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Create Turnitin Assignment guide

Turnitin is an online assessment management system that you can use to support student submission, provision of grades and feedback. It also includes a similarity check. This guide provides an overview of how to set up Turnitin assignments.

Get started - Turnitin Rubrics

Rubrics can be used to evaluate student work based on defined criteria and scales. They are a set of standards linked to the levels of student achievement. Each criterion within a rubric includes a description of the level of achievement and a numeric value can be attached to each criterion.

When marking, rubrics allow the lecturer to select the level the student has achieved against each criterion and add further comments for each. If the numeric grade option is used, the rubric will calculate a total grade for assignment.

The Rubric should be designed using the assessment criteria for a specific module assignment. Guidance on writing effective rubrics, with a checklist for checking your completed rubric is available from Arizona State University, link below.

Benefits of using Turnitin rubrics

  • Rubrics can reduce the time and administrative burden of marking assignments especially for large student cohorts. When attached to an assignment, marking can be quicker.
  • Some academics have reported greater consistency across multiple markers when rubrics are used.
  • Rubrics can be easily shared with others.
  • Rubrics make the grading process more transparent to students.

Screencast: best practice for effective Rubric design

Screencast from Turnitin with great advice on best practice to create effective rubrics.

The end of the screencast demonstrates how to create a Rubric using the Turnitin web version which City doesn't use. Move onto the subpages for step-by-step guidance on how to create different kinds of Rubrics for use with Turnitin in Moodle.

Types of Rubric

  • Qualitative Rubrics are the most commonly used rubric type at City.
  • This type of Rubric is for entering scale values and descriptors only. As such it is used as a guide for marking and does not interact with the grading mechanism in Turnitin Feedback Studio. It allows you to create standardised feedback without applying numerical values. The lecturer then needs to add the overall grade for the assignment into the grade input field at the top of the Feedback Studio page.
  • It is possible to create the Rubric directly in Turnitin, but it is actually easier to set up the rubric in Excel and then import it into Turnitin. This is the recommended way of adding Rubrics to your assignments, especially for more complex assessment criteria and longer rubrics.
  • Qualitative Rubric is denoted by the "0" symbol in the Rubric creation page.

Rubric scoring icons

  • Standard Rubric allows you to enter scale values and criteria percentages. When attached to an assignment this Rubric will calculate and input the overall grade within Feedback Studio, based on your grading scale selections.
  • Standard Rubric is denoted by the % symbol on the Rubric creation page.

Rubric scoring icons

  • Custom Rubric allows you to enter any numerical and text value into the Rubric cells themselves. This allows for the most control over scoring or grading. When attached to an assignment, this Rubric will calculate and input the overall grade within Feedback Studio, based on your scale and cell selections.
  • Custom Rubric is denoted by a ‘Pencil’ symbol on the Rubric creation page.

Rubric scoring icons

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