Using Turnitin (Students)

Many instructors use Turnitin, an originality-checking software with their dropboxes in Cobra Learning. When submitted, your paper is compared to Turnitin’s database of past student submissions and web-based articles as well as the internet. A similarity report is generated that will help to identify any inappropriate copying and citation errors. It can be a helpful tool to ensure that you submit the best work for your assignments.

Accessing Submissions

To access your submission in Cobra Learning, click the Dropbox link in the navigation bar. This will list past, present and possibly future dropboxes, if made available by your instructor. You will see a submissions column and the number of successful submissions are identified. If you click on the number in that column, it will take you to the list of submissions, which you can download, if necessary.

Accessing Feedback

Once your instructor has graded your submission, you will see a “highlighted” View link under the Feedback column.  

Clicking this will take you to the submission view, where you will find an additional icon called Turnitin Grademark, if the instructor uses Turnitin Grademark to grade.  

Clicking this link will take you into Turnitin where you can see your submission along with any comments or feedback left by your instructor. There are three ways your instructor can leave feedback on your paper:

1. A comment written directly on the paper.
2. A pre-defined quickmark along with a comment.
3. A written comment.

Viewing Originality Report

In the event that your instructor has set Turnitin to release the similarity report, when clicking on the view feedback link, you may see the additional icon called Turnitin Similarity. If you click this icon, it will again take you into Turnitin where you can see your paper along with the instructor feedback, as described above. This report goes one step further, though, to show you additional results from the submission.

Match Overview

In Match Overview, it shows you the percentage of similarity to content found in the Turnitin database. The report will also show where else the content was found in the database, including if it was found in papers submitted to other schools as well as where it was found on the internet. Clicking on these items will highlight them in the paper. This is why copying and pasting information is not recommended.

e-rater Results

Additionally, if the instructor as the e-rater tool activated, it will show you the results of grammar use, punctuation and spelling errors, which will be highlighted in the paper as well. 

If your instructor releases the similarity report, you can use it as a tool to help you learn to proofread, properly cite resources, quote materials, and generally write better papers.