Turnitin Release Notes Archive

  • 2018
  • 2017

Academic Integrity and Plagiarism Spectrum QuickMarks

Is it plagiarism if I copy from myself? Our new QuickMark sets help you to teach your students about fundamental aspects of academic integrity and help them to identify problem areas in their paper.

You'll find 28 new QuickMarks magically added your account the next time you log in to Turnitin.

Papers now load faster in Feedback Studio

We received several reports from users who were experiencing a slow wait time when accessing Feedback Studio. Papers took longer to load and scrolling was delayed, resulting in a difficult grading experience. To mitigate these problems, we’ve made adjustments to how documents load and display. Feedback Studio is back to normal!

View E-rater marks in current view downloads

Downloading the ‘current view’ of Feedback Studio provides a PDF containing elements from a paper’s active layers (similarity, grading, or E-rater®). When the E-rater® layer was enabled, E-rater® marks failed to appear in the current-view download. We’ve fixed this!

Now, you should see all automatically-generated marks on your downloaded paper, just like you would see QuickMarks or Bubble comments if the grading layer was been enabled.

A new message for when Adobe Flash Player needs to be enabled

Most browsers come with Adobe Flash Player already installed, but there are a few that don’t. It’s also possible that your browser can have it turned off for most websites by default. Browsers do this to help protect your security and privacy. We only use flash player so we can access your microphone during the recording of a voice comment.

 

Don’t worry if you don’t know what your browser's default behavior is. We’ve added an extra message to let you know if Adobe Flash Player hasn’t already been enabled.

Rubrics will duplicate and update without error

Tried to duplicate a rubric recently? Tried to duplicate a rubric recently? If you've stumbled across a 'Save Error', don't worry! We've noticed this error occurring and a fix has been applied. You may have seen this message when duplicating or editing a rubric, then saving.

QuickMarks now open immediately after selection

SlowMarks? Not anymore! You told us that your QuickMarks required several clicks or taps before they would successfully open. In some cases, a selected QuickMark would move across the page rather than open. Understanding the frustration that this has caused during busy marking periods, this has now been resolved. Just one click or tap will open your QuickMark.

Documents in Feedback Studio load faster

A small number of users had reported that the higher resolution PDF format we now use to display documents was loading slowly for them. We've worked with our content delivery network (CDN) provider to improve how a document travels between our servers and your computer. The result? Large documents should load much faster, and other documents will load without delay.

We've made access to the text-only Similarity Report extra easy!

Been finding it difficult to access the text-only version of a Similarity Report? Us, too. Thankfully, it's now much easier to find! Simply select Text-only Report from the bottom of the document viewer, and we'll take you straight to it.

Any changes made to a duplicate rubric are now always saved

After duplicating a rubric and making changes to the duplicate, the changes weren't saved after refreshing the document viewer. We've resolved this! Now, we'll save all changes to - not just a duplicate rubric - any rubric!

Higher resolution in Feedback Studio as papers are now displayed in PDF format

Who wants a higher resolution in Feedback Studio? You do! Put your reading spectacles away because you shouted and we listened.

We're very pleased to announce that Feedback Studio has made the move from PNG to PDF. Now, all submitted papers are both displayed and stored in PDF format. Moving away from PNG offers the huge benefit of papers being much clearer and, therefore, easier to read! This update addresses a long-standing customer desire and we're excited that it's finally here.

Administrator stats are now accessible from within the Rubric/Form Library tab or QuickMark Library tab

If you are an admin for a sub-account, but not an admin of the parent account, clicking on the Stats tab while in the Rubric/Form Library or QuickMark Library would cause a 404 page to appear.

We’ve fixed this bug, and all user types should be able to navigate between tabs without running into any more error pages.

 

Account modify page is now fully translated

We’re sorry, something got lost in translation… quite literally! When changing account repository settings, the ‘more info’ link was not translated despite it also appearing several other times on the page.

We’ve managed to track this one down, and all of the account modify page will appear in your chosen language.

 

Genre-specific rubrics in Feedback Studio

  • Support teachers in social sciences
  • Aligned to the College, Careers, and Civic Life standards (C3)
  • Aligned to ELA writing standards at the national and state levels, including Common Core
  • Common academic language and performance expectations for writing across disciplines

Genre-specific rubrics are now available in Feedback Studio, designed with 6th - 12th graders in mind! K-12 instructors can assign new rubrics to their assignments to help their students master the art of argumentative, narrative, informative, and analytical writing. If you're actively using Revision Assistant and Feedback Studio together, you can now promote consistency in the classroom by adopting the same rubrics.

