Moodle Direct V2 Release Notes
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2024 March 29th
Update your plugin to apply these changes.
The export, refresh, download and bulk download buttons are now functioning as expected
The export, individual submission refresh, download and bulk submission download buttons are now functioning as expected.
2024 February 6th
Update your plugin to apply these changes.
The anonymous marking reveal field is now required
An issue has been resolved with anonymous marking. Previously, when an instructor made a request to reveal a student’s name prior to the feedback release date, the required reason field for the early reveal was not actually being enforced. Instructors will now be required to fill in this field when deciding to reveal a student name early.
Summary content no longer displayed in two locations
In versions 4.0+ of Moodle, the assignment summary content was being displayed twice in two separate locations. This update removes the display of the summary content from the Moodle Direct V2 inbox. It is now only displayed just above the inbox.
Resolved issue with deprecated SOAP warnings
We have resolved an issue with deprecated SOAP warnings displaying in PHP 8+.
AI Writing Detection
Turnitin is excited to release our new AI writing detection capabilities. It is available for all non-student users who can access Similarity Reports, as well as those using them through an integration with a learning management system or Turnitin’s Core API.
AI detection will only work for content submitted in English. It will not process any non-English submissions. As we continue to iterate, we will keep you updated on developments around non-English language support.
When you open a Similarity Report, the new AI writing indicator in the side panel. After a short period of processing, the indicator will display one of three potential states:
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Blue with a percentage between 0 and 100: The submission has processed successfully. The displayed percentage indicates the amount of qualifying text within the submission that Turnitin’s AI writing detection model determines was generated by AI. As noted previously, this percentage is not necessarily the percentage of the entire submission. If text within the submission was not considered long-form prose text, it will not be included. Our testing has found that there is a higher incidence of false positives when the percentage is between 1 and 20. In order to reduce the likelihood of misinterpretation, the AI indicator will display an asterisk (*) for percentages between 1 and 20 to call attention to the fact that the score is less reliable. To explore the results of the AI writing detection capabilities, select the indicator to open the AI writing report. The AI writing report opens in a new tab of the window used to launch the Similarity Report. If you have a pop-up blocker installed, ensure it allows Turnitin pop-ups.
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Gray with no percentage displayed (- -): The AI writing detection indicator is unable to process this submission. This state means that the AI writing report cannot be opened. This can be due to one, or several, of the following reasons:
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Error ( ! ): This error means that Turnitin has failed to process the submission. This state means that the AI writing report cannot be opened. Turnitin is constantly working to improve its service, but unfortunately, events like this can occur. Please try again later. If the file meets all the file requirements stated above, and this error state still shows, please get in touch through our support center so we can investigate for you. |
The AI writing report contains the overall percentage of prose sentences contained in a long-form writing format within the submitted document that Turnitin’s AI writing detection model determines was generated by AI. These sentences are highlighted in blue on the submission text in the AI writing report.
Prose text contained in long-form writing means individual sentences contained in paragraphs that make up a longer piece of written work, such as an essay, a dissertation, or an article, etc. The model does not reliably detect AI-generated text in the form of non-prose, such as poetry, scripts, or code, nor does it detect short-form/unconventional writing such as bullet points, tables, or annotated bibliographies.
This means that a document containing several different writing types would result in a disparity between the percentage and the highlights.
The percentage, generated by Turnitin’s AI writing detection model, is different and independent from the similarity score, and the AI writing highlights are not visible in the Similarity Report.
How Turnitin has made this determination is complex. To help our users understand Turnitin’s method of detecting AI writing text, we have created an extensive FAQ. Learn more about how Turnitin detects AI-generated writing.
Our AI writing assessment is designed to help educators identify text that might be prepared by a generative AI tool. Our AI writing assessment may not always be accurate (it may misidentify both human and AI-generated text) so it should not be used as the sole basis for adverse actions against a student. It takes further scrutiny and human judgment in conjunction with an organization's application of its specific academic policies to determine whether any academic misconduct has occurred.
2023 March 27th
Update your plugin to apply these changes.
Percentage grades now display in the assignment inbox
We have fixed an issue for institutions using PHP 8+ which prevented the assignment inbox from loading when the assignment grade was set to display as a percentage.
