dismissable questionnaire asks instructors and admins to rate how likely they are to recommend TFS to a co-worker and asks how we can improve the product.
2019 July 2nd
New science QuickMarks and rubrics now in TFS (except for UK)
Put on your chemistry goggles and fire up the Bunsen burners. The Feedback Studio and Teaching and Learning Innovations Teams (TLI) just released three sets of science-related rubrics and accompanying QuickMarks (QMs)! Aligned to the concepts of the NGSS and broken out for younger and older students, these resources will make it easier for teachers to score and provide meaningful feedback on both shorter and longer pieces of writing in science and STEM classes. Please note that these Marie-Curie-approved rubrics and QMs are not available in the UK yet, but they will be soon.
- Rubric & QM: 6th-8th Grade Science Argument (CER)
- Rubric & QM: 9th-12th Grade Science Argument (CER)
- Rubric & QM: Science Short Answer
New ELA short answer QuickMarks and rubric now in TFS (except for UK)
Additionally, the TFS and TLI teams also released an English Language Arts (ELA) rubric and QM set that are both perfect for instructors to use when asking their students to directly, but briefly, defend a claim or explain a topic in an English class or other humanities course. This rubric and QM set is also coming to the UK in the near future.
- Rubric & QM: ELA Short Answer
2019 June 20th
Continuing accessibility improvements
We've recently been making some accessibility improvements to Turnitin that you may have already read about. We are committed to making Turnitin an open and welcome environment for all our users and we've continued with this work by making further improvements.
The highlights for this release are:
The student homepage has a new skip navigation link. This allows screen readers to jump straight to the content of the page, without getting lost in the initial navigation.
Also on the student homepage, we've worked to ensure that screen readers are able to properly navigate between controls in students submission assignment inbox. Specifically, launching a Peer Mark assignment using the Write Reviews and Read Reviews buttons.
Rubric descriptions are now shown when choosing one for an assignment
If a rubric has a description attached to it, we'll now show it on the assignment creation screen to help you pick out the perfect rubric to complement your assignment.
2019 June 5th
Screen reader now announces drop-down menus to students
In our ongoing efforts to improve accessibility in TFS, the screen reader now lets students know that the language and user roles in their header and the download button on their homepage are all drop-down menus they can click to open. Also, once clicked and the menu unfurls, students can now use the up and down arrows to move through the menu options as the screen reader announces them. If the student tabs out, they are alerted that they have closed the menu.
2019 May 24th
Students are now alerted when content loads on screen in text-only Turnitin Feedback Studio
Previously, in the text-only view of Turnitin Feedback Studio, students weren't getting visual or auditory indications that new content had been selected or loaded on their screen. Now, when students tab through sections of text, select radio buttons, or choose the "Show previous/next 20 highest matches" link, the selection is outlined or highlighted, and the text itself is read aloud (if the student is utilizing the screen reader).
Support wizard link updated in LTI inbox for UK instructors
Previously, the link to the support wizard was redirecting instructors to the login page. This issue has been resolved. Now, instructors using LTI in the UK can be off to see the (support) wizard from their inboxes.
2019 May 16th
International Baccalaureate QuickMarks now available
Two sets of International Baccalaureate (IB) QuickMarks were just released in Feedback Studio to help teachers provide specific, actionable feedback aligned to the IB MYP5 Lit and Lang and the IB Extended Essay assessment criteria. Also, for the first time, localized British English versions of these QuickMarks will available in Feedback Studio in the UK.
2019 April 16th
Accessibility improvements
We have made some improvements to the labeling of some aspects of our Text-Only report so that they can now be understood by screen readers. The three different modes available in the mode combo box can now all be properly identified as well as the list of preferences that can be edited within the ‘show matches one at a time’ mode. Unsure how to access our Text-Only report? Read our guide to learn how.
2019 April 10th
Localized links in welcome emails
The welcome email that all new Turnitin users receive now contains localized help links. The language of the welcome email sent out to administrators and instructors is dictated by the notification language selected upon opening the account.
Rubric criteria rounding issue
We’ve resolved a bug with rubric criteria rounding. Certain scenarios would cause the total percentage of the rubric criteria to appear as 99.999’% rather than 100%. This issue has been resolved.
2019 March 26th
Text-only view will now show your similarity matches correctly
For some papers, opening them in the 'text-only' view caused two different unintended problems when trying to view more details about a match.
- When opening a paper with a match from within your institution, the paper view request form showed, rather than the original source text.
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When opening a paper with a match from an external institution, the paper view request form would show as intended, but the process could not complete.
We have fixed the underlying problem that was causing these two issues, and similarity matches will now display correctly. No further action is required to update any assignments in which you may have noticed this behavior.
2019 March 7th
PDFs containing no text are now viewable in Feedback Studio
To generate a similarity report, we first need to extract text from a document. With PDFs, we used to only show documents that have extractable text, even when ‘Accept Any File Type’ was selected for the assignment.