 

K-12 QuickMark sets in Feedback Studio

QuickMarks are Turnitin's most popular feedback tool among Feedback Studio instructors! But in finding that many of our default QuickMark sets failed to address the needs of our K-12 instructors and students, we've added ten new sets to the Feedback Studio collection. Our new drag-and-drop (and customizable!) comments will help instructors help their students to engage in revision, save time, and more importantly, achieve learning outcomes.

Removal of the Peer Review tab (students)

Following on from the change we made in our 1804 release, we've also removed the 'Peer Review' tab from the student view of Turnitin. As a quick recap, this tab was a relic from a very old version of Turnitin that has long since been superseded by PeerMark as we know it today. This tab has now been removed from both the instructor and student views of Turnitin.

An onboarding workflow for everyone!

Last year, we implemented a more straightforward workflow for user onboarding, which eased account setup for our English users. However, we've been a little delayed in making the same workflow available for our non-English users. The translations are in! All users viewing the site in a Turnitin-supported language now have access to the updated onboarding experience!

 

The 'Help' link in Turnitin now leads to guides.turnitin.com

The 'Help' link at the top of each logged-in Turnitin page is now a little more helpful. It now directs you to our instructional guidance site for help and assistance with any issues you may be encountering.

 

We've fixed several pesky 500 errors

500 errors sound a lot worse than they are, so take a look below for a brief explanation, then breathe a sigh of relief! We've managed to fix two 500 errors this week that caused problems with creating new instructor accounts and confirming a submission. You shouldn't encounter this error anymore!

The 500 error is an internal server error; it means something has gone wrong on a website's server, but the server couldn't be more specific in order to detail what the exact issue was.

Peer review tab removal

Ever noticed a Peer review tab at the top of the screen that didn't really do much? Oops… that wasn't supposed to be there. When we introduced PeerMark, the peer review page was superseded, but we never got around to removing its access tab. There’s been no change to PeerMark; we've just removed this tab to clear up any confusion.

 

Masterclass sections can now use apostrophes

When an apostrophe was entered within a master class section title, an error message would be displayed. Here at Turnitin, we can get a little possessive about using correct grammar, and this was a bug that we just had to fix.

You're still not a robot, right?

For some users, our reCaptcha check on the login page displayed with every login, rather than after three unsuccessful attempts. These might be the droids we are looking for, but we are not *that* restrictive. Now, the reCaptcha should only display after three unsuccessful login attempts.

 

Student columns now have correct formatting

With the addition of the instructor class usage statistics link, this added an extra column to the instructor homepage. For instructors, this is great because they get a new feature. However, for students, this created some messy-looking formatting, preventing them from using the Drop Class functionality. We've removed this column from the student view so everything now works as intended.

Instant Similarity Reports for up to three resubmissions

Phase one of our improvements to Turnitin Feedback Studio saw students gain immediate access to their ETS e-rater® feedback; now, Feedback Studio allows students to view their Similarity Report results immediately!

 

Students can now view their initial Similarity Report, then revise and resubmit their work up to three times, without having to wait 24 hours for an updated report. After three resubmissions have been made, the 24-hour report generation wait time will be restored. Instantaneous similarity results give students the formative support they need to master paraphrasing and citation conventions efficiently.

This feature is only available if resubmissions are enabled for an assignment.

 

Download class usage statistics

Real-time data is now available as a downloadable .csv file, providing instructors with useful tools to make data-driven decisions within their faculty. Class statistics empower faculties to see class-level trends in submissions and feedback, as well as viewing trends in papers with high similarity scores; this helps to provide targeted instruction to students.

This feature is only available to customers using Turnitin.com, TurnitinUK.com or Blackboard Basic.

 

Resolved confusion within PeerMark settings

PeerMark settings claimed that it was possible to push a PeerMark assignment to a master class section in Turnitin; however, as this has never been a function within Turnitin, the Push this assignment to sections checkbox setting made no push to a master class section at all. We apologize for any confusion that this setting may have caused, but we're pleased to advise that this has now been removed.

