Posts by: "Elizabeth Pyatt"

Please be aware that multiple service outages of Turnitin have been reported in December. Most outages have been resolved within 30-60 minutes and have had minimal impact on student submissions thus far.

However, we do want instructors to be aware of the higher than normal frequency of outage reports from Turnitin, particularly as end-of-semester submissions are coming in. We advise instructors to be aware that students could experience issues if an outage occurs at a deadline and plan accordingly.

We will report outages to the Help Desk as we become aware of them. Instructors and students can also go to https://twitter.com/turnitinstatus for the latest information about Turnitin.

Penn State instructors are invited to participate in a SPRING 2015 semester pilot of a tool enabling the use of the Turnitin plagiarism detection and prevention system from within an ANGEL course. Information Technology Services hopes to provide the tool to all instructors in the future if the pilot is successful.

Anyone with ANGEL course editor rights may apply to participate in the pilot. For details and to complete the online application form, visit http://turnitin.psu.edu/angel/. The deadline to apply is January 30. Please note that space may be limited.

The tool, which is based on the IMS Global Learning Consortium Learning Tools Interoperability specification, does provide the following features:

  • Instructors will be able to access Turnitin without going through an account activation process.
  • Students within the ANGEL course will automatically be given access to Turnitin assignments; instructors will no longer need to provide access codes to students.
  • Students can access Turnitin from within the familiar ANGEL environment.
  • Grades assigned via Turnitin can be posted in the ANGEL course grade book.
  • Instructors will now have the option to grade assignments with the Turnitin iPad app.
  • Courses may include multiple instructors/TAs in one section.

Note: Instructors who wish to use Turnitin outside an ANGEL course will be able to do so as in previous semesters. Information about Turnitin in general is available at http://turnitin.psu.edu/.

Questions about the pilot or the Penn State Turnitin service can be sent to turnitin@psu.edu.

FYI – Turnitin may be unavailable during the regularly scheduled maintenance window on Saturday, May 3rd from 7:00 AM to 11:00 AM PDT (or 10 AM – 2PM EDT). Please see the System Status page (http://www.turnitin.com/en_us/support/system-status) for more information about Turnitin maintenance windows.

Live information about Turnitin status is available on Twitter at https://twitter.com/TurnitinStatus.

Penn State instructors are invited to participate in a fall semester pilot of a tool enabling the use of the Turnitin plagiarism detection and prevention system from within an ANGEL course. Information Technology Services hopes to provide the tool to all instructors in the future if the pilot is successful.

Anyone with ANGEL course editor rights may apply to participate in the pilot. For details and to complete the online application form, visit http://turnitin.psu.edu/angel/. The deadline to apply is September 19. Please note that space may be limited.

The tool, which is based on the IMS Global Learning Consortium Learning Tools Interoperability specification, will provide the following features:

  • Instructors will be able to access Turnitin without going through an account activation process.
  • Students within the ANGEL course will automatically be given access to Turnitin assignments; instructors will no longer need to provide access codes to students.
  • Students can access Turnitin from within the familiar ANGEL environment.
  • Grades assigned via Turnitin can be posted in the ANGEL course grade book.
  • Instructors will now have the option to grade assignments with the Turnitin iPad app.
  • Courses may include multiple instructors/TAs in one section.

Note: Instructors who wish to use Turnitin outside an ANGEL course will be able to do so as in previous semesters. Information about Turnitin in general is available at http://turnitin.psu.edu/.

Questions about the pilot or the Penn State Turnitin service can be sent to turnitin@psu.edu.

After some initial troubleshooting, the new Turnitin login interface should be available and will simplify initial registration for instructors and students. Please read the information to learn more.

Turnitin Access Simplified for Instructors

Beginning July 15, 2014 after 2PM, individuals with faculty status or those teaching a course in the Summer 2014 semester will be able to automatically enroll in Turnitin by clicking the Log In button at the Penn State Turnitin home page and entering their Penn State Access Account user id and password. Instructors should no longer need to request access from the ITS Help Desk. Any instructor not able to access Turnitin automatically should contact turnitin@psu.edu for assistance.

