Using Brightspace Assignments and Turnitin

Instructors can use Brightspace Assignments to to gather and evaluate student work and track the completion of on-paper and in-person activities.

Summary

Instructors can use Brightspace Assignments to to gather and evaluate student work and track the completion of on-paper and in-person activities.

Information Applies to

Faculty

Jump to

Adding an Assignment Folder

Folder Types

Evaluation Types

Download Student Submission

Adding Feedback

Adding Turnitin

Adding an Assignment Folder

1. From your course homepage, select Assignments from the toolbar
2. Select the New Assignment button. This will open the New Assignment view.
3. Enter the assignment Name and any Instructions/Descriptions.
4. Select a folder type and evaluation options for the assignment.
5. Set a due date, availability dates, and conditions, as needed. Instructions for configuring these options are listed below.
6. Select the Save and Close button to save your assignment folder and return to your list of assignments.

Folder Types

When creating or editing a folder, select Submission & Completion to expand the list of settings.

Assignment Type

• Under Assignment Type, select either Individual Assignment or Group Assignment.
• If Group Assignment is selected, choose a Group Category (e.g., Project Groups, Lab Teams) that you created previously.

Submission Type

File

• Under Submission Type, select File submission.
• Under Files Allowed Per Submission, select Unlimited or One File. Choose Unlimited if the assignment requires students to upload more than one file.
• If restricting the types of files that can be submitted, select a preset restriction or Custom File Types under Allowable File Extensions. If you select Custom File Types, enter the allowable file types manually.
• Under Submissions, choose whether to allow one or multiple submissions (e.g., attempts, drafts) of the same assignment.

Text

• Under Submission Type, select Text submission.
• Under Submissions, choose whether to allow one or multiple submissions (e.g., attempts, drafts) of the same assignment.

On paper

• Under Submission Type, select On paper submission.
• Under Marked as completed, select whether you want the assignment marked as completed by the student manually, automatically when you publish your evaluation, or automatically on the due date.

Observed in person

• Under Submission Type, select Observed in person.
• Under Marked as completed, select whether you want the assignment marked as completed by the student manually, automatically when you publish your evaluation, or automatically on the due date.

Evaluation Types

Ungraded

1. Leave the default Ungraded setting in the Grade Out Of field.
2. If the Grade Out Of field has changed to a points entry box, select In Grade Book and select Reset to Ungraded.

Graded (not in grade book)

1. Enter the point total in the Grade Out Of field.
2. Select Not In Grade Book in the next field.

Graded (in grade book)

1. Enter the point total in the Grade Out Of field.
2. Select In Grade Book in the next field.
3. Select Edit or Link to Existing to add a new grade item or connect the assignment to an existing item.

Download a Student's Submission

The Assignment Submission tool allows instructors to see and evaluate learner submissions. One of the key benefits of using this tool is that it integrates seamlessly with the Grade Tool allowing you to simultaneously proof, provide feedback, and grade submissions to Assignments.

One helpful component of this tool is that you can download all of these papers at once in case you need to grade offline and then upload graded works once you are connected again. There are two ways to do this: individually, or multiple students at once.

Option 1: Download an assignment for a single student

Once in a student's submission, either click on the ellipses (...) and then download, or the "Download all files" option. If there are multiple files, a zip folder will be created.

Option 2: Download assignments for multiple students

1. Click on the checkbox at the top left of the student list - this will select all students. Or, select the submissions you want to download individually.
2. Click the Download button.
3. After a zip folder is created click on the Download button.
4. Choose the place on your laptop where you want this file to go and Save.
5. At this point you can review content by opening the zip folder on your computer and grade the assignments in two possible ways.
   • Simply review documents, take notes, and grade back in the Assignment Submission Folder when you are online.
   • Make comments on the document or artifact and upload within the individual submission by clicking on the Add a File button below the Feedback box.

Adding Feedback

The Assignment Submission tool allows instructors to see and evaluate learner submissions. One of the key benefits of using this tool is that it integrates seamlessly with the Grade Tool allowing you to simultaneously proof, provide feedback, and grade submissions to Assignments. One helpful component of this tool is that you can download all of these papers at once in case you need to grade offline and then uploaded graded works once you are connected again.

1. On the navbar, select Assignments.
2. Open the appropriate folder.
3. Click on the name of the individual student who has submitted to your Assignment Submission Folder.
4. If only one document submitted it will show you the If there are multiple documents you can choose from the contextual menu to the right of the file name to view or download the document.
5. On the right side of the individual student view you can pull up a rubric that is associated with the Assignment, enter total points, enter text feedback in the textbox, if you downloaded it and made edits to the submitted files you can upload that version by using the Add a File button, and a short audio feedback file can be recorded by clicking on the Record Audio button.

Adding Turnitin

Instructors can add Turnitin to Brightspace assignments to scan student work for potential plagiarism. WSU maintains a campuswide Turnitin Originality license that instructors and students access through their Brightspace courses. When creating a Brightspace assignment folder, instructors can add Turnitin functionality to that folder. When students submit a file to the folder, the file is scanned automatically and receives a similarity score. A similarity report is generated listing sources of potential plagiarism.