 

We've updated our IP range on our crawler info page

We've updated some of the IP addresses found on our Crawler Info page. Our new IP range is 199.47.80.0 - 199.47.87.255 (with a subnet mask of 199.47.80.0/21). You can find updated information under the following section: What IP does TurnitinBot come from?

 

Historical Analysis Rubrics in Feedback Studio (North America K-12 schools only)

We are excited to introduce two new rubrics for our North America K-12 customers. These rubrics are designed to support teachers of the social sciences.

 

The rubrics:

  • Align with the College, Careers, and Civic Life standards (C3)
  • Align with the ELA writing standards at the national and state levels, including Common Core
  • Use common academic language and performance expectations for writing across disciplines

You'll find these new rubrics in the Revision Assistant list in the rubric library. If you're actively using Revision Assistant and Feedback Studio together, you can now promote consistency in the classroom by adopting the same rubrics.

New genre-based QuickMark sets in Feedback Studio

Complimenting our new Historical Analysis Rubrics, we are also adding ten new genre-based, grade level, QuickMark sets

Instant Similarity Reports for up to three resubmissions

Phase one of our improvements to Turnitin Feedback Studio saw students gain immediate access to their ETS e-rater® feedback; now, Feedback Studio allows students to view their Similarity Report results immediately!

Students can now view their initial Similarity Report, then revise and resubmit their work up to three times, without having to wait 24 hours for an updated report. After three resubmissions have been made, the 24-hour report generation wait time will be restored. Instantaneous similarity results give students the formative support they need to master paraphrasing and citation conventions efficiently.

This feature is only available if resubmissions are enabled for an assignment.

Download class usage statistics

Real-time data is now available as a downloadable .csv file, providing instructors with useful tools to make data-driven decisions within their faculty. Class statistics empower faculties to see class-level trends in submissions and feedback, as well as viewing trends in papers with high similarity scores; this helps to provide targeted instruction to students.

This feature is only available to customers using Turnitin.com, TurnitinUK.com or Blackboard Basic.

Backend bug fixes and performance improvements

The community forum is in development!

It’s a little early we know, but we wanted to make a new year's resolution. In 2018 we want to give you a greater voice. We want you to have a place that you can call your own. A place where educators can connect and share their experiences not only with us at Turnitin but also with one another.

You’ll notice an update where the old ‘suggestions’ link used to be. This link will be your portal to deeper discussion, learning, and sharing once we launch. Until then, you’ll find information on how to give any feedback you’d like to share.

 

We've added an extra check to login pages

We’ve added an extra check to our login pages. If a user now fails to input their password correctly three times, you’ll be asked to verify that you are not a robot. We welcome any sentient artificial intelligence that decides to use Turnitin as its plagiarism checker of choice however sometimes bots can be exploited to make random guesses at a password. We’ve not observed this happening to any user accounts, but this proactive improvement will ensure it can’t potentially happen in the future.

 

Users will now always be able to bulk download successfully

In a limited number of cases, users trying to bulk download would get messaging saying their file was ‘corrupted’ or result in an empty zip container. We’ve sent our crack team of hazmat suit equipped engineers to hunt out the source of the corruption and fix it.

 

Current view, regardless of document length, will download successfully

We see some pretty big files submitted to Turnitin, and we salute the instructors who have to grade them. Occasionally when a file was exceptionally long trying to download the current view from within Feedback Studio would be too much for our PDF generator to keep track of. You might have to wait a few minutes for them, but larger PDFs should now download successfully.

It’s a little early we know, but we wanted to make a new year's resolution. In 2018 we want to give you a greater voice. We want you to have a place that you can call your own. A place where educators can connect and share their experiences not only with us at Turnitin but also with one another.

You’ll notice an update where the old ‘suggestions’ link used to be. This link will be your portal to deeper discussion, learning, and sharing once we launch. Until then, you’ll find information on how to give any feedback you’d like to share.

Zip file download includes all submissions - The legacy API allows existing users to submit even if they were not enrolled in a class. This caused a problem during bulk download of papers where their submissions would not be included in the zip file. We've fixed this and any paper that you see in the assignment inbox will be included in the assignment inbox.

