This article is about the plagiarism tool in Brightspace; as of May 4th 2026, we have switched from Ouriginal to TurnitIn.
TurnitIn is a tool that performs plagiarism checks. This tool is integrated into Brightspace and can be used to scan Brightspace Assignments for potential plagiarism. When creating an Assignment, TurnitIn can be linked to the assignment to scan students’ written work for plagiarism.
Creating a TurnitIn Assignment involves the following two steps:
1. Link TurnitIn to an Assignment
Start by creating an Assignment. Go to Course Tools, click on Assignments, and then New Assignment.
To edit an existing assignment, go to Course Tools > Assignments. Then click the arrow next to the assignment name and select Edit Assignment. Follow the steps below.
Under Evaluation & Feedback, at the very bottom, you’ll find External Learning Tools; click on Add External Learning Tools. For more information on setting up an assignment, you can read: How do I create an Assignment?
You will see the following screen.
Here, select “Institution paper repository” to ensure that the submitted work cannot be copied by other students without being detected in the future.
Next, we recommend selecting all three options under “Compare submissions against.” Then, under “Similarity Report,” you can choose which sections you do not want to include and decide whether the student should also be able to view the report. After that, click Save.
Students cannot see by default that TurnitIn is enabled. You can inform them of this, for example, via an announcement.
Be aware of accidental self-plagiarism. If a student submits the same document or a revised version to a submission folder that is not the original one, the document will be flagged as plagiarism, regardless of the course in which the assignment was assigned. If this happens, the instructor can choose to exclude certain sources from the plagiarism scan. This can be done under the “Sources” tab in the similarity report so that self-plagiarism is not detected. For more information, click on the FAQ Can a student commit self-plagiarism?.
Optional: You can check the box next to “Allow students to view report after submitting,” which gives students access to their own Similarity Report. Students will then see virtually the same report as the instructor, minus certain details. If a student makes changes to the report (such as removing sources), this will not affect the instructor's report, and vice versa.
2. Uploading an Assignment
It is important to note that students can only view a similarity report after they have submitted their assignment.
Students can submit an Assignment in the relevant Brightspace course using the Assignment tool. The student will then receive an automated email from Brightspace confirming that the submission was successful.
The maximum upload size for TurnitIn is 200 MB. If you need to submit a larger document, such as a thesis, please split it into chapters that are smaller than the maximum document size.