1. From your Brightspace course homepage, select Assignments from the Assessments menu.
2. Select the New Assignment button, enter a title, grade information, and instructions as usual. Select Save to save these assignment properties.
3. Select the Evaluation and Feedback panel on the right to expand the related properties. Scroll down to the bottom of the panel and select Manage Turnitin. This will open the Turnitin Integration window.
4. Select the Enable Originality Check for this folder checkbox. Select Allow learners to see Turnitin similarity scores in their submission folder if desired. Determine whether you want all submissions to be scanned automatically or whether you would like to select submissions for scanning manually.
5. Select the More Options in Turnitin button to review and configure additional settings. This will open the Turnitin Assignment window. (More details available below.)

 

Behind the "More Options in Turnitin" Button

When you select the More Options in Turnitin button, you are presented with a set of properties. Some of these properties were already set when you created the folder and others can be configured to meet your specific needs.

Submission Settings

• Submit papers to. Select either Standard paper repository or Do not store submitted papers. This decision has important consequences for you and your students, so please review the guidelines below carefully.
• Allow submission of any file type. Turnitin can only analyze files of certain types (e.g., Microsoft Word .docx). Review a current list of scannable file types here. Use this setting to either prevent or allow the submission of other types of files. If you allow students to submit any file type, those files of a type not supported by Turnitin will not be scanned. Note that Brightspace also places restrictions on the types of files that can be submitted to assignment folders.
• Allow late submissions. This is configured when creating the folder and cannot be changed here.
• Enable grammar checking using ETS e-rater technology. ETS e-rater analysis is integrated into Turnitin and can be enabled or disabled for an assignment folder using this setting. If enabled, students will receive feedback in their Similarity Report on the categories you choose (e.g., grammar, spelling).

Compare Against

Choose these settings if you want your students' submissions to be compared against:

• Student paper repository. All the student papers stored in Turnitin's database, including any of a student's own papers submitted to this database previously
• Current and archived website content. Openly available web resources (e.g., Wikipedia)
• Periodicals, journals, and publications. Publisher-owned online resources to which Turnitin has been granted access

Similarity Report

• Generate Similarity Reports for student submission. Select one of these three options: Generate reports immediately (students cannot resubmit), Generate reports immediately (students can resubmit until due date), or Generate reports on due date (students can resubmit until due date). Use the guidelines below to inform your decision.
• Allow students to view Similarity Reports. This is configured when creating the folder and cannot be changed here.
• Exclude bibliographic materials. Allows instructors to prevent Turnitin from including bibliographies, reference sections, and works cited in the similarity scan.
• Exclude quoted materials. Allows instructors to prevent Turnitin from including quoted text in the similarity scan.
• Exclude small sources. Allows instructors to prevent Turnitin from including segments of a certain word count or percentage of the source in the similarity scan.

Additional settings

• Save these settings for future use. Check this if you would like your settings to be applied to all subsequent folders by default. Then you would not need to go through these steps each time you enable Turnitin functionality on a folder.

Guidelines for Using the Student Paper Repository

• Any original coursework created by a student and represented in tangible form is that student's exclusive intellectual property and is afforded copyright protection under federal law upon creation immediately. When students upload a copy of their work to a Brightspace assignment folder and/or to Turnitin's student paper repository, they retain exclusive ownership of that copy. They can request that the copy be returned or deleted from your Brightspace course or Turnitin's database. Students can send requests to delete their work from Turnitin's database to TLT (tlt@winona.edu).
• The first time students submit a copy of their work to a Brightspace folder that has Turnitin functionality enabled, they will be asked to agree to Turnitin's End User License Agreement (EULA). This agreement will be applied to their Turnitin account and they will not be asked to accept the agreement again. The terms of this EULA include allowing Turnitin to store a copy of the student's work permanently and use it for the purpose of checking other works for plagiarism. It's important that your students understand that they are accepting these terms. They can direct any questions to you, to TLT, or to Legal Affairs.
• Although a general notification is displayed on the assignment submission page, students receive no indication from Turnitin or Brightspace that their instructor has opted to send their work to Turnitin's repository. Also, students cannot bypass this setting (i.e., submit their work to the assignment folder without sending a copy to the Turnitin database). Instructors should inform their students if the assignment folder is configured to send copies of their work to Turnitin's database.

Guidelines for Releasing Similarity Reports

• When an instructor adds Turnitin to a Brightspace assignment folder, an icon appears next to the name of the folder (Fig 3), for both instructors and students, and the following message appears on the student's assignment submission page, "This assignment will be submitted to Turnitin" (Fig 4). Although these notifications should be adequate, instructors are encouraged to remind students that Turnitin is enabled on an assignment folder.
• Instructors who want to spot check student work manually rather than submit all student work to Turnitin automatically can do so. However, all students will still receive the Turnitin notification on their Brightspace assignment submission page. Instructors should clarify that they will only be spot-checking a sample of assignments and that not all students will receive a Similarity Report.
• Instructors can configure Brightspace assignment folders such that only they, and not their students, have access to the Similarity Reports. Students will still be notified via the message on the Brightspace assignment submission page that their work is being scanned.
• If you allow students to resubmit their work and receive Similarity Reports immediately, they will receive the first three reports immediately. Subsequent reports will be sent after a 24-hour delay. Turnitin does this to reduce the load on their servers.
• If you choose to release the Similarity Report on the assignment due date, make sure to assign a due date to the assignment in Brightspace. Remember that a Due Date in Brightspace is not the same as an End Date.

Learn More

For more information on video notes, visit the D2L Brightspace Community or YouTube page.

Need additional information or assistance? Contact WSU TLT by email, phone (507.457.5240, option 3), or Zoom.