Reykjavik University uses Turnitin plagiarism tool to help its users detect plagiarism and/or incorrect or badly done citations and referencing. Teachers decide if their students are to use Turnitin for their assignments or not. If a teacher doesn't utilize Turnitin, then students are not required to use it. Students can not ask to use Turnitin on their own.
There are a lot of Canvas instructions on the Turnitin help page, please begin there:
Turnitin is an inbuilt tool within Canvas (no longer an external tool as previously). Teachers start by creating a new assignment, and when it comes to deciding on submission type they need to choose Online and File Upload. For Submission Attempts choose Unlimited. Under Plagiarism Review they select Turnitin.
When students hand in their assignments, they automatically run through the Turnitin database, and Turnitin generates a similarity report. Students should get access to their own similarity report and have the opportunity to make corrections and resubmit until the deadline. That is part of how they learn to use citations and references properly, and their final submission will be of better quality.
It is then in the hands of the teacher to go over the Turnitin similarity report and determine whether there is plagiarism or not. It is not enough to look at the percentage number. Turnitin detects similarity in text. It doesn't make any difference with text that is properly cited or not. When a student gets a similarity in Turnitin, the teacher needs to judge whether it is plagiarism or if the citation is done properly. If the text has been properly cited, then that similarity can be ignored. That is why it's important to view all cases of similarity in the text. Library employees do not help students or teachers to read and assess the Turnitin similarity reports. If teachers are unsure, they should get assistance from the teaching affairs office (kennslusvið).
It is recommended to always use Turnitin in Canvas, where students submit their work themselves. But there are a few exceptions when that is impossible; in those cases, we need to use turnitin.com.
Turnitin.com is used, for example:
Teachers can not submit on behalf of students via Canvas. For teachers to submit themselves, they need to do so through turnitin.com. But first, they need to get access. To get access, they need to contact RU's Turnitin administrator, Ragna Björk Kristjánsdóttir; she alone can create new instructors. If teachers have been at RU for a long time and remember having used turnitin.com before (before Canvas), they can check if they already have an account with Turnitin by using the Forgot password.
Turnitin does not show similarity between students assignments within each class until after the due date has passed. Before the due date has passed, only similarity is shown for previously submitted student papers in other classes and published articles and websites.