[Resolved] Turnitin AI detection interruption of service

Earlier this month, we discovered that some AI writing detection reports in Turnitin had not been generated. Upon investigation, Turnitin confirmed that this was due to an error at their end, and that the issue occurred between 31 July and 5 August.

Today, Turnitin engineers reported that they have regenerated the AI reports for submissions made during that period.

We have spot checked some of the affected submission points and can confirm that the AI reports have now been successfully generated.

We apologise for the inconvenience caused and are grateful for your patience while we were working to resolve this issue. If you have any queries, please contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

[Closed] Turnitin AI detection interruption of service

It has come to our attention that the AI writing detection reports in Turnitin LTI were not generated for submissions made between 1 August and 5 August. We are currently investigating this issue with the supplier and will provide updates as soon as we receive further information from their support team.

In the meantime, if your course has been affected and you need to regenerate these reports, please contact us at digital-education@bristol.ac.uk, providing a list of the affected courses and their respective submission points.

Turnitin AI writing report updates

Turnitin has informed us that, from 16 July, two new improvements will be added to the AI writing report:

  1. Turnitin has increased the maximum word count limit for submissions from 15,000 words to 30,000 words for AI writing detection. This means that any submitted document with less than 30,000 words will now generate an AI writing report.
  2. Additionally, Turnitin will no longer display an AI score for documents where their algorithm detects less than 20% AI writing, to avoid potential incidents of false positives. When AI writing is detected below the 20% threshold, it will be reported with an asterisk (*) and no percentage will be attributed.

These changes apply to new submissions only and will not retroactively affect existing submissions.

If you have any questions about these updates, please email us at digital.education@bristol.ac.uk.

Access to PGR theses and new PGR organisations

This information is relevant if your school uses Turnitin to run similarity checks on PGR theses (practice, submission and re-submission).   

PGR students who submitted work to a Turnitin submission point in Blackboard before September 2023 will not be able to access their theses in Blackboard after August 2023. This is due to the supplier ending support for the older Turnitin integration with Blackboard. 

As we have communicated to schools directly, the DEO has been working with AQPO and representatives of administrative and academic staff to update the Blackboard Organisations for PGR Turnitin Submissions. 

Please take the following actions by 31 August 2023: 

  • Encourage students who may be affected to download their submissions before 31 August 2023.  
  • If you are one of the School Administrators who have received a form to complete for setting up new organisations, please complete the form by July 28. 
  • PGR student administrators should start using the newly created Turnitin Upload organisations which has been set up with the Turnitin LTI and the Academic Progress Monitoring form page. 

Please also note that, from 1 September 2023, staff who need access to the older theses will need to contact the DEO.