Turnitin: Attaching feedback to an assignment

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This knowledgebase provides staff with a workflow for attaching feedback documents to a Turnitin assignment.  At the time of writing, this workflow has been created due to the Turnitin Feedback Studio not allowing for attachments.

The workflow is separated into three sections:

  1. Setting up a “dummy” Blackboard assignment.
  2. Configuring the assignment to ‘Collect Submissions Offline‘.
  3. Giving feedback via attaching an electronic document and adding marks.
This guide assumes that a Turnitin assignment has already been created.  For help with creating a Turnitin assignment, please see the Creating a Turnitin Assignment guide.

Part 1. To create a new Blackboard assignment, open the module that the Turnitin assignment in question relates to (previously created) and identify where you wish to place the assignment.  Click on the purple plus icon at the desired location and select Create.

Choose Assignment.
Image showing hoe to setup a new assignment in Blackboard Ultra

Part 2. In the assignment settings, add the standard assignment details and settings, including the Maximum points etc.  It’s recommended that the assessment due date and time are not used. Depending on the student’s activity stream, setting a due date could send them a reminder to submit their assignment, thus causing confusion.

Check the ‘Collect Submissions Offline‘ tick-box and click Save in the bottom right hand corner to complete the process.

*Note By checking Collect Submissions Offline, students cannot upload any content.  

Image showing how to setup a Collect submission offline assignment.

You can now collect and assess the Turnitin assignment submissions as normal and use the Blackboard Ultra assignment to add just the feedback and score.  Once assessed, the feedback sheets can be produced and uploaded to the Blackboard Ultra version of the assignment.

*NOTE It is recommended to give a score to only ONE of the assignments. For example, you might want to record a score in the Turnitin assignment, or you might want to record a score in this “dummy” assignment. Adding scores to both the original Turnitin assignment and this assignment could cause confusion 

Part 3. To give feedback to students, go to the Gradebook and click on the dummy Assignment, You will be presented with a list of the students. Click on the student in question to record that they have submitted an attempt.
Image showing adding submission dates to a Blackboard Ultra assignmentYou’ll be prompted to ‘Create Attempt‘ (shown in the image above), add the submitted date and time and click Save.

This will open the feedback page for the student in question. The feedback options are available on the right-hand side of the screen. To attach the pre-created feedback document, click the Insert content drop-down menu and select the Attachment option.  You can now locate the appropriate feedback sheet and attach it. If required, you can change the display name.  Click Save to complete the attachment process.

Blackboard requires a score to be inserted for students to see feedback – this can be entered into the grade pill in the top right-hand corner.

Image showing saving an uploaded file in Blackboard Ultra Click Save when finished. To finalise the process, click ‘Post Marks‘ from the Gradebook.

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