Now when viewing a PDF with no text, we will show a viewable version of the PDF that you can use with QuickMarks and our other commenting tools.
2019 February 22nd
A new set of notifications for students when the similarity report is not available for them to view
We give instructors a lot of freedom in how they set up their assignments, including the ability to decide when students can view their similarity reports. However, we found that this could lead to students getting confused as they tend to assume the report generation process will be instantaneous.
A custom message can now be found in the student's assignment inbox when:
- Viewing the similarity report by students is disabled by the instructor.
- The similarity report has not generated because the due date hasn't passed.
- Similarity reports are available immediately after submission.
Improved Czech translations? Check!
One of the users using our Czech noticed a few areas where our translations could be improved. We’ve had these pages checked thoroughly and new translations have been added.
Have you noticed a problem in your own language? Get in touch with our support team at tiisupport@turnitin.com and let us know.
M14:11 errors should now be less frequent
In a number of cases, Feedback Studio would fail to correctly process a submission causing it to not show when trying to open the document viewer. This lead to the M14:11 error that some users were experiencing.
The M14:11 error denotes a problem with the processing of a submission when it is displayed. Investigation into this issue has been a top priority for our engineers for a number of weeks and we are happy to report that the underlying issues behind this error have now been resolved.
It is possible that it could still show when there is a genuine problem with a submission. However, for the vast majority of users the document viewer should operate as intended.
2019 February 12th
New password requirements for all users
We believe firmly in ensuring that our user's accounts are protected and secure. To this end, we have improved the options available to users when they create their passwords and extended the minimum character length to 8 characters.
All passwords created when initially setting up your account, or resetting your password, must be:
- A minimum of 8 characters
- No maximum length
- Must not be a commonly used or simple password (I.e. 'Password' should not be your password!)
- Use any mix of characters!
We accept lowercase, uppercase, numbers, and any special characters you can think of. Research has shown that setting arbitrary requirements decreases password security. Feel free to make your password as complex as you would like.
Japanese language submissions will only be flagged with the suspicious paper tooltip when it is relevant
When a paper was submitted entirely in Japanese, we would sometimes show the ‘The service has flagged this paper as having characteristics common to papers submitted in an attempt to artificially lower the similarity index for the Originality Report.’ tooltip on the instructor dashboard when it was not relevant to the paper in question.
We will now only show this tooltip when a paper meets our criteria for a suspicious paper.
2019 January 29th
Google SSO is now available for our beta users
We made our sign-up form available for account administrators to help us set up their institutions to use Google single sing-on as an authentication method to connect to Turnitin. You'll have received an email from us once your account is ready.
Once you are activated, you'll now be able to use the 'Sign in with Google' button found on the Turnitin login page. Looking for a quick guide to get you started? Check out our Administrator, Instructor, and Student guides.
Haven't had a chance to sign up yet? Read our guide to learn how.
2019 January 23rd
Sign your institution up to use Google SSO from within Turnitin - Administrator Only
We’re excited to share this new feature with you soon, but for your institution to take advantage of Google SSO, we need a little extra information from you. We’ve made the link easier to find by putting it on the settings page for your account. Just look for the 'Register for Google SSO' heading.
If you've already sent us your details, no further action is required. We'll be in touch soon!
2019 January 15th
Change the visibility of QuickMark sets
Turnitin comes packed with many QuickMark sets that help to make your life easier. However, we know that not every set will be relevant to every Instructor. You can now change the visibility of QuickMark sets with just a few clicks! Check out our guide to learn how.
2018 December 19th
You can now upload files inside a Google Drive folder
When using Google Drive upload and switching to the 'folder view', a bug had prevented files within these folders from appearing. We've replaced the 'folder view' with 'My Drive'. This new view will allow you to look through all of the files on your Google Drive, and even search for a specific file.
2018 November 28th
Translated help links now go to the right place
We made a few changes to our main website this year, which had the unintended side-effect of breaking some of the links within Turnitin Feedback Studio. One you may have noticed was the '(?) Help' link, for any of our translated versions of the site, would land you on our homepage. We've updated these links to take you to the relevant guidance for each language.
2018 October 30th
New instructors can now see the EULA in the language of their country
We identified an issue that displayed the English EULA to new instructors of non-English speaking countries. Now, all new users will see the EULA in the correct language!
Administrators can now change the email address of an unenrolled instructor
Administrators would be greeted with an error message when attempting to change the email address of an unenrolled instructor. An unenrolled instructor is an instructor who hasn't yet completed their user profile or logged into Turnitin. We’ve fixed this issue!
