How to create a Turnitin Assignment dropbox

Our recommended practice is to set up two dropboxes per assignment, one for the standard main submission and one for late/ECF submissions. Using this approach makes it clear to the students whether their submission is late, as they are unable to submit to the main box once the deadline has passed.

The guide below shows how you can create Turnitin assignment submission dropboxes for both Standard on-time and ECF/Late submission dropboxes.

Turnitin submission dropbox video guide

Standard on-time Turnitin Assignment Dropbox

Step 1: To create a Moodle dropbox for your module, first ensure that the ‘Editing’ is turned on. The ‘Editing’ slide bar is located in the top right corner of your module site, underneath your name

Step 2: Then, go to the ‘Assessment and Support Materials’ topic/section to add the assignment dropbox, and then click on the ‘purple icon’ next to the topic name to display the ‘Add an activity or resource' button.

Click the Turnitin Assignment icon from the list to add. You can find more information about Turnitin assignments by clicking "Explore this tool".

Step 3: You will now see the 'Adding a new Assignment' page, you will be required to give your assignment a name, assessment type, weighting and submission type here

Enter a 'Turnitin Assignment title’ and use the pro forma assignment summary/description below

Note:

Please provide an appropriate assignment title that your students will understand and not use "Assignment 1, 2,3..."
Enter "Submission Dropbox" as a suffix of the title

You are also expected to add a summary/description to give guidance to learners.

Please use this Turnitin Assignment pro forma summary/description

Instructions for submission:

Use your student number as your file name, e.g. UP123456.
Unless otherwise instructed, upload written documents to dropboxes in the original/native file format (Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, or Excel, as relevant). PDF and other document formats will not be accepted unless specified by your lecturer.
Ensure you accept any statements to confirm your submission.
Do not leave your work to the last minute to submit. The dropbox will close at the exact time of the deadline, and you will receive a digital receipt as confirmation of your submission. If you do not receive this receipt, your work has not been submitted successfully.
Draft submissions can be made multiple times to this dropbox to check your similarity score. Please be aware that each new draft submission will overwrite the previous submission.
After the first draft submission is made, subsequent submissions will take longer to generate. Bear in mind that after 3 submissions it will take at least 24 hours to return a report.
It is your responsibility to check that your work has been submitted and that it is the correct version of the file (in the correct dropbox) and can be opened and read successfully.
If you experience Turnitin submission errors while trying to submit your work, please use this FAQ helpsheet to resolve your issue.
If you have questions or concerns about academic integrity, plagiarism, and interpreting a Turnitin report, please see this guide for more help.

If you have a problem uploading your work, please email your module coordinator (and copy in submissions@port.ac.uk), with the following:

Your assignment (attached to the email).
Your student number.
The name and code of the module you are submitting work for, and the name of the dropbox you are submitting to.
An explanation of the issue you are experiencing.
A screenshot of the error.

Step 3.1: In the General settings you will also find the following options to select from:

Assessment type: This is where you select whether it is a formative or summative piece of work

Note:

Only Summative and Late submission options will be reflected/shown on the Assessment. Selecting formative will not show in the Assessment tabs.

Assessment weighting: Please enter the weighting in relation to all the summative assessments in the module (out of a maximum of 100%)

Please use the BAL dedicated proforma Turnitin assignment summary/description above(this only displays if you choose to do so by clicking on "Display description on course page").

Submission Type – Leave the default selection of "Any submission Type".

Number of parts – Leave the default number as 1, we recommend using Moodle Submission dropbox if you need more than one.

The Maximum File Size – Please leave the default maximum site upload limit of 100MB

Allow submission of any file type - Leave the default selection of "No", this will alert the students to incompatible file upload.

Similarity Reports – Set to Yes, students can view the originality report for their submission.

Grade display - Leave the default - this can be set to either fraction or percentage

Auto refresh Grades - Leave the default - this will automatically update any changes to grades for students

Step 4 – Grade and Assignment settings

The Grade area allows you to choose the maximum grade available and type of grade for an assignment as well as any grades needed to pass.

The Assignment area allows you to set...

Start date - the date the assignment will start.
End date - the date the assignment is due.
Post date - the date that marks and feedback from GradeMark are released to students.

You can leave the ‘Grade’ settings as the default. For the ‘Assignment’ settings you will need to set the start date and due date for each ‘part’ of the assignment. The ‘Post Date’ is when the marks and feedback will be released to the students and is usually 20 working days after the due date.
Note:

The recommended "Due Date time" should be set as 23:55hrs and the Post Date time should be 17:00hrs

In the 'Similarity Reports Options’ sections, the ‘Allow submissions after the Due Date’ should be set to ‘No’. Setting this option as "no" allows the standard/on-time submission dropbox to close/stop accepting submissions based on the due date set.

We recommend leaving the other default settings as it is.

In the ‘GradeMark’ options you can add a rubric here should you wish to (guideline). Otherwise, the settings can be left on default.

Common module settings and Restrict access

As with any Moodle item, you can assign a Group or grouping to the Turnitin Assignment. Likewise, you are also able to set restrictions on the assignment.

In the ‘Restrict access’ section you can set restrictions on when the dropbox is accessible or who can access it. If you do not wish to use this function then leave the default settings.

Set the ‘Completion tracking’ to ‘Do not indicate activity completion’ to avoid any confusion.

Lastly, Click on the 'Save and return to course' button to confirm the action.

Late Turnitin Assignment dropbox

You will need to go through the process again to create the Late/ECF Assignment Submission dropbox instance, ensuring the following adjustments are made.

Ensure the start date of the Late/ECF submission dropbox is the same as the due date of the standard on-time submission dropbox. This guarantees that once the due date of the Standard on-time submission dropbox reaches the ECF/Late submission dropbox becomes immediately available for use. Example below:

Standard on-time submission dropbox (Due date is the 1st of April 2022)

ECF/Late submission dropbox (Start date is the 1st of April 2022)

Next, select "Late submission" from "Assessment Types" which is located under the summary/description.