Setting an assignment to grade type ‘none’ will no The PeerMark UI has been improved
We have fixed an issue with the PeerMark manager modal, which previously caused the '+' icon to appear cut off in the user interface.
2022 May 13th
Update your plugin to apply these changes.
UI improvements to support new 4.0 Boost theme
We’ve made some improvements to how our interfaces looks when using Moodle’s new 4.0 Boost Theme. Everything will still feel familiar, but there shouldn’t be any elements that squashed when making the switch to the new theme.
Notify students who have not submitted yet
A bug had caused our Notify Non-Submitters feature to break temporarily. We’ve fixed this issue, and you can now notify students when they have not submitted to the assignment yet.
2022 February 3rd
Update your plugin to apply these changes.
Setting an assignment to grade type ‘none’ will no longer create a Moodle gradebook column
Creating an assignment with the grade type set to ‘none’ would create a column in the Moodle gradebook after the first submission to the assignment. We’ve fixed this bug, and the column will no longer be created.
Grades will still update when a grade item can’t be found
When the automatic scheduler (cron) runs to update grades, it could fail when it tried to update a grade item that couldn’t be found. We’ve improved how grades update, and this scenario will no longer prevent the rest of the grades from updating.
Submit on behalf of a student, even when ‘allow late submissions’ is not enabled
The ‘allow late submissions’ setting should only prevent students from submitting to class. You, as the instructor, should always have control over the assignments you create. This change allows you to submit on behalf of a student without needing to open up late submissions for the entire class.
2022 January 28th
Access restored to users within the People's Republic of China
A plugin update is not needed for this change.
A pathing issue between Turnitin's servers and users within the People's Republic of China had prevented these users from using our integrations. This has now been resolved and access has been restored.
This change resolves the known issue.
2021 September 23rd
A plugin update is not needed for this change.
Unnecessary pronouns removed from the paper view request email
Turnitin is committed to providing an equitable and inclusionary experience for everyone who uses our products. While this may be a relatively minor change, we are actively looking for areas we can improve in all aspects of Turnitin.
In this change, we found that the Paper View Request email unnecessarily gendered the instructor and did not account for users who do not identify as a binary gender.
Before this change:
This instructor has found a '23%' match to this paper in a paper submitted to his or her 'Natural History' class.
After this change:
The requesting instructor has found a '23%' match to this paper in their 'Natural History' class
2021 August 4th
Deleting a PeerMark assignment will show a confirmation message
Previously, deleting a PeerMark assignment would move you to the assignment's setting page with no other context. We'll now show you a confirmation message when deleting a PeerMark assignment to remove any confusion.
2021 July 27th
Enhanced synonym swapping detection
One way people try to get around similarity matching is by changing words within plagiarized content to similar synonyms in the hope that we can’t detect these changes. With this release, we will catch more instances of this method of academic misconduct while not increasing false positives.
This enhancement will help to improve the accuracy of the Similarity Report and provide actionable insights instructors can use to promote original writing with their students.
As this is a refinement to how we generate the Similarity Report, you don't have to do anything to enable it. Any Similarity Reports generated from now on will simply be even more accurate than they were before if someone tries to cheat in this way.
2021 June 8th
Support for Moodle 3.11
You can now confidently use this integration with Moodle 3.11.
Submit button is no longer visible after the due date
The submit button will no longer be shown to students who have already submitted to the assignment when the due date has passed. The current functionality will remain for users who have not already submitted.
Delete parts without errors
The option to delete an assignment part will now only show after there is more than one part used. When there is only one part, we’ll no longer show the deletion option to prevent the assignment from potentially breaking.
Turnitin classes will now be expired along with a Moodle course
If a class end date is set in Moodle, the Turnitin class end date will automatically be set to one month after this date. When the Moodle course expires, we will close out those classes in Turnitin too. This will also free up the active student count for those classes.
If a class has no end date set in Moodle, Turnitin will default to setting the end date to six months in the future from the date of creation.
2021 March 18th
Thanks for the Feedback!
Thanks for the feedback! We are so pleased that users are keen to work with us to make Turnitin a tool that truly reflects your needs. The user interview sign-up form will be going away for a little while as we start our first phase of testing. Worry not! It will be back later when we should have some exciting things to show you.
