Optional settings

The information below will help you to understand the settings available and correctly customize the assignment. In addition, it will help clarify which parts of the workflow are controlled by D2L assignment settings and which are controlled by Turnitin optional settings.

Submission settings

Submission storage options

  • Standard paper repository

    Student papers are stored in the global paper repository.

  • Institution paper repository

    Student papers are stored in an institutional repository.

  • Do not store the submitted papers

    A similarity report will still be generated for paper submissions, but your students' papers will not be stored in the Turnitin standard paper repository or the institution's paper repository for future comparison.

    • If you find that this setting is unavailable to you, please contact your administrator to request it to be enabled in their account settings. If your administrator subsequently finds that the setting is also unavailable to them, it is recommended that they speak to their Turnitin account manager.

Allow submissions of any file type

This setting is grayed out because it is controlled in the D2L assignment settings.

Allow late submissions

This setting is grayed out because it is controlled in the D2L assignment settings.

Enable Translated Matching

If enabled for this account, select whether a separate report will be generated based on English translations of a student's non-English submitted paper. Find out more about Translated Matching here.

If you find that this setting is unavailable to you, please contact your administrator.

Enable grammar checking using ETS e-rater technology

This feature provides instructors with the option to enable the e-rater grammar and spelling check for all submissions to the assignment. When enabled student submissions receive detailed grammar feedback automatically through the e-rater technology.

Attach a Rubric

If you would like to use a rubric to grade the papers submitted to the assignment, you may use the rubric list drop down menu to select a previously created or imported rubric, or you can launch the rubric manager by clicking on the Launch Rubric Manager button and create a new rubric to attach to the assignment.

Compare against

These search options allow you to select the repositories that students' submissions will be checked against when processing Similarity Reports for papers. The similarity score may decrease if a repository option is deselected.

The options are:

  • Student paper repository - compares current submissions to previous submissions in classes and assignments in Turnitin across institutions.
  • Institution paper repository - compares current submissions to the repository of student papers unique to your institution.
  • Current and archived internet - compares current submissions to a repository of archived and live publicly available internet pages containing billions of pages of existing content and tens of thousands of new pages added daily.
  • Periodicals, journals, & publications - compares current submissions to third party periodical, journal, and publication content including many major professional journals, periodicals, and business publications.

Similarity Report

Report generation and resubmissions

While there are three options in the dropdown menu available, because resubmissions are controlled by the D2L assignment settings, choosing either of the first two options will generate the report immediately and potentially allow resubmissions (if allowed in the D2L assignment settings). The third option generates the report on the due date regardless of whether students submit once or multiple times.

Exclude bibliographic materials

Select the checkbox to exclude text appearing in the bibliography, works cited, or references sections of student papers from being checked for matches when generating Similarity Reports. You can overwrite this setting in individual Similarity Reports.

Exclude quoted materials

Select the checkbox to exclude quotations from being checked for matches when generating Similarity Reports. You can overwrite this setting in individual Similarity Reports.

Exclude small sources

Select the checkbox to exclude matches that are not of sufficient length (determined by you) from being considered when generating Similarity Reports. A box will appear, where you can exclude matches by word count or by percentage. You can overwrite this setting in individual Similarity Reports.

Exclude assignment template

If you have provided a template document for your students to follow, these can now be excluded from the Similarity Report by uploading the template or copying the text into the Create Custom Template field. Once a student has made a submission to the assignment, this feature can no longer be edited. Find out more about excluding templates here.

There are some requirements which must be met for a successful template exclusion. They are:

  • Uploaded file templates must be less than 100 MB. If your file exceeds 100 MB, you can reduce its size by removing any images or save the file as a rich text or plain text file. You could also copy the text from the file and paste it into the Create Custom Template text box.

  • Accepted file types for upload: Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, WordPerfect, PostScript, PDF, HTML, RTF, OpenOffice (ODT), Hangul (HWP), and plain text.

  • Templates must have at least 20 words of text.

Once a student submits to the assignment, this setting will be disabled and cannot be edited. You can remove template exclusions from individual similarity reports from within the report itself.

Additional Settings

Save these settings for future use

Check this option to save these settings as defaults for future assignments.

When you are completed with your changes, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Submit button to save your settings.