1. Originality Check: Preventing Plagiarism
The Pennsylvania State University
Information Technology Services
Turnitin Originality Check is a Web-based utility available at Turnitin.com. This tool provides instructors with a way to insure the academic integrity of students’ work.
The Pennsylvania State University licenses usage of Turnitin Originality Check for the Penn State community. This University service is provided by Information Technology Services.
Penn State users may access Turnitin Originality Check by using their Penn State Access Account ID and password through WebAccess.
This presentation provides an overview of Turnitin Originality Check as it may be used at Penn State.

2. Introduction Purpose of use Educational benefits Process and features
Steps to create a Penn State account
User interface
This presentation will introduce you to:
The purpose for using Turnitin Originality Check
The educational benefits of using this tool
The process and features used by Originality Check to prevent or detect potential plagiarism
The steps to take to create an account to use Turnitin at Penn State
The Originality Check interface and how it can be used to create classes and assignments

3. Originality Check Turnitin Originality Check provides:
Electronic submission
Originality checking
Side-by–side text comparison
Printable reports
Turnitin Originality Check provides a tool through which students’ work may be electronically submitted to verify academic integrity.
Originality Check checks students’ work for originality by comparing submitted papers to multiple sources. An Originality Report is generated to provide an analysis of the compared text. Any portion of a student’s paper that matches any of the sources in Turnitin’s repositories is indicated in this analysis with a side-by-side comparison. Reports may be accessed by instructors and students, as permitted, and can be printed as needed. Instructors can use reported matching text to discuss proper citation usage with students and prevent potential plagiarism.

4. Educational Benefits Helps prevent plagiarism
Promotes student accountability
Allows for efficient citation verification
Saves time in investigating originality
Documents potential plagiarism
Encourages accurate citation methods
In an instructional situation, Turnitin Originality Check provides several benefits. This tool helps prevent plagiarism by holding students accountable for correctly citing their sources. Text found in students’ papers that matches text in the Turnitin repositories is color coded in an Originality Report. This report provides efficient verification of citations and a time-saving way to investigate student originality, as well as documentation of potential plagiarism. Matching text documented in the Originality Report can also be reviewed by both instructors and students to evaluate citation methods which can provide a learning opportunity that encourages more accurate citation creation.

5. Turnitin & ANGEL at Penn State
Upload papers from ANGEL Drop Boxes
Submitted papers can be batch uploaded
Use ANGEL to document student work
Secure to Penn State
Archived on a regular basis
A benefit of using Turnitin Originality Check at Penn State is the capability to work with papers submitted into ANGEL, Penn State’s Course Management System. Zipping and uploading an ANGEL Drop Box is just one of the submission options available for uploading assignments into Turnitin. To avoid excess files that ANGEL adds during the zipping process, Penn State has developed a LitterBox tool. Directions and tips for using these tools to upload students’ papers into Turnitin can be found at
Documentation of student work is important. Turnitin does provide storage for student papers, but it does not house information at Penn State. ANGEL provides a secure and archived location that is local to Penn State. For this reason, it is recommended that electronic copies of student work be stored in ANGEL to provide documentation of potential plagiarism. More information on using ANGEL can be found at

6. Comparison Sources
The Originality Check Module compares student work against:
More than 13.5 billion Web pages
Over 135 million student papers
Penn State paper repository
Thousands of periodicals and books
Papers submitted to Turnitin through Originality Check are compared against an extensive and continuously updated collection of electronic materials. The repositories used for comparison contain more than 13.5 billion active and archived Web pages, over 135 million student papers submitted to Turnitin since 1996, the Pennsylvania State University paper repository, and thousands of periodicals, journals, and various books.
Source: “Turnitin2 6-page Brochure: Originality Check”, retrieved 11/10/10,

7. Originality Report
When a student paper is submitted, Turnitin provides an Originality Report indicating text that is similar or identical to text in one of the sources in Turnitin’s repositories. The percentage of similarity is displayed in the upper right. Instructors and students must evaluate the quality of the report to determine if the portions identified by Turnitin require further citations or if the portions are potential plagiarism.
Instructors may choose to view the Originality Report in four different modes, which allow users to view and sort the information in the way best suited to their needs. The “primary sources view” or “show highest matches together”, is the default view. This view displays a list of all areas of the paper which have similarity to information in the Turnitin repository. The “All Sources” view allows a user to view matches between the paper and a specific selected source. It contains a full listing of all matches rather than only the best matches. The view mode icons in the bottom of the right panel allow users to switch between “Primary Source” view and “All Sources” view.

8. Source Overlap Mode
In some cases, matches to smaller areas of similarity may be obscured by larger matches. “Source overlap mode” displays all sources that are obscured by a primary source. To display source overlap mode, hover over the match you would like to view underlying sources for and click on the View additional sources button that appears.

9. Direct Source Comparison
The final view mode is Direct Source Comparison. This mode shows an area of similarity compared side by side with a specific match from the Turnitin repositories. To access this mode, click on a highlighted area of text on the student paper (left) side. A popup will appear above the highlighted text displaying the matching text within the source of the match.
Further information and a training video on the Originality Report feature can be found at under the Support link.
< adapted from the instructor user manual found at >

10. Turnitin Features Enrollment and submission flexibility
Up-to-date text matches
Report preferences and printing
Student access to Originality Reports
Student-to-student text matches
Turnitin includes a number of features in Originality Check that can be helpful to instructors at the class, assignment, and Originality Report levels. At the class level, instructors may enroll students or have them enroll themselves using a unique class ID and enrollment password. Instructors can submit student papers or have students submit their papers to Turnitin themselves. Instructors can also activate a tool in their user info called Quick Submit to submit papers without creating classes and assignments.
Originality Reports provide valuable features for instructors as well. A report can be re-analyzed by refreshing it at a later date to update text matches to the most recent Web and other source repositories. Reports can be printed as needed from any mode of viewing. Instructors can permit student access to their own reports on an assignment-by-assignment basis. If there is a match to a paper in one of the instructor’s own classes, users can view the matching paper, including the class, assignment, paper ID, and author information.
These features enhance the capabilities of Turnitin Originality Check and make it an effective and valuable tool for use at Penn State.