You can opt-out our user research at any time by following the 'Unsubscribe' link found in any email we send you.
2021 March 4th
This change doesn't require a plugin update
Turnitin’s similarity scores become more accurate and informative today
Similarity is at the heart of Turnitin and we always look for methods to make our reports more accurate and representative of the wide variety of sources students now have access to. Recently, we’ve refined how our similarity scores are calculated, and we’re excited to share it with our you.
While any changes to individual reports are relatively minor, it continues our commitment to providing Instructors with a reliable and genuine representation of a submission’s similarity.
This release includes:
- Better detection and exclusion accuracy of quotes
- Better prioritization of internet sources (for example prioritizing a match against wikipedia.com instead of randomblog.com)
- Better matching more content across our various databases
As always, all submissions to Turnitin are checked against our latest and most accurate similarity technologies. You may notice a small percentage of previously submitted papers experience minor changes as we continue to innovate.
Any questions? Check out our FAQ.
2021 February 17th
User Feedback Button has been added to Feedback Studio
Let’s talk! We want your help to shape the future of Turnitin. A User Feedback Button has been added to the Similarity Report viewer, allowing you to volunteer yourself to possibly become involved with surveys, one-on-one interviews, or previews of potential new products and features. This button is only visible for instructors.
If you would like to get involved, simply select the gray icon of the waving person on the panel within a Similarity Report. Complete the Sign-Up form to be entered into our database of potential participants. If you change your mind at any time, simply unsubscribe to any participation emails you receive.
We look forward to working with you!
2021 January 15th
This change does not require a plugin update.
Digital Receipts reflect the latest draft
When a file is submitted to Turnitin, we record the date and time it reaches us. A bug had caused us to only show the time of the first upload, even when we have received multiple drafts. Now, the date of the digital receipt will reflect the latest draft.
2020 November 18th
Update your plugin to apply these fixes
Rubrics sync back to the assignment
A bug could cause a rubric that is attached to a multi-part assignment from within the Turnitin viewer to become detached after opening it again. Rubrics will now correctly sync to the assignment and remain attached.
Tooltip shows correct maximum file size limit
Turnitin updated our maximum file size limit quite some time ago, but the file size provided in the tooltip had slipped through the net! It will now accurately reflect the maximum file size.
2020 September 23rd
This change does not require a plugin update.
Voice comments now use HTML5
At the end of 2020, Adobe will deprecate their Flash technology in favor of other open standards. As a part of this, all major browsers have also announced their removal of support.
To help ensure an effortless transition between the two technologies, we have made the change earlier than the deadline. As of this release, we now use HTML5 to record voice comments for users. You should notice little to no difference in how you use Turnitin (except things might be just a little faster!).
2020 September 17th
A new 'Paraphrasing' QuickMark set
This change does not require a plugin update.
When referenced correctly, paraphrasing can be perfectly acceptable in a well-written essay. This new QuickMark set will give students an extra helping hand by giving you a simple and clear way of indicating parts of an assignment than might need a little extra attention. You'll find this QuickMark set already available to you in your QuickMark library.
2020 August 4th
This change does not require a plugin update.
All Users. All Integrations.
Check for common integrity Flags in a submission
Flags are a simple way of checking a document for common forms of academic misconduct. A Flag is not necessarily an indicator of a problem. However, if you find one in a submission, we'd recommend focusing your attention there for further review.
There are two forms of Flags available at launch - Replaced Characters and Hidden text. Both are methods touted on social media as ways of circumventing similarity matching.
Replaced Characters will highlight any time an author has used a character that is different from the rest of the document — for example, Swapping a Latin O with a Greek omicron Ο. To the naked eye, these are difficult to spot; now we’ll Flag them for you!
Hidden Text is an attempt to blend text in with a white background. This can lead to an artificially inflated word count or attempts to turn plagiarized text into quoted text, so it is excluded from the Similarity Report.
Certain Turnitin licenses. All Integrations.
View authorship data for a submitted file
Document details are just that - details about a document! All files have metadata that is attached by the computer they use and the software they use. Metadata is simply data about data; in this case, data about the file a user submits.
