Configure the Turnitin Assignment Inbox settings

Access the Turnitin Assignment Inbox

If you have just created the Turnitin assignment, you should already see the Turnitin Assignment Inbox.

Otherwise, to navigate to the Turnitin Assignment Inbox, go to your Course > Assignments, then click the name of the Turnitin assignment that you want to edit.

You will then see the Turnitin Assignment Inbox.

Don't see the Turnitin Assignment Inbox?

If you do not see the Turnitin Assignment Inbox, click Load Turnitin Submission Folder in a new window to view the Turnitin Assignment Inbox.

The Turnitin Assignment Inbox will load in a new tab or window.

If you do not see the Turnitin Assignment Inbox (shown below) nor the Load Turnitin Submission Folder in a new window button (shown above), the assignment you are in is not a Turnitin assignment. Please follow these instructions to create a Turnitin assignment.

Access the Turnitin Assignment Inbox settings

Click the cog icon on the right to access the Turnitin Assignment Inbox settings.

If you see the collapsed menu icon (three horizontal lines) instead, click that, then Settings.

Set Feedback Release Date, expand Optional Settings

  1. In the Turnitin Assignment Inbox settings, you can set the Feedback Release Date.
    This is the date from which students can see your feedback, if you use Turnitin's commenting tools.

  2. You should also expand the Optional Settings and configure them according to your needs.

The greyed-out options are configured in the Canvas assignment settings for the Turnitin assignment.



Configure Optional Settings

There are many optional settings that are available. You can read about all the optional settings on Turnitin's help site.

This guide will highlight some settings with important implications.

Click Submit one you are done

Remember to click Submit at the bottom of the optional settings once you are done. The settings are not auto-saved.

Submission settings

There are several options for Submit papers to. In most cases, you should leave it as Standard paper repository.

If you intend for the students to submit drafts, and you have a separate Turnitin submission folder for the final submission, you should change Submit papers to Do not store the submitted papers. This is so that the drafts are not compared to the final submissions.

Compare against

These settings allow you to choose which repositories your students' work will be checked against. Generally, you will check all four.

If you want to use Turnitin for e-annotation/commenting only (i.e. you are not using Turnitin to check for similarity), you can deselect all the repositories. In this case, you will also want to change Submit papers to Do not store the submitted papers (refer to Submission settings above).

Similarity Report

There are three options for Generate Similarity Reports for student submission.

Most users will choose Generate reports immediately (students can resubmit until due date): After 3 resubmissions, reports generate after 24 hours.

If you do not want to allow resubmission, choose Generate reports immediately (students cannot resubmit).

You can also choose to Generate reports on due date (students can resubmit until due date).


Notwithstanding when the reports are generated, you can also choose whether the students can view the Similarity Report. Check Allow students to view Similarity Reports, in order for them to do so.

Additional settings

Check Save these settings for future use if all the optional settings you set are to be used for other Turnitin submission folders that you create in the future.

Click Submit

Once done, scroll to the bottom and click Submit.