11. Originality Report Match Percentage Percent Originality Reports
Turnitin at Penn State
User Accounts and Submissions
Number of Instructor Accounts
1875
Number of Student Accounts
30,000
Number of Papers Submitted
240,000
Originality Report Statistics
Originality Report Match Percentage
Percent Originality Reports
75%-100% 3%
50%-75% 2%
25%-49%
11%
0%-24%
No matches
81%
The Penn State community is utilizing Turnitin and the features of Originality Check to help insure academic integrity.
A total of 1,875 instructors have used the Turnitin resource from 2005 to the present. More than 30,000 Penn State students have submitted over 240,000 papers to Turnitin.
Over 200,000 Originality Reports have been created. Most of the reports show little or no matching text which supports the overall usefulness of Turnitin as a tool that can be used to prevent potential plagiarism.

12. Creating a PSU Turnitin Account
3. Input Turnitin account ID and join password
1. Contact
2. Go to
Instructors, graduate assistants, and staff who are teaching a Penn State course may create a Turnitin Instructor account at Penn State by following a brief set of steps.
The first step is to contact the Accounts Office at Upon verification that you are instructing a Penn State course and have a valid address ending in "...psu.edu”, you will be sent a confirmation notice containing the Penn State Turnitin account ID and join password along with directions for creating your account profile, classes, and assignments.
The next step is to use your Penn State Access Account ID and password to log in to Turnitin at Note that if you are already signed into another WebAccess service such as ANGEL or Penn State Webmail, you will automatically be logged in to Turnitin without a prompt for your Penn State Access ID and password.
You will then be prompted to create an instructor profile and input the appropriate Penn State Turnitin account ID and join password.

13. Creating an Instructor Profile
Turnitin provides choices of how to use the service via a profile. An instructor profile must be created to use Turnitin as an instructor.
Select “instructor” on the “Create a User Profile” screen, to begin creating your instructor profile.

14. Account ID and Join Password
The “Create a New Instructor Account” screen is used to activate a Penn State Turnitin account.
In the appropriate fields, enter the Penn State Turnitin account ID and join password that was provided upon requesting an account. When the correct information has been entered, small green circles with white check marks will be displayed to the right of the fields.
Read the license agreement, click the appropriate radio button to indicate whether you are over 13 years old, and click “I agree - - create profile” to finish creating your Turnitin Instructor account.

15. Creating a Class
After a Penn State Turnitin account has been created, the instructor homepage appears and classes may be added.
To create a new class, click the “add a class” button located in the upper right portion of the window.

16. Adding Class Information
Each class created in Turnitin must have certain information associated with it. The “create a new class” screen requires a class type, class name, and enrollment password. A class end date is also assigned on this screen.
Select a class type, either standard or master, from the drop-down list at the top of the screen.
Enter a class name in the field provided. It is recommended that class names include the name and section number of your course so that your students will recognize it, for example English 202A.003.
Enter an enrollment password for the class. Please note that students will need to be aware of the enrollment password to access the class assignments and to submit papers.
Select a class end date using the drop-down lists at the bottom of the screen. The default end date is six months from the time the class is created. It is important to note that once a class end date has passed, submissions will no longer be accepted by the class unless it is reactivated by the instructor.
Click the “submit” button when finished. The newly created class will now have a class ID listed on your instructor homepage. Students will need to have access to this number if they are expected to enroll in the class and submit papers.

17. Creating an Assignment
After a class has been added to an instructor account, it will be visible on the instructor homepage. Assignments can be added to the class from this point.
To create an assignment for a class, click on the name of the class on the instructor homepage. The “assignments” screen will open.
Click on the “new assignment” button to open the “new assignment” screen.
Assignments can also be added using the libraries feature that includes an option to import a past Turnitin assignment and the accompanying Originality Reports into another class. The libraries feature is available when a class is opened. For more information on this feature, please see the manuals available at

18. Select Assignment Type
Select an assignment type, either paper assignment or revision assignment, from the list.
Then click the Next Page button.

19. Setting Assignment Options
Each assignment requires a title and a due date. The “new assignment” screen provides areas for this information as well as other option settings.
Enter an assignment title and due date. It is recommended that assignments have descriptive titles that are meaningful such as, Assignment #1 Descriptive Narrative Draft. Descriptive titles are more easily recognized by instructors and students.
Select a start date and due date for the assignment using the drop-down lists.
Below these settings, there is an indicator for “more options”. When this list is expanded, it provides additional options for configuring the assignment.
Click “submit” when finished. The assignment will now be visible on the “assignments screen”.

20. Learn More About Turnitin
Complete directions for creating your account and getting started with Turnitin.com can be found on the Information for Faculty page at the Penn State Turnitin Support Web site, .This site contains information for instructors and students as well as links to training materials.
There is also a listserv available for posing questions at:
Information about the iStudy for Success module, Academic Integrity, Plagiarism, and Copyright is available at . This instructional module contains materials that can be imported into ANGEL and provides the academic integrity information instructors need to include in every Penn State course, especially courses where Turnitin.com will be used.

21. Learn More About Turnitin
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