Depending on file type, this can include fonts used within the paper, the paper size, the author’s name, software used to compose the document, and a bunch of other useful information!
These details can be used to investigate multiple avenues of academic misconduct. For example, multiple fonts used in a document may indicate that content has been copied from the internet. A different author’s name may suggest that a student has used an essay writing service. There can be genuine reasons for these matches, but we’d recommend further investigation when something doesn’t look right
2020 July 22nd
Support for Moodle 3.9
The Moodle Direct V2 plugin now supports Moodle version 3.9.
Paper deletion icon now appears
A visual bug had caused the ‘trash can’ icon to now appear when using Moodle version 3.8 or later. The icon now appears as intended.
Undefined Index warnings no longer show in Apache logs
PHP warnings and notices could occasionally appear in your Apache logs from Turnitin due to a reference to an undefined variable. This issue has been fixed and these warnings will no longer appear.
The submission form displays better in Moodle versions 3.7 and above
A visual bug had caused the submission form to be pressed into a much smaller area in Moodle versions 3.7 and above. While functionality remained the same, this bug has been fixed to give the submission form more room and make it easier to use.
2020 July 1st
Students can now view their submission and instructor feedback without receiving error messages
It was discovered that a small number of students were receiving error messages when attempting to open their submission or view QuickMarks left by their instructor. This has now been resolved and students can view their papers and feedback without issue.
Grading Form bugs have been resolved
Our engineering team have been working on a few intermittent bugs that have been interfering with applying grades to Grading Forms. You may have experienced one of the following:
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Grades may not have updated if they were applied or edited by navigating quickly through submissions using the arrows within Feedback Studio.
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A grade may not have saved if applied before Feedback Studio had loaded fully after opening.
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Selecting Apply to Grade may not have saved the criterion or rubric score.
These have all been resolved.
2020 June 17th
More accurate bibliography exclusions
For English language papers, Turnitin no longer requires the use of beginning and terminating phrases to identify a Bibliography. We now use a machine learning algorithm to understand the paper on a deeper level and dynamically exclude content with much greater accuracy. You should notice far fewer 'false positives' in your Similarity Reports when excluding the bibliography.
Read more on our bibliography exclusion page.
2020 June 10th
This change does not require a plugin update.
Code no longer automatically replaces certain text within Feedback Studio comments
If an instructor were to include an ampersand (&) or the word "prompt" within their inline comment on a student's paper, it would appear as & and < respectively. This has now been resolved and these phrases and symbols can be used as normal.
2020 April 22nd
This change does not require a plugin update.
A new notification before your session expires
Striking a balance between user convenience and account security is important to us. When we expire a session, we only do it to ensure that the person who returns to continue the session is still the person who started it.
We start the clock once we stop receiving any active input from the user. After three hours have elapsed without input, we will show a notification. This notification says that in 10 minutes your session will expire, but that you can use the Extend Session button to keep grading. Once the 10 minutes have passed, you'll have to log in again.
If you are writing a particularly long comment, and know you are about to take a break, navigate outside of the comment box to ensure that it saves.
When we expire a session, all unsaved work is lost. Saving happens automatically when we detect input from the user. However, in some cases, it's possible that the sync didn't happen because the rest of the page wasn't interacted with.
2020 February 26th
This change does not require a plugin update.
Turnitin Feedback Studio Viewer session extension
After listening to customer feedback, we’ve extended the session time for our viewer from one hour to three. This change means instructors will have longer to grade and leave feedback without worrying about being timed out.
2020 February 13th
This change does not require a plugin update.
Rubric manager issues have been resolved
Some users had experienced varying problems with our rubric manger such as not being able to select a rubric, create a new one, and formatting issues. The bug that caused this issue has been fixed and users should be able to use rubrics again as a part of their assignment.
2020 February 6th
We are now fully compliant for the release of Chrome 80
With the release of Chrome 80 fast approaching, we have ensured that users will be able to use our products in Chrome without further disruption. We have made the required changes to our cookies for all of our LMS integrations and Single Sign-On integration Shibboleth to ensure that users will no longer encounter warnings about 3rd party cookies if they are enabled.
2020 February 5th
This change does not require a plugin update.