Several updates to the wording we use within Turnitin - This All Hallows' we've been dusting away the cobwebs and doing some long overdue updates to some of the wording we use. This includes a few minor grammar fixes and making sure things are named the same thing throughout the whole of Turnitin.
  • General backend bug fixes
  • Several performance improvements

Decimal values stopping rubrics saving - If you tried to use a decimal value for a rubric field without a leading integer (.5 instead of 0.5) an error would be displayed and you'd be unable to save the rubric. After then adding a leading integer the error would persist. We've managed to squish this particularly pointy bug.

Blackboard Basic

500 error in PeerMark - We received a report that students were receiving 500 errors when trying to write peer reviews and instructors received the same when attempting to read their student's peer reviews. This was a result of an underscore being used in place of a student's first name. We've fixed the issue, now ensuring that if an underscore is used in the future, the system can handle this without returning any obnoxious errors.

Turnitin

 

Original file download bug - When trying to download the original file for a submission from within Feedback Studio it would intermittently fail. We've found the underlying reason for this and fixed it.

 

Integrations

 

Blackboard Basic: Student name PeerMark bug - If you created a student with an underscore in their name and then created a PeerMark assignment the student would be unable to read or write any reviews. We've fixed the problem that was causing this issue.

Paper view request bug - When asking to view a paper from another an institution an email is sent to the hosting institution informing them of the request. Our wires had got a little crossed and the email was being sent but it was missing the copy of the original file and instead showed the error ‘The paper is currently unavailable’. We’ve managed to track down this bug and fixed it.

Syllabus Display Bug - When viewing a syllabus via the class calendar some issues occurred when trying to switch between formatted and unformatted views. The transition between views should now be seamless.

 

TA Class copy icon removal - When added to a master class a TA was shown the icon that allows primary instructors to use the class copy feature. TAs are restricted to the master classes they have been added to so when they clicked on the copy class icon they were presented with an error. This icon has been removed for TAs and they will now only see a blank column.

 

Integrations

Blackboard Basic class statistics tab removal - Class statistics were retired in Turnitin in a previous release. However, the page was still accessible in our Blackboard Basic integration which would show an error when trying to access it. This tab has now been removed to avoid any confusion.
  • General backend bug fixes
  • Several performance improvements

Active’ students are now ‘Enrolled’ students - The user interface in the Account Status page has been updated so that ‘Active’ Students are now ‘Enrolled’ Students. This better reflects what the number represents. Turnitin records students as enrolled if they are joined to a non-expired class. There is no functional change to how student numbers are calculated.

QuickMark report bug - When attempting to download a QuickMark report that contained an equals sign (=) in its title, this resulted in a 500 error, preventing you from successfully downloading the report. This has now been resolved.

Empty grade can’t be saved - In trying to completely remove a grade from a submission, the change would fail to save. You can now change the grade without issue.

Misaligned text when downloading current view - When downloading the current view of an opened submission, some elements of the downloaded report would be misaligned or overlap. The report will now download with correct formatting.
  • General backend bug fixes
  • Several performance improvements

Administrator Statistics Improvement - You can now view account statistics By Master Class. Previously, downloading the full report By Class would not include any master classes. There is now the option to download the statistical report by Master Class.

The file will contain every master class active on the primary account during the period chosen, and show any relevant usage statistics.

Transitioned users from Classic to Feedback Studio - Control your excitement, everyone! We've been making huge efforts to move our users into Turnitin Feedback Studio, following our 1st August deadline (you might've seen the notification in Turnitin). We're pleased to announce that the transition has been successful. Not to worry if you were added to our exception list, as you will certainly not be affected by this change.

 

Class list pagination issue resolved - Some users noticed an issue when accessing a list of students in a class. After dropping all students from the class, a large number of empty pages remained available. This didn't seem right! It sounded like a pesky bug! So we popped on our extermination suits and got to work.

 

Implementation of the Turnitin time zone on digital receipts - Turnitin LTI and Canvas don't share the same time zone. In Canvas, you can set your own time zone preference, but Turnitin uses a time zone, usually set during your institution's signup with Turnitin. This confused some of our users.

 

To ensure that you're aware of the time zone that your Turnitin account is set to, we've added a UTC hour offset alongside the date and time of your submission in your digital receipt, submission info, and when downloading the current view of your paper. We hope this clears things up!

 

Removal of the instructor stats page - The final steps in the deprecation of the instructor stats page have been taken. The instructor stats page has been completely removed from the CMS along with the statistics column and icons in the instructor home page. Instructor stats have been replaced by the QuickMark breakdown and more robust administrator stats.

