Adding a Turnitin Assignment

Turnitin assignments allow instructors to collect work from students and have that work checked against other student papers, the Internet, and journals/periodicals/publications. Each student submission receives an Originality Report with the results of these checks.

Turnitin Clarity (new for Fall 2026) provides a space within Turnitin for students to compose their submission to provide greater visibility into their writing process. Instructors can see a playback of each student's composition and view a report on pasted text, typing patterns, and revision history. Instructors also have the ability to enable optional features that include AI chat for guided writing support, grammar feedback tools that help students identify and revise writing issues, and citation checking features that encourage stronger attribution and academic writing practices. Clarity also provides access to the same robust feedback tools as standard Turnitin assignments. Learn more about Turnitin Clarity here. Note: Due to lingering accessibility issues, if you choose to use Clarity, please fill out our Equally Effective Alternate Access Plan (EEAAP) form here. An EEAAP simply outlines the steps an instructor will take to provide the same information/services offered by a technology should a student not be able to use the technology due to the accessibility issues.

There are two ways to add a Turnitin assignment in Canvas. If you have QuickMarks or Rubrics that you have previously built directly in Turnitin (not in Canvas) that you would like to use or you want to use Turnitin Clarity, you can use the LTI method. Please note that the LTI method does not work with groups or peer review. If you do not have any QuickMarks or Rubrics within Turnitin that you wish to reuse, or you want to use groups or peer review, then we recommend you use the built-in plagiarism framework method.

Adding a Turnitin Assignment via the Plagiarism Framework

Note: QuickMarks, Turnitin Rubrics, and Turnitin Clarity are not available when using the plagiarism framework. Students will submit a file or text, and you will do all the grading and feedback in the Canvas Speedgrader. The Speedgrader does allow for annotated comments, there is a Comment Library you can build out, and you can create rubrics to use for efficient grading.

1. In your Canvas course, go to the Assignments Index Page by clicking on Assignments in the course navigation.
2. Click the +Assignment button in the upper right.
3. Give your assignment a name and enter any instructions in the text box.
4. Set the Point Value, Assignment Group, and "Display Grade as" settings.
5. Set the Submission Type to Online and check the box for File Uploads and/or Text Entry.
6. Scroll down to the Plagiarism Review section and set the drop down to “Turnitin-Plagiarism Framework.”
7. Enable any desired Turnitin-specific settings.
8. If this is a group assignment, check the box and designate the Group Set.
9. Set the Due Date and availability dates.
10. Select “Save & Publish.”

Adding a Turnitin Assignment via LTI

Note: Please note that the LTI method does not work with groups or peer review.

Standard Assignment

1. In your Canvas course, go to the Assignments Index Page by clicking on Assignments in the course navigation.
2. Click on the three dots in the upper right of the page (at the very top - to the right of the +Assignment blue button).
3. From the dropdown menu, choose "Turnitin"
4. Let the pop-up window load. Choose Standard Assignment.
5. Set the details for your assignment. For more on these details, see this help guide on Creating a Standard Assignment.
6. When ready, click the blue Submit button at the bottom of the window.
7. Your new Turnitin assignment will be listed as unpublished on your Assignments page. You will need to manually publish for students to be able to see it and submit to it. You may also need to move it to the appropriate assignment group.

Note: Do not set an availability end date in the assignment settings (in Canvas) as that will prevent students from viewing your feedback when released.

Clarity Assignment

1. In your Canvas course, go to the Assignments Index Page by clicking on Assignments in the course navigation.
2. Click on the three dots in the upper right of the page (at the very top - to the right of the +Assignment blue button).
3. From the dropdown menu, choose "Turnitin"
4. Let the pop-up window load. Choose Clarity Assignment.
5. Set the details for your assignment. For more on these details, see this help guide on Creating a Clarity Assignment. See the Additional Help Guides section below for more information on creating rubrics and grading forms.
6. When ready, click the blue Submit button at the bottom of the window.
7. Your new Turnitin assignment will be listed as unpublished on your Assignments page. You will need to manually publish for students to be able to see it and submit to it. You may also need to move it to the appropriate assignment group, and add it to the appropriate module on the Modules tab.
8. Due to lingering accessibility issues, if you choose to use Clarity, please fill out our Equally Effective Alternate Access Plan (EEAAP) form here. An EEAAP simply outlines the steps an instructor will take to provide the same information/services offered by a technology should a student not be able to use the technology due to the accessibility issues.

Note: Do not set an availability end date in the assignment settings (in Canvas) as that will prevent students from viewing your feedback when released.

Multipart Assignment

A Multipart Assignment allows you to connect related Standard and/or Clarity assignments. Though connected, each part has its own title, instructions, dates, settings, submission, and grade. For example, students can compose their first draft in a Clarity assignment and then submit their final draft in a standard Turnitin Assignment. When two Clarity parts appear one after another, instructors can allow students' earlier submissions to appear in the next part's writing area, allowing them to continue revising their existing work instead of starting from scratch. Learn more about creating a multipart assignment here.

Additional Help Guides

Plagiarism Framework

• Creating an assignment using plagiarism framework
• Accessing the Similarity Report

LTI - Standard Assignment

• Creating a Standard Assignment
• Standard assignment settings
• Similarity Report help guides
• Feedback and QuickMarks help guides
• Rubrics and grading forms help guides

LTI - Clarity Assignment

• Introduction to Clarity 
• Getting started with Turnitin Clarity for students
• Rubrics and grading forms guides
• AI Tools with Turnitin Clarity
• Introduction to the Writing Report
• Other instructor help guides
• Other student help guides
• Resource Hub

LTI - Multipart Assignment

• Creating a multipart assignment
• Viewing a multipart assignment