Star rubrics and grading forms for easy access
Time for a little (early) Spring cleaning! This new feature allows you to star up to five rubrics and grading forms. Starring a rubric or grading form will move it to the top of the Rubric and Form manager for easy access. Starred rubrics and grading forms will stand out amongst all the others in this and future assignments.
Learn how to star a rubric or grading form, remove a rubric or grading form, or how to view the ones you have starred already
2020 January 15th
This change does not require a plugin update.
A new sub-menu for rubrics and grading forms
By default, we provide many rubrics and grading forms to help you get started with your Turnitin account from the very first time you access it. However, as we have a global community of instructors and institutions, it is only natural that not every rubric is relevant to every instructor. To help with the organization of rubrics and grading forms, we’ve moved them to their own sub-menus within the Rubric and Grading Form Manager. This sub-menu is more visible on the screen, making it easier to scroll through and find the one you would like to attach to an assignment. The currently attached rubric or grading form is always visible from the top-level of the menu.
2019 October 23rd
This change does not require a plugin update.
Match overview percentage now appears for translated matches in English
A bug had prevented the overall percentage wouldn’t show after clicking the ‘View English Sources (beta)’ button. We're happy to report that this bug has been squished and the match overview percentage will now display as expected.
2019 September 13th
This change does not require a plugin update.
Continued accessibility improvements
Focus order for interactive elements is more logical
When a screen reader looks at a page, it goes through the elements on the page in a set order. We have changed the tab order within our text-only viewer to add a more logical progression through the page.
New ‘Skip to Content’ link as the first navigable element in the text-only viewer
When using the ‘Show highest matches together’ or ‘show matches one at a time’ modes of the text-only viewer, you’ll now find a ‘skip to content’ link as the first element that is reachable when using the tab key. Following this link will jump you to the first part of the similarity report.
2019 September 3rd
Fixed a bug causing Turnitin Feedback Studio Viewer to freeze
This change does not require a plugin update.
A pesky bug was found that would cause the Turnitin Feedback Studio Viewer to freeze when creating a comment. We squashed this bug as part of our ongoing commitment to improving the Turnitin Feedback Studio Viewer.
2019 August 30th
This change does not require a plugin update.
New source credibility QMs with linked instructional videos released
We've got some incredible news. We just released a set of source credibility QuickMarks (QMs)! Available in American and British English, these QMs will make it easier for teachers to provide meaningful feedback on how relevant and trustworthy students' chosen sources are, and how credible a source's author seems to be. But wait, there's more. Most of these QMs even include links to a corresponding video aimed at helping students further understand how to evaluate the credibility of any source. We hope these new source credibility QMs are a great source of happiness as you start your weekend.
• QuickMark Set: Source Credibility
2019 August 21st
This change is to the Turnitin viewer and does not require a plugin update.
The undo prompt will now disappear as intended
When you delete a QuickMark, we show an undo prompt at the top of the screen to help you recover from any accidental misclicks. This undo prompt will vanish a couple of seconds after your next interaction with the viewer. A bug had made this prompt stay on the screen permanently. Now, deleting a QuickMark should only show the undo prompt for the intended amount of time.
2019 July 17th
This change does not require a plugin update.
New social studies short answer QuickMarks and rubric available now
Stressful scoring and confusing comments are things of the past. A new rubric and accompanying QuickMarks set for social studies short answer questions were just released! Available in American and British English, these resources will make it easier for teachers to score and provide meaningful feedback on pieces of writing in which students are briefly defending a claim about or explaining a historical topic.
• Rubric & QuickMarks: Social Studies Short Answer
2019 July 2nd
This change does not require a plugin update.
New science QuickMarks and rubrics available now (except for UK)
Put on your chemistry goggles and fire up the Bunsen burners. Three sets of science-related rubrics and accompanying QuickMarks were just released! Aligned to the concepts of the NGSS and broken out for younger and older students, these resources will make it easier for teachers to score and provide meaningful feedback on both shorter and longer pieces of writing in science and STEM classes. Please note that these Marie-Curie-approved rubrics and QMs are not available in the UK yet, but they will be soon.