Note: As they share the same interface, this change is also reflected in Blackboard Basic. Check out the release notes.

 

Grade book preference values bug - A bug was causing customized grade display preferences to not save on creation. The feature now works as intended.

 

PeerMark comment deletion bug - In a small number of cases, when deleting a comment in PeerMark, comments would return after deletion. Comments will now delete and not return.

 

500 Error when an instructor isn't a member of any class - When an instructor who has a Turnitin account but was not a member of any institutional accounts it resulted in a 500 error when they navigated to the Instructor Homepage. One reason this could happen is if an instructor was dropped from an account by an administrator without being a member of any other accounts. A 500 error will now not appear.

The Summer of Love has been about listening to users and improving areas of Turnitin that might have needed a little love. Included in this release are changes to Turnitin Feedback Studio, ETS Grammar check, and making PeerMark easier to use.

 

What we've been working on...

 

Turnitin

 

You can see clearly now - We’ve improved the resolution of documents opened in Turnitin Feedback Studio. Text will now appear crisper and clearer than before, even after you zoom in closely.

 

Instantaneous grammar feedback - e-rater® grammar and spellcheck comments are now automatically available for students immediately after submission.

Instructors are still able to view e-rater® feedback, but they are no longer required to view a submission to allow students to access their feedback.

 

PeerMark simplification - We believe that feedback is at the heart of the writing process. We’ve simplified the process for creating a PeerMark assignment, making it easier than ever for students to review each other's work.

 

Simpler Distribution Options - The biggest change is the way that papers are distributed between students. You can opt for Turnitin to draw names from a hat (it’s an electronic one with flashing lights, we swear), and automatically assign papers to students. As an instructor, you can set the number of papers you’d like a student to review; we’ll do the rest.

Alternatively, you can allow students to select the paper they’d like to review from those that have already been submitted to the assignment.

Immediate Feedback - When creating a PeerMark assignment, you are now only required to enter a start date and an end date. Student can perform reviews at any time between these two dates. Peer feedback will immediately be released without having to wait for a post date.

 

Although this update is only available in Turnitin Feedback Studio via turnitin.com or turnitinuk.com for now, we hope to extend the changes to our integrations in the future.

Full report Administrator stat options - Admins now have the ability downland the full report of administartor stats broken down either by account, class, instructor, or integration.

Bug Fixes

Non-admins can set their default user as admin - There had been a bug where non-administrator users were able to set their default user type as admin. We've squished it so users should only see relevant options.

Submission preview image bug - Very rarely a bug would cause the preview image on the paper submission screen produce a 500 error. The preview image will now display at all times without error.

 

Turnitin Feedback Studio launch banner not displaying - We're very excited that everyone will soon get to experience Turnitin Feedback Studio. We think you'll love it! However, the banner letting you know about the general switch to Feedback Studio was not showing for some people when they switched back to Turnitin Classic. The banner will now appear for all users who are due to make the switch.

Additional privacy notices - We take the data privacy of everyone of our users seriously. As a part of this commitment we have added an additional privacy notice to our login pages and each step of the submission process to provide absolute clarity for users about how we use their data.

The notice reads:

We take your privacy very seriously. We do not share your details for marketing purposes with any external companies. Your information may be shared with our third party partners ONLY so that we may offer our service.'

Paper view request bug - When receiving a paper view request, as a part of the request email, you’d expect to find a plain text version of the requested paper; however, a bug prevented the paper from appearing in the email. We’ve squished this bug! Paper view requests are working as expected.

 

Submission release option bug - The option to amend or enable automatic sharing of matching papers within your institutional account failed to appear for administrators. Rest assured that if this option was already enabled, users did not lose access to this functionality. The option can be found again in the administrator account settings.

 

Expired class notification bug - When a class expires you should see a notification whenever you try to access the class homepage or assignment inbox. Notifications were appearing, but they didn’t reflect the error itself. This has now been changed to show the same message consistently.

Designate a central email address to receive all paper view requests - What?

One of Turnitin’s unique capabilities is identifying potential instances of cross-institutional plagiarism and student collusion. We have long given customers the option to reach out to other institutions via email to request information that could aid in investigating and managing potential academic dishonesty.

 

You can now choose the email address that paper view requests are sent to when paper source release is enabled. Previously, when an institution received a paper view request, the request was sent only to the instructor who created the assignment. Now, as an account administrator, you can designate a specific email address to receive paper view requests.

