Turnitin has released the Paper Lookup tool that will allow instructors to retrieve submissions from past assignments (including Basic and Direct Building Block and LTI assignments).

The tool will allow those instructors who have previously interacted with the submission point:

• to retrieve reports generated for the submissions – including the Similarity Report, Grading Report, and a combination Similarity Report and Grading Report – within the Blackboard environment
• to access past submissions and associated reports from students who may have dropped from the course or are inactive.

To access the tool, instructors should navigate to Course Management in their current or past Blackboard courses. Then, click on Course Tools and find the Turnitin Paper Lookup Tool near the bottom of the list. This tool will also be available in Blackboard Ultra, accessed via ‘Books & Tools’ in the Ultra course view.

Recovering files

If you need to recover a Turnitin submission from a course where you have not previously interacted with the submission point, locate the Turnitin submission point and wait for the Assignment Inbox to load. You will then be able to find any files submitted to that submission point.

This process can be slightly more challenging with Turnitin Building Block submissions (ie older Turnitin submissions with a View/Complete link). For these, you will need to identify the unit owner, administrator, or instructor who marked or moderated the papers and ask them to retrieve the files for you.

Administrators and Instructors will be able to access submissions using the new Turnitin Paper Lookup Tool. To access it:

1. Log into a course using your instructor account
2. Navigate to Course Management
3. Open Course Tools
4. Click on Turnitin Paper Lookup Tool.
5. Type the course name in the search bar
6. Click on the course name to find all the Turnitin assessments in the course
7. Click on a specific assessment to access the assignment inbox with the submitted files
8. You will be able to download:
   1. Similarity Report
   2. Original File
   3. Grading Report
   4. Grading and Similarity Report.

If the original unit owner, administrator, instructor, marker, or moderator is no longer employed in your school, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk with the instructor’s details, the name of the submission point you are trying to access, and the name of the student whose submissions you are trying to retrieve.

For more information about the tool, please visit The paper lookup tool for Feedback Studio – Turnitin Guides.