- Rubric & QuickMarks: 6th-8th Grade Science Argument (CER)
- Rubric & QuickMarks: 9th-12th Grade Science Argument (CER)
- Rubric & QuickMarks: Science Short Answer
New ELA short answer QuickMarks and rubric available now (except for UK)
Additionally, an English Language Arts (ELA) rubric and QuickMarks set were also released. Both perfect for instructors to use when asking their students to directly, but briefly, defend a claim or explain a topic in an English class or other humanities course. This rubric and QM set is also coming to the UK in the near future.
- Rubric & QuickMarks: ELA Short Answer
Download the latest version of the plugin version for these changes
Moodle 3.7 support and course overview bug fixes
We've been working on supporting Moodle 3.7 and improving the course overview area.
We've given the student and instructor views a refresh, and squashed some bugs that were affecting the Moodle timeline and student submissions. The details of the bug fixes are below.
Moodle timeline bug resolved
There was a bug impacting the Moodle timeline that occurred when resetting courses with new assignment dates. As a result of this bug, after resetting, the new assignment wasn’t visible. This has now been resolved.
Overdue messaging bug resolved
Students were experiencing a bug that was causing the 'Recently Overdue' message to display even after students had submitted to the assignment. The message would only disappear once the submission has been graded. The message no longer displays once the student has submitted.
2019 May 24th
This change does not require a plugin update.
Students now alerted when content loads on screen in text-only Turnitin Feedback Studio
Previously, in the text-only view of Turnitin Feedback Studio, students weren't getting visual or auditory indications that new content had been selected or loaded on their screen. Now, when students tab through sections of text, select radio buttons, or choose the "Show previous/next 20 highest matches" link, the selection is outlined or highlighted, and the text itself is read aloud (if the student is utilizing the screen reader).
2019 May 16th
This change does not require a plugin update.
International Baccalaureate QuickMarks now available
Two sets of International Baccalaureate (IB) QuickMarks were just released in Feedback Studio to help teachers provide specific, actionable feedback aligned to the IB MYP5 Lit and Lang and the IB Extended Essay assessment criteria. Also, for the first time, localized British English versions of these QuickMarks will available in Feedback Studio in the UK.
2019 April 16th
Download the latest version of the plugin
Download the latest version of the plugin version 2019050101
2019 May 1st
Migration tool modal improvements
We’ve made sure that the modal displays when using our migration tool. If your migration is successful, then a green model box will display to confirm this.
Download student file button visibility
We’ve been improving usability by clarifying available options to instructors. Previously, the download student files button was hidden until a student was selected. We’ve now made the button visible at all times, but it is only possible to invoke the button once a student has been selected.
Migration bugs resolved
There were some bugs affecting the migration process. One was causing assignment parts that had been deleted in V1 to reappear after the migration to V2. The other was placing new parts of migrated assignments in the incorrect class within Turnitin. These issues have been resolved.
Student grades hidden until post date
Now students will be unable to see grades in the Moodle grade book until the post date has passed.
Thanks to Neill Magill for his input!
Privacy settings updates
We now carry over privacy settings from Moodle V1 to Moodle V2 when the user migrates.
2019 January 24th
You can now use special characters in file names
When using special characters, such as an umlaut or a dash, in student names or submission titles could cause an error message to show for a small number of users using Windows servers. We've improved how our system reads extended character sets and are happy to report that this error message should no longer be shown.
Non-submitters and Messages boxes will now close correctly
A bug had prevented some users from closing the boxes that appear for the non-submitters and Messages screens.
Big thanks to Rex Lorenzo for the pull request with the fix to this issue!
Support for Moodle PHP 7.2
We had received some reports that unit tests could fail when upgraded to PHP 7.2
Many thanks to ilya-catalyst for the pull request and fix!
General security fixes
2019 January 15th
2018122101
Change the visibility of QuickMark sets
Turnitin comes packed with many QuickMark sets that help to make your life easier. However, we know that not every set will be relevant to every Instructor. You can now change the visibility of QuickMark sets with just a few clicks! Check out our guide to learn how.
This change does not require a plugin update.
2018 December 21st
2018122101
Grade categories are now migrated between V1 and V2
When you migrate from Moodle Direct V1 to Moodle Direct V2, we'll now keep the grading category associated with the V1 assignment when we perform the transition.