 

Why?

As institutions increasingly develop more structured academic integrity policies and processes, many of our customers have centralized responsibility for managing potential instances of cross-institutional plagiarism and collusion. If this is your policy, we want to give you the opportunity to choose a specific email address for your institution’s paper view requests to be sent to. This allows you to deal with requests as an institution. If you prefer for instructors to receive paper view requests, we’ve kept that option available for you.

 

Where?

To enable this feature, navigate to the account settings page. Under the Submission Release header, you can opt to continue sending paper view requests to the instructor who initially created the assignment, or you can choose to have paper view requests delivered to a designated email address within your institution.

 

One more thing...

We've fixed a bug that was causing multiple entries for the same submission in some accounts.
  • General backend bug fixes
  • Several performance improvements
  • General backend bug fixes
  • Several performance improvements
  • General backend bug fixes
  • Several performance improvements
  • ‘Join passwords’ are now 'Join keys'
  • ‘Roadmap’ is now 'Suggestions'
  • Fix released for Admin Stats in IE11 and Chrome 38
  • Warning message for attaching a new rubric has changed
  • Fixed a bug with resubmissions in Canvasresubmissions in Canvas
  • Fixed a bug preventing the creation of PeerMark assignments in Blackboard Basic

‘Join passwords’ are now 'Join keys' - We’ve been doing some spring cleaning and changing some of the words we use in Turnitin. During discussions with users, we found that there was confusion with the multiple uses of the term ‘password’ in the system, despite them not actually being passwords, due to them being designed to be shared with other members of your institution for class or account access.

Join passwords are now known as Join keys.

enrollment keys are now known as Enrollment keys.

 

‘Roadmap’ is now 'Suggestions' - We love to hear your feedback and ideas on how we can improve Turnitin. We had found that ‘Roadmap’ didn’t really make much sense for a lot of users. We’ve changed this to ‘Suggestions’, and we welcome any and all that you may have!

 

If you are an admin or an instructor clicking on the ‘Suggestions’ link, this will log you into our UserVoice portal. In UserVoice, you can view other suggestions that instructors around the world have already made, vote on the suggestions you agree with, and make your own.

 

Released a fix for Admin Stats in IE11 and Chrome 38 - We recently launched the new and improved Admin Account Statistics and we’ve already received a lot of great feedback! Unfortunately, a bug prevented those using IE11 or Chrome 38 from accessing the statistics page. This bug has now been squished, and IE11 and Chrome 38 users shouldn’t have any more problems.

 

Warning message for attaching a new rubric has changed - We've changed the messaging displayed when a new rubric is attached to an assignment or when detaching a rubric from an assignment. When a rubric is detached or changed, any feedback left using this rubric is lost. Although we already told users that this data loss would happen, our message wasn’t as clear as it could have been, leading to unintentional data loss.

We’ve updated the message that is shown when removing or attaching a new assignment to be much clearer.

Fixed a bug with resubmissions in Canvas - resubmissions in Canvas - If a user tried to download their originally submitted file while resubmissions were enabled for the assignment, a bug presented only the first version of the file for download, rather than the final, resubmitted file. This has now been fixed; the user will only be able to download the last file submitted to the assignment.resubmissions were enabled for the assignment, a bug presented only the first version of the file for download, rather than the final, resubmitted file. This has now been fixed; the user will only be able to download the last file submitted to the assignment.

 

Fixed a bug preventing the creation of PeerMark assignments in Blackboard Basic - When trying to create a PeerMark assignment in Blackboard Basic it would result in an error message being shown. A fix for this bug has now been applied and PeerMark assignments are able to be created.
  • New feature release of administrator account statistics
  • Resolved a bug detaching the rubric from an assignment
  • Removed the top-level account delete icon from sub-administrator view

Feature release of administrator account statistics - A high-level overview of your account statistics is now available for specific date ranges. Administrators can download detailed usage data in the form of a .CSV file, as well as view graph summaries of the following:

  • Submissions
  • High Similarity Reports
  • Submissions with Feedback

Common Core rubric reports are also available for .CSV download, providing the date range selected is anywhere up to six months.

 

For guidance on using and interpreting account data, click here.