Other individuals requiring instructor level access for Penn State academic business (excluding scanning of one’s own documents) can request access by contacting turnitin@psu.edu.

Note: If you received a QuickStart guide, the information may no longer be valid after 2PM on July 15, 2014.

Student Access

Currently and after July 15, 2014, individuals requiring student level access can also log in to with their Penn State Access Account user id and password, but will need a course id and password from their instructor to gain access to that course. Students must use their official Penn State e-mail address and password within Turnitin or recording of grades may be affected. See http://turnitin.psu.edu/help/studentstart/ for details.

Due to ongoing issues relating to the recent Turnitin upgrade, we will suspend assigning adding instructors to the Penn State Turnitin on Monday, July 14 from 3:30-5:30 PM. This will allow us to complete some tests with Turnitin in California. We hope this testing will allow us to streamline access for new instructor accounts.

Please note that students and instructors who already have an account will be able to log in and use Turnitin. We appreciate your patience during the upgrade process.

On July 1, the Penn State Turnitin service upgraded to a new interface which streamlines the creation of new accounts for students and instructors at Penn State.

However, it has come to our attention that the recent interface upgrade has caused some Turnitin instructor accounts to be disabled. In particular the following users may be affected:

  • Users who are listed as “STAFF” in the Penn State directory including IT support, some Librarians and others using Turnitin for different purposes at Penn State.
  • Some instructors who only teach some semesters. Access may be deactivated if an instructor loses FACULTY status in a particular semester when he or she is not teaching.

It is possible to permanently reactivate instructor access by following these steps.

  1. You can log in to http://turnitin.psu.edu to determine if instructor level access is available. Many accounts were upgraded to instructor status, but not all.
  2. If you need access, please contact turnitin@psu.edu and send information about either your past/future courses or your usage of Turnitin.
  3. You will be notified once access is re-established. The process is usually completed the following morning after a database refresh process.

The Turnitin staff apologizes for the inconvenience. They have been in contact with the staff at Turnitin.com and it was determined that this is the best short term solution.

FYI – Turnitin will be unavailable during a 12-hour upgrade on Saturday, July 26 from noon to midnight EDT (or 9 AM – 9 PM PDT). Please see the System Status page (http://www.turnitin.com/en_us/support/system-status) for more information about Turnitin maintenance windows and system status.

Live information about Turnitin status is available on Twitter at https://twitter.com/TurnitinStatus.

Turnitin Access Simplified for Instructors

Beginning July 1, 2014, individuals with faculty status or those teaching a course in the Summer 2014 semester will be able to automatically enroll in Turnitin by clicking the Log In button at the Penn State Turnitin home page and entering their Penn State Access Account user id and password. Instructors will no longer need to request access from the ITS Help Desk.

Other individuals requiring instructor level access for Penn State academic business (excluding scanning of one’s own documents) can request access by contacting turnitin@psu.edu.

Note: To facilitate the migration, creation of new instructor accounts will be suspended from 8 AM to 1 PM on July 1, 2014.

Student Access

Currently and after July 1, 2014, individuals requiring student level access can also log in to with their Penn State Access Account user id and password, but will need a course id and password from their instructor to gain access to that course. Students must use their official Penn State e-mail address and password within Turnitin or recording of grades may be affected. See http://turnitin.psu.edu/help/studentstart/ for details.

FYI – Turnitin may be unavailable during the regularly scheduled maintenance window on Saturday, May 3rd from 7:00 AM to 11:00 AM PDT (or 10 AM – 2PM EDT). Please see the System Status page (http://www.turnitin.com/en_us/support/system-status) for more information about Turnitin maintenance windows.

Please note that Sat. May 3 is the Saturday after the last day of class. Instructors are encouraged to modify assignment due dates either before or at least several hours after the scheduled maintenance window.

Live information about Turnitin status is available on Twitter at https://twitter.com/TurnitinStatus.

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