2018 December 20th
2018121801
We now support Moodle 3.6
Getting a head start on the new year by upgrading your Moodle instance? We’ve got you covered. Our Moodle Direct v2 plugin now supports Moodle 3.6. Check out our system requirements for a full list of the version of Moodle we support.
You can now enable ETS e-rater as a default setting
Are you a fan of ETS e-rater? Us too! To help you take advantage of it, you can now enable ETS e-rater as a default setting for your assignments.
A new warning message when you try to change the Marks Available column
We’ve added this notification just to make sure that editing this field is what you want to do. Editing this field after you’ve finished grading, can change entries in the Moodle gradebook. Don’t worry, you can still edit this field should you need to!
A couple of backend security fixes
2018 December 18th
This change does not require a plugin update
PeerMark Improvements
We wanted to kick the season of giving off in style, and what better way is there to do so than with some PeerMark improvements! After talking to users this year, we've tailored the improvements we've made to the things that will most improve the lives of our instructors and their students.
A prettier interface - We've changed how buttons and a few other elements look. This change should make it clearer to students where they need to click to start their reviews.
A new message when the start date hasn't passed - When a student tries to access a PeerMark assignment when the start date hasn't passed yet, we'll now show them a message telling them when they can come back to get started.
We've made accessing completed reviews much easier - A Received Feedback button can now be found on the PeerMark Reviews screen. This button allows students to immediately open any reviews they've received by their classmates.
Would you like to learn more? Students | Instructors
2018 October 26th
2018102601
The course restoration tool has now been restored for use!
Were you previously using Turnitin.com or TurnitinUK.com before making the switch over to Moodle? The course restoration tool allows you to take your old classes and assignments with you by recreating them within Moodle. Previously, a bug had prevented this functionality from working as intended. Want to learn more? Check out our guide.
2018 October 19th
2018101901
Assignments now display correctly on Moodle’s timeline
We’ve made three separate fixes following Moodle’s new timeline support:
- When creating a V2 assignment using course reset and the “use new dates” option, your assignment now displays correctly on the timeline.
- By changing the due date of the assignment, this now will update on the timeline.
- Providing that the assignment’s due date hasn’t already passed, any assignments created prior to our previous fix in v2018082801 will now appear on the timeline after an instructor accesses the assignment.
Thanks to Paul Damiani and Rossco Hellmans
We've received some invaluable bug fixes, in the form of pull requests, to help us improve Moodle V2. We’re really grateful!
2018 August 28th
v2018082801
The administrator default option for student paper storage is now visible to instructors
We noticed a blip, where the administrator default option for student paper storage wasn't passed to instructors during assignment creation. We've corrected this problem so that the "Store student papers" drop-down menu now populates with the preferred administrator option.
All instructor default settings will override the global settings of an administrator.
V2 assignments are now available on the Moodle course overview page
We found that Moodle V2 assignments failed to appear on the Moodle course overview page when using Moodle 3.3+ which made it difficult to access assignments. This issue was a direct result of Moodle making a change to their course overview block. To resolve this, we've implemented Moodle's Calendar Action Events API. All is back to normal.
The link to the Moodle support wizard is no longer available in Moodle
Our Moodle support wizard has been broken for some time, and while we try to fix it, we're removing access to it to prevent confusion. But don't worry! You can still contact Turnitin via email at tiisupport@turnitin.com. We're currently thinking about how we can reintroduce a working version of the form in the future.
We've removed the plugin update checker from Turnitin administrator settings
Moodle has superseded this update checker with a tool that not only checks for Turnitin plugin updates but updates to all plugins within Moodle!
You can find Moodle's Check for available updates button by visiting: Site administration > Plugins > Plugins overview.
2018 May 24th
v2018052301
We now support Moodle 3.5
You can find out more about Moodle 3.5 via Moodle's release notes.
Turnitin's Moodle V2 plugin is GDPR compliant!
To support upcoming changes to European data protection law, we’ve focused our efforts on refreshing our processes around how we use your data. Learn more about the update via our Moodle Plugins and GDPR page.
