{"id":13759,"date":"2022-04-06T15:04:03","date_gmt":"2022-04-06T15:04:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/?p=13759"},"modified":"2022-04-06T15:04:46","modified_gmt":"2022-04-06T15:04:46","slug":"utilising-turnitin-similarity-reports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/2022\/04\/06\/utilising-turnitin-similarity-reports\/","title":{"rendered":"Utilising Turnitin Similarity Reports"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A typical submission via Brightspace&#8217;s assignment tool with Turnitin enabled will generate a <strong>Similarity Report<\/strong>.\u00a0 Turnitin is a platform that allows for assignment feedback via a number of tools, as well as generating a Similarity Report for the submitted piece of work. The Similarity Report is a guide to help you understand the academic integrity of students&#8217; written work.<\/p>\n<p>The Similarity Report generated is an important piece of information for you when marking student work.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What<\/strong> does <strong>the<\/strong>\u00a0Similarity<strong> Report<\/strong> show?<\/h2>\n<p>The report shows the percentage match of the assignment against Turnitin&#8217;s repository of journals, publications and internet archive. The report won\u2019t tell you if work is plagiarised, but it highlights potential problem areas that can then be investigated; it\u2019s up to you to then consider how the student has used quotations, citations and references etc. There are several different factors to take into account when reviewing similarity reports. For example, a research paper assignment might include more references than a piece of creative writing, level 4 students may still be developing their skills with quotations and citations, and the length of an assignment may also be a factor.<\/p>\n<p>The Similarity Report aids you by:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>ensuring a level playing field when marking<\/li>\n<li>checking that online sources have been cited correctly<\/li>\n<li>identifying collusion between students at different UK institutions<\/li>\n<li>deterring students from plagiarising work.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>How does it work?<\/h2>\n<p>The Similarity Report is the result of a comparison between the text of the assignment submission against Turnitin&#8217;s database which contains pages of active and archived internet information, a repository of works previously submitted to Turnitin, and tens of thousands of periodicals, journals, and publications. A percentage score is generated of the matches to Turnitin&#8217;s databases; it is not an assessment of whether the paper includes plagiarised material.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_13762\" style=\"width: 735px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-13762\" class=\"wp-image-13762 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/files\/2022\/04\/2022-04-04_09-18-32.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"725\" height=\"233\" srcset=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/files\/2022\/04\/2022-04-04_09-18-32.png 725w, https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/files\/2022\/04\/2022-04-04_09-18-32-300x96.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 725px) 100vw, 725px\" \/><p id=\"caption-attachment-13762\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Example Turnitin Similarity report<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The score itself does not determine whether a student\u2019s paper is acceptable, it simply aims to highlight potential problem areas for you to review.\u00a0 For example, if a student has used quotes and has referenced correctly, there will be instances where there are matches.<\/p>\n<p>Use the Similarity Report as an investigative tool to determine if the match is or isn&#8217;t acceptable using the evidence it provides.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>What<\/strong> do the <strong>Flags mean?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Unfortunately, some students will try to circumvent Turnitin&#8217;s text matching, for example by using hidden characters attached to words or by replacing characters with similar looking characters. Turnitin\u2019s algorithms look for any inconsistencies within assignments and will flag anything unusual like this for you to review.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-13761 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/files\/2022\/04\/2022-04-04_09-17-46.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"614\" height=\"357\" srcset=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/files\/2022\/04\/2022-04-04_09-17-46.png 614w, https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/files\/2022\/04\/2022-04-04_09-17-46-300x174.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 614px) 100vw, 614px\" \/><span style=\"font-size: 14px\">Examples of Flags within a Similarity report<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong>Can students check their work\u00a0 prior to submission?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>To encourage good academic practice, introduce students to the Turnitin \u2018Draft Checker\u2019 accessible from the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/brightspace.bournemouth.ac.uk\/d2l\/home\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Brightspace Homepage<\/a>. This allows students to view Similarity Reports for drafts of their assignments prior to their final submission, helping them to identify and rectify any referencing issues. (These draft uploads are not visible to staff and do not contribute to the Turnitin database).<\/p>\n<h2>Further help and guidance<\/h2>\n<p>You can find online guidance on using and interpreting the Turnitin Similarity report in the Brightspace Staff Resources area:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/brightspace.bournemouth.ac.uk\/d2l\/le\/content\/18315\/viewContent\/354209\/View\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Using the Similarity Report<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you have questions around the use of Turnitin, talk to your <a href=\"https:\/\/brightspace.bournemouth.ac.uk\/d2l\/le\/content\/18315\/viewContent\/153692\/View\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Faculty Learning Technologist<\/a>. For further support on interpreting a Similarity Report, contact your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bournemouth.ac.uk\/students\/library\/contact-us\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Faculty Librarian<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A typical submission via Brightspace&#8217;s assignment tool with Turnitin enabled will generate a Similarity Report.\u00a0 Turnitin is a platform that allows for assignment feedback via a number of tools, as well as generating a Similarity Report for the submitted piece of work. The Similarity Report is a guide to help you understand the academic integrity&#8230;  <a class=\"excerpt-read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/2022\/04\/06\/utilising-turnitin-similarity-reports\/\">Read more &raquo;<span class=\"sr-only\"> about Utilising Turnitin Similarity Reports<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":525,"featured_media":5782,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[260,5,1274],"tags":[1302,953],"class_list":["post-13759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-assessment-and-feedback","category-news","category-turnitin","tag-similarity-reports","tag-turnitin"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/525"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13759"}],"version-history":[{"count":31,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13824,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13759\/revisions\/13824"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5782"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/microsites.bournemouth.ac.uk\/flie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}