Transition to updated Turnitin LTI integration in Blackboard

The University switched to an updated Turnitin integration with Blackboard, called Turnitin LTI, from September 2022.

Why is this happening?

Turnitin have informed us that they will no longer support our current method of integration with Blackboard (called the "Blackboard basic building block") after August 2022, and will be retiring it. Blackboard are moving away from building blocks to a newer standard of integration called LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability).

LTI benefits

Greater efficiency - the ability to do anonymous distributed marking using a single Turnitin submission point, filtering by Blackboard groups.
A new analytics dashboard for Instructors.
Interface improvements.
Improved syncing of data between Turnitin and Blackboard (Sync grades is now automatic).

Key differences

Similarity reports, the Feedback Studio interface used for marking and viewing feedback and the integration with eVision will remain the same, but some other aspects of Turnitin will be different. The key differences are:

A slight change to the way Instructors set up and access new LTI Turnitin assignments.
Students will receive a downloadable onscreen digital receipt rather than an email.
The way Instructors can bulk upload assignments will change.

Key dates

After 31^st August 2022 the existing Blackboard Basic version of Turnitin will be unavailable for new assignments. Students will still be able to submit to existing assignments and staff will be able to mark these in the same way, From 1st September new assignments will be created and accessed using the LTI. Although the current way to create Turnitin assignments will still be available in new 2022-23 unit courses after rollover in August, the DEO strongly recommends that new Turnitin assignments in these courses are made using the LTI tool once it is available in September.

1st September 2023: All assignments which were created prior to September 2022 using the Blackboard basic version of Turnitin will no longer be accessible via Blackboard.

Useful links

Further information

Further information will be added to this page in due course. In the meantime if you have any questions please contact digital-education@bristol.ac.uk using "Turnitin LTI" in the subject line.