- Repository settings are more transparent
- We're reporting on the data we store about our users
- Students can request to download their data
- Students can request to remove their data
If you're a Moodle administrator, and using version 3.3.5+, 3.4.2+, or 3.5, follow the steps on the Moodle Plugins and GDPR page to view the data we store in Moodle.
You can now send all papers to your institutional repository by default!
We're aligning Turnitin repository options with our Moodle V2 plugin. If an institutional repository is enabled on their Turnitin account, administrators can now opt to Submit all papers to the institutional repository. This submission storage option sends all student submissions to the institutional repository without instructor intervention. For this repository option to work successfully, it must firstly be enabled in Turnitin, before it can be configured in Moodle.
If you're a Moodle administrator, follow the steps below to enable this repository setting in Turnitin:
- Log into Turnitin.com or TurnitinUK.com.
- Under Edit, select the cog icon.
- Select Edit account settings.
- Scroll to Paper repository options and select Submit all papers to the institution repository.
Now, it's time to move to Moodle!
- From the Moodle left-hand side panel, select Site administration.
- Select Plugins.
- Select Activity Modules.
- Then Manage Activities.
- Scroll to Turnitin Assignment 2 and select Settings.
- Scroll to Paper Repository Assignments and select Submit all papers to the institutional repository:
Assignment titles are now visible in the grade book
This was a bit of an odd one! If an instructor created an assignment with Turnitin GradeMark disabled, the assignment title displayed in the Moodle grade book as the word 'Grade'. We're sure that you'd much rather see the assignment name to be able to distinguish one assignment from the other? Now, you can! Sorry about that!
You can now exit lightboxes using the 'Close' button
We received a report that the Close button in Moodle V2 lightboxes wasn't performing correctly, in that it wasn't actually closing anything! Instead, users saw the following error: 'Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'close' of undefined at HTMLAnchorElement.onclick'. Thanks for the heads up, @Haietza! We've fixed this issue.
Lightboxes display content by filling the screen and dimming out the rest of the web page. They can be closed to find the website contents still available. Items such as the QuickMark manager and the rubric manager are contained inside a lightbox.
2018 March 12th
v2018031201
Manual adjustments to grades now stick during V1 to V2 migration
Following the migration of a Moodle Direct V1 assignment to V2, grades that had been manually adjusted in the Moodle grade book would be overwritten to match the grade originally set in Turnitin Feedback Studio. With this overwrite being completely unintentional, we've made several backend changes to ensure that future manual adjustments within the grade book always remain fixed during migration.
V1 assignments are now removed automatically after migration
If an administrator failed to delete a Moodle Direct V1 assignment after its migration to V2, the grade of the V1 assignment would remain in the Moodle grade book, causing grades to effectively double. We've now adjusted the behavior of the Moodle Migration Tool to resolve this. So that you no longer need to worry about incorrect grades in the grade book, Moodle V1 assignments are now automatically deleted after migration.
There may be instances where you'll still be required to remove V1 assignments manually (for example, the migration has been successful but there are conflicting grades in the grade book).
Deleting V1 assignments that were migrated prior to plugin v2018031201
You can manually delete your previously migrated assignments from the usual spot in the Moodle Migration Tool; we encourage you to delete these as soon as possible in order to resolve any current issues in the grade book. Any V1 assignments migrated after this update will be automatically deleted.
2018 January 16th
v2018011601
Instant Similarity Reports for up to three resubmissions
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.
To enable resubmissions for students, you must correctly configure the assignment settings of a new or existing Moodle Direct V2 assignment.
- Scroll to Originality Report Options.
- Under Originality Report Generation and Submissions, select Generate reports immediately (students can resubmit until due date): After 3 resubmissions, reports generate after 24 hours. Read more.
Genre-specific rubrics in Feedback Studio
Revision Assistant's 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.
To use a new rubric for grading, you can attach it from within the assignment settings of a new or existing assignment.
- Scroll to GradeMark options.
- Under Attach a rubric to this assignment, select a new genre-specific rubric from the drop-down list. Read more.
Alternatively, launch the rubric and grading form manager from the Moodle Direct V2 submission inbox, or alternatively, from within Feedback Studio.
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 two 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. Read more.
To view and edit your new QuickMarks, launch the QuickMark manager from the Moodle Direct V2 submission inbox, or alternatively, from within Feedback Studio.