Re-using Turnitin Assignments

To re-use a Turnitin Assignment for the new academic year:

Go to the CONTROL PANEL

click on TURNITINUK ASSIGNMENTS (listed on the left hand side under ‘course tools’

CLICK ON VIEW

You will now see the assignment inbox. If any originality reports were used from the previous year in disciplinary matters, you must download a copy and save it to your machine, as these will be deleted when you renew the assignment.

From the assignment inbox, select the originality report in question and open it

click on the originality report to open it

Once open, click on the ‘download’ icon to collect a copy of the report in html

download the file

Once all the reports required have been collected, you can update the assignment settings to renew the dates and perform a roster sync to list the current students in the assignment box. Full instructions on how to do this are in a related post : updating Turnitin assignments

Updating Turnitin Assignments

To update a Turnitin Assignment for a new academic year, you need to change the date settings that govern when the item appears on Blackboard and the deadline for work to be handed in.

Go to the CONTROL PANEL

click on TURNITINUK ASSIGNMENTS (listed on the left hand side under ‘course tools’

click on view

click VIEW

You will then see the assignment inbox, click on ‘edit assignment’

assignment inbox: click on 'edit assignment'

This will bring up an editing panel, where you can reset the dates for the assignment to appear (start date) the deadline for the work to be handed in (due date). Remember to set the post date at any date after the due date (this is not a feature we use but the dates need to be set in this way for Turnitin to accept the assignment). alter the dates as required and remember to alter any date information in the instructions section. Click on submit when you are finished.

edit assignment

Finally, make sure the students are listed in the assignment inbox, otherwise they may be prevented from being able to submit their work. To do this, click the roster sync button on the assignment inbox:

click roster sync

Downloading a course archive file from Blackboard

The Blackboard system is backed up every night at 2am, however, the back up taken is a whole of system one and cannot be used to restore individual courses. It is therefore recommended that you create a back up file of your blackboard course site regularly. A copy should be taken at the end of each academic year to preserve the teaching materials used in that year for QAA purposes.

The Blackboard back up file (called an archive) is created by the server at your request and stored on the course site (full instructions on how to create your own archive file). You can take a copy of the file to download to your own computer. The archive file cannot be opened and viewed but can be restored to Blackboard if needed.

To collect your archive file:

go to the CONTROL PANEL and choose ‘archive course’ from the course settings menu

control panel

Right click on the long filename in blue to download the file to your local computer.

right click on long filename

Once the file is downloaded you can delete the archive from blackboard by clicking ‘remove’.

delete the archive file from Blackboard

Creating a back up of your Blackboard site

The Blackboard system is backed up every night at 2am, however, the back up taken is a whole of system one and cannot be used to restore individual courses. It is therefore recommended that you create a back up file of your blackboard course site regularly. A copy should be taken at the end of each academic year to preserve the teaching materials used in that year