Category Archives: Turnitin

Check Edge and Chrome are up-to-date if using Turnitin

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Previously we reported that staff were unable to create or edit some Turnitin assignments and that students were sometimes unable to resubmit assignments.

We are pleased to say that Google have resolved this issue in their latest update for Chrome and Edge. The error never affected non-Chromium browsers such as Firefox and Safari.

We have asked that students who are submitting work to Turnitin ensure their Edge or Chrome browsers are up-to-date, or use a non-Chromium browser such as Firefox or Safari. If they don’t, they may find their ‘resubmit’ button doesn’t work.

For staff, the same advice applies to creating or editing Turnitin assignments with Post-Dates more than two weeks after the Due Date.

We apologise for the disruption caused. If you have any concerns or questions, please contact us at digital-education@bristol.ac.uk

Update on Turnitin issue affecting assignment creation, resubmission and download in Chrome/Edge

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Previously we reported that users were unable to create or edit some Turnitin assignments. Following further reports of disruption to other Turnitin features, Turnitin have now added this issue to their Known Issues page.

An update to how Google Chrome (and other browsers based on ‘Chromium’ eg Edge) handles popups has caused problems with some of the Turnitin functionality. The affected features are:

    • You are unable to create or edit assignments to have post-dates more than the default amount of 2 weeks after the due date.
    • The resubmit button is sometimes unresponsive and unable to be used.
    • Submissions are unable to be bulk-downloaded from the assignment inbox. They can still be downloaded individually.

We have been assured that Turnitin are working on resolving this as a priority.

Workaround: The error does not affect non-Chromium browsers such as Firefox and Safari. It also does not affect previous versions of Chrome or Edge. If you have access to any of these, please use them to carry out the above actions.

We apologise for the disruption caused. If you have any concerns or questions, please contact us at digital-education@bristol.ac.uk

Unable to create or edit some Turnitin assignments

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We have received several reports of the Submit button not working when creating or editing Turnitin assignments. Through testing, we have determined that this error occurs when the post-date is more than two weeks after the due date. We have contacted Turnitin and have asked them to look into this as a matter of urgency.

The error does not appear to affect certain non-Chromium browsers such as Firefox and Safari. If you have access to these, please use them to set up your Turnitin assignments.

If you have any concerns or questions, please contact us at digital-education@bristol.ac.uk

Turnitin scheduled maintenance: Saturday 14th August 2021

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Turnitin have advised us that there will be scheduled maintenance taking place on Saturday 14th August from 16:00 – 18:00 BST. Turnitin services will be unavailable at this time.  We apologise for any inconvenience caused. If you have any questions please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk

You can stay up to date with Turnitin system status by visiting the Turnitin status page.

Hiding marks and feedback until ready for release

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As the assessment period starts, schools should please ensure that Blackboard Grade Centre columns are hidden from students until marks and feedback are ready to be released. You can check a column is hidden from students by looking for the circle with a red line through it in the column header.
A column header with the 'hidden from students' icon
If it is not hidden, and you need to hide it, click the down arrow next to the column header and select Hide from students (on/off).
The menu to hide columns from students
For Turnitin users, please be aware that a persistent bug means you must make the submission point unavailable after making any changes to the settings. For more details, please see our previous blog post on Turnitin submission point availability issues.
If you have any questions, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

Roles and processes for any issues arising during summer assessment

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Should any significant issue arise with an assessment system during the summer assessment period, the following steps will be followed:

  1. Issue reported: DEO identifies Incident Lead (usually service lead) and collates initial data to assess if this is a major incident. DEO informs colleagues, eg DEO Helpdesk and other DEO staff (via internal Teams group) plus IT Services TLC team (via Teams).
  2. Initial investigation: DEO Incident Lead reviews available data and consults with internal/external Technical Service Manager to complete initial assessment of problem and its impact (rapid triage).
  3. Major incident confirmed: 
    1. Incident Lead informs Head of Digital Education (via Teams) and Exams Office (via Teams) and confirms major incident with IT Services to enable their Major Incident process.
    2. DEO posts to DEO blog using ‘service announcement’ category which then emails info to subscribers and updates feeds (eg Blackboard home page). This information is also used by IT Services to update their status page.
    3. Head of Digital Education updates senior team in Education and Student Experience.
  4. Major incident management: IT Services oversees communication to staff and students as part of its Major Incident process. The DEO and IT Services continue to update blog and status page until issue is resolved.

The DEO recommends that relevant school and faculty staff subscribe to the DEO blog and consult the IT Services status page. In the event of a major incident, the DEO blog will have live and detailed updates, while the IT Services status page will contain more high-level information. Both the blog and status page are available to students.

If a technical issue affecting a live assessment is reported directly to schools or faculties, they should check the DEO blog for updates first, as the issue may have already been reported to the DEO. If nothing has been posted on the blog, they should contact the DEO.

Some students not receiving, or experiencing delay in receiving, Turnitin submission receipts

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We have had reports of some students not receiving, or experiencing a delay in receiving, email receipts when submitting to a Turnitin assignment. The submissions themselves appear to have been successful, but the receipt was not received until much later.

We have reported this issue to Turnitin and they are currently investigating.

In the meantime, if students do not receive a receipt by email they can check their submission has worked, and download a copy of the submission receipt, by following these instructions:

  1. Go to your Blackboard course and locate the submission point.
  2. Click View/Complete.
  3. Click View.
  4. Click the grey download icon.
  5. Click Digital Receipt.

Location of the grey download icon

We apologise for any disruption or inconvenience this may cause, and will post an update as soon as we have further information from Turnitin.

If you have any questions please contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk

Interruptions to key University online services, 5.30-9.00 pm Mon 22 March

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IT Services will be completing their emergency upgrades to the University network on Monday 22 March between 5.30 pm and 9 pm. This will affect access to some of the services that the Digital Education Office manages, including Blackboard and Re/Play. Further information can be found in the IT Services status item about this work.