2018 October 17th
Instructors can no longer join a Turnitin account using a join key
At Turnitin, fair and secure usage of our platform is important to us. We’ve recently investigated the issue of unauthorized access to Turnitin through public sharing of join keys on external websites. Whilst this illegitimate access could not compromise the data of any of our users, it’s only fair that those using our service are doing so legitimately. To prevent uninvited folk from accessing our platform in the future, moving forward, administrators will have two options for adding instructors to Turnitin: uploading a list of instructors or adding instructors one by one. Any join keys currently in public circulation should be removed.
This change will impact instructors access only. Student join keys can still be used to access Turnitin; however, we ask that your institution removes any student join keys from public circulation.
2018 October 4th
Integration deactivation modal no longer grayed out
We've fixed a cosmetic issue affecting administrators during integration deactivation. Previously, when administrators selected the 'Deactivate' button on the settings of a configured integration, depending on the size of the browser, the confirmation modal could be caught in a grayed out area. This has now been resolved.
2018 September 14th
Administrator tabs now display correctly
Previously, when an administrator switched over to the Instructors tab and then moved back to the Accounts tab from the Administrator Homepage, the colors of the tabs would not change. It could be confusing to users unfamiliar with Turnitin as to which tab was currently selected. This problem was purely cosmetic, but we’ve made sure that the right tab will be highlighted when in different sections of Feedback Studio.
Instructors can now enroll students with capitals in their email address
In our release on June 5th, we added the ability for uppercase letters to be used when an administrator adds Instructors to an account. We thought this was such a capital idea that we’ve extended the functionality to Instructors adding students to an account too!
2018 June 27th
Voice comments now save to the correct papers in Google Chrome
Oops! Our Support team picked up reports that a bug was at large in Feedback Studio, causing voice comments to save to the wrong papers in HTML5/Google Chrome, which caused confusion for both instructors and students. Having sprayed the intertubes with a strong mite repellent, all is back to normal.
Disabling online grading no longer disables ETS e-rater®
We identified a bug impacting the use of ETS e-rater® if an administrator disabled online grading in their Turnitin account settings. Now, should an administrator opt to disable online grading from the account features, they needn't worry about any other features being disabled, too. ETS e-rater® will remain active!
2018 June 19th
Issues with Chinese and Japanese characters are now resolved
We received a report advising that, when using a rich text editor for Chinese and Japanese, the first letter of a text comment was not handled correctly; this caused some characters to duplicate and others to display in the Latin alphabet. We've fixed this issue!
Instructors can now upload QuickMark sets without error
We found that QuickMark sets failed to upload if the set description contained " " which should be an accepted description. Whilst finding a fix for this issue, we advised users to enter the word null rather than use quotation marks. Thankfully, all QuickMark sets will now upload successfully regardless of their description.
2018 June 14th
Increased support for quote exclusions in Feedback Studio!
You asked and we listened! Should you opt to exclude quotations from the Similarity Report, Turnitin (and iThenticate, too!) will now exclude all content between an updated set of quotation marks. This new support aims to provide a more reliable similarity score for our international users - specifically those submitting content in Chinese, Japanese, and Korean.
Supported marksTurnitin will exclude any matches that use the following quotation marks when you opt to exclude quotes from the Similarity Report:
" ... " « ... » » ... « „ … “ 《...》 〈...〉 『... 』
Unsupported marks
' ... '
Turnitin will not exclude matches using single quotation marks when you opt to exclude quotes from the Similarity Report:' ... '
2018 June 5th
Uppercase letters are now accepted in user email addresses
If an administrator attempted to add an instructor to their account with an email address containing uppercase letters, they encountered an error message; this prevented them from successfully adding some instructors. We've resolved this issue by removing the letter case restriction in email addresses.
2018 May 29th
No more references to 'pushing' PeerMark assignments to class sections
While Turnitin does not allow PeerMark assignments to be pushed to class sections, there were areas within the user interface that provided the option to do so; however, this quickly returned an error when attempted. To prevent any further confusion, we've made a big effort to remove all references to pushing PeerMark assignments to class sections.
Oops! We've corrected anonymous marking tool-tip information
When enabling anonymous marking in the "Create Assignment" page, we advised users that they would be applying a mask to a student's personal information until the due date. However, this was incorrect, as the mask is actually removed on the post date (the date that feedback is released to students). We've correct this information, located behind the anonymous marking tooltip icon .
Administrators can now successfully share QuickMark sets to their account
We received a report that administrators were unable to share a QuickMark set to their account via the Share this set to account checkbox within the QuickMark library, with the checkbox failing to function as expected. This issue has now been resolved!
2018 May 5th
Change the resolution of papers in Feedback Studio
Some of our users reported slow document load times since we upgraded the resolution of papers in Feedback Studio. To combat this, Feedback Studio now offers a "lite" image resolution option for quicker load times. At the bottom of the document viewer, you'll now find a High Resolution toggle which can be switched On and Off at your own convenience. We'll save this preference for any future visits you make to Feedback Studio, too. Say goodbye to delays in accessing submissions!
Archive - Turnitin Release Notes