Removed the top-level account delete icon from sub-administrator view - Sub-administrators who were not the main account administrators appeared to have the option to delete their top-level account. However, during bug testing, it was found that, although the delete icon was visible, the action would not process and an error message would display (phew). We’ve removed the delete icon for top-level accounts from appearing to sub-administrators to avoid any future confusion.

 

Integrations

Resolved a bug which detached the rubric from an assignment - After an integrations instructor created an assignment with a rubric attached to it, we noticed that a second instructor accessing the assignment saw no rubric attached in the assignment settings, but could still use the rubric for grading. If the second instructor edited and saved over the original assignment settings, this would clear it from the assignment entirely, causing the rubric to disappear from submissions that had already been graded using this rubric. Now, rest assured that rubrics will stay with the assignment when a setting amendment is made by any instructor.
  • General backend bug fixes
  • Several performance improvements

The long since deprecated listserv management admin option still had UI elements within the service indicating that it could still be used. This has now been removed from the Administrator user info page.
  • General backend bug fixes
  • Several performance improvements

Administrator Homepage Bug - When an administrator user set the Administrator Homepage to be the default page for their account they would lose access to that page when they changed the view to the Instructor Homepage. This has been fixed.

 

Improved Security Questions - We've changed our password reset security questions to better reflect industry standards. When creating a new account we now ask questions with answers that are less readily available on social media, yet are still memorable. Current users can still reset their passwords using their old password and question.

Access QuickMark breakdown from class homepage - Instructors can now access a list of the different QuickMarks used across their class, as well as how frequently these QuickMarks have been used on student papers. The QuickMark breakdown can be found beneath the class title..

Localized date formats - We have updated how we display dates for the localized versions of Turnitin. Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional, Japanese, and Korean localizations have been updated to reflect this change.

Previously the dates used the following format:

 

Chinese Simplified: ‘12日-03月’

Chinese Traditional: ‘12日-03月’

Japanese: ‘12日-03月’

Korean: ‘12일-03월

 

Now, the dates for these localizations have been changed to the following:

Chinese Simplified: ‘03月12日’

Chinese Traditional: ‘03月12日’

Japanese: ‘03月12日’

Korean: ‘03월 12일’

What we've been working on...

  • General backend bug fixes
  • Several performance improvements

Password reset error messages - After entering incorrect data during the password reset process (such as an incorrect email address), you might have noticed that the resulting error message would remain on the screen after successfully resetting your password. Sorry about that; we really didn't mean to worry you. Error messages will now clear after being addressed, just as you'd expect them to.

 

Integrations

 

502 bad gateway message

Switching between Turnitin Classic viewer and Turnitin Feedback Studio

 

502 Errors - Some users using our Blackboard integrations had difficulty accessing Turnitin and would be presented with a ‘502 Bad Gateway’ error. Our engineers have resolved this.

 

Switching between Turnitin Classic viewer and Turnitin Feedback Studio - Users may have experienced difficulty switching from the Turnitin Classic viewer to Turnitin Feedback Studio. The ‘Try the New Feedback Studio’ link wouldn’t respond and appeared to be ‘Saving…’, yet failed to update. We’ve fixed this! The switch should now happen seamlessly, so you can go right back to enjoying the Turnitin Feedback Studio.

Changes to our choice of wording in Turnitin

Improvements to translations

Extra security added to account creation forms

 

Changes to our choice of wording in Turnitin - We’ve started our spring cleaning a little early this year by improving some of the language you see when creating a new Turnitin account. You’ll notice that some of the older, clunky language we once used is now a lot clearer and easier to follow. This change will help to onboard members of your institution much more quickly than before! Watch this space for similar changes in future releases.

 

Improvements to translations - We noticed that text within the Turnitin footer was still awaiting translation, with several English words popping up where you’d least expect them. We apologize for this slip! The English we’ve identified has now been translated in all nineteen non-English languages supported by Turnitin. Please contact us if you happen to identify any non-translated words or phrases when viewing Turnitin in your preferred language.

 

Extra security added to account creation forms - We’ve added a reCAPTCHA to the bottom of our account creation form for added security.

We haven’t seen any problems with ‘brute force’ attacks, but we’ve added this extra security layer just in case. reCAPTCHA is, as Google puts it, ‘Tough on bots, easy on humans’, and in the vast majority of cases, is as simple as clicking on a checkbox to ensure you are not a robot. If you are a robot please get in touch as we have a tortoise that would like to meet you. reCaptcha is also fully accessible and works with major screen readers.

 

Localized helpdesk forms - After great feedback about the English language versions of our new support forms we are now making localized versions available in all nineteen non-English languages that Turnitin supports.

Fixed a bug with class sections - When trying to create class sections within a master class it would result in an error message telling the instructor about the requirements for creating a class section rather than creating one, despite the entered details being correct. This has now been fixed and class sections are created as normal.

Turnitin

 

Fixed a bug with class sections

Extended the character limit for class title from 100 to 300 characters

Changed the color scheme for error messages

 

Fixed a bug with class sections - When trying to create new class sections, some instructors found that this resulted in errors despite a valid user being added. This was limited to user accounts that had their default role set to 'admin' or 'student'. This problem has now been fixed.

 

Extended the character limit for class title from 100 to 300 characters - Some users found the 100 character limit for class titles restrictive; we've now extended it to 300 characters. The change hasn’t quite reached our integrations yet, but will be coming soon. Exactly the length of this message!

 

Changed the color scheme for error messages - Until now, our error messages and success messages all looked the same. This caused confusion, as messages that should have been positive - such as making a successful change to your user profile - would be shown in a red. Error messages remain red and 'positive' messages now appear in green.

Turnitin

  • We’ve updated our login pages to create a more consistent experience
  • Changed the login page to use HTTPS
  • Removed the ‘Account is nearing its student limit’ notification for instructors
  • Russian and Polish are now out of beta
  • Fixed a bug with allow any file type

Updated our login pages to create a more consistent experience - We’ve updated our login, create an account, and password reset pages to be more consistent with what you might be used to with our main website. All functionality remains the same; things just look prettier now.

 

Removed the ‘Account is nearing its student limit’ notification for Instructors - Up until now, instructors would see a warning when their account was near to reaching its student limit. As this warning is more aimed at administrators, we have stopped this warning message from appearing to Instructors. Don’t worry, admins! You’ll still be notified if your account is near reaching its limits. If you ever run into this problem, we’ve put together some guidance on how you can best manage your account’s student limits.

 

Changed login page to use HTTPS - Previously all pages after logging into Turnitin would use HTTPS however the login page itself still used HTTP. Now only HTTPS login pages can be used to access Turnitin. If you had our old page bookmarked you'll automatically be redirected. You can find the login page here.

 

Russian and Polish are now out of beta - We sometimes keep the beta tag on a language for a while to ensure that our translations are properly localized, preventing folks using the localized site from having any problems with using Turnitin.

With this release of Turnitin, we are removing the beta tag for both Russian and Polish; however, we are always happy to hear any feedback if you find something that might read a little oddly.

 

Fixed a bug with allow any file type - This… unintended feature would potentially result in a submission with less than 20 words trying to still generate a similarity report, causing our system to display a constant ‘Pending’ message.

 

Now, if a student submits a file with less than 20 words, we’ll show a message, letting them know that a Similarity Report won’t be generated for that submission. Student’s will also now not be stuck in a ‘pending’ limbo, and the Similarity Report column will appear blank.

Turnitin

 

Fixed a bug where using non-integer characters for parts of account creation would result in a 500 error.

We've made improvements to the security of our account join form

Account Creation 500 Error - If a user attempted to use non-numeric characters in the Account ID field, this resulted in a 500 error. When a user now makes this error, they will receive an error message asking them to resolve the issue and try again.

Account Join Form Security - The Password text box of the account join form was previously of the text field type. We have changed this to now be the password field type. Security of accounts remains as strong as ever; however, this change aligns the form with best industry practice and will visually obfuscate the password you have entered while using the form.

 

Integrations

  • Multi-file upload 403 errors
  • Fixed error callbacks in some integrations to be clearer
  • Cosmetic errors during empty text submissions

Multi-file upload 403 errors - Multi-file uploads would sometimes cause 403 and 500 errors when submitting. This has now been fixed.

 

Fixed error callbacks in some integrations to be clearer - Sometimes, errors would go unnoticed as each callback was being called twice resulting in a successful state. This has now been fixed so that a correct error status is shown when a callback fails.

 

Cosmetic errors during empty text submissions - When a user tried to submit to Turnitin using the text box submission method, leaving the text field blank, this would cause some minor cosmetic errors after showing the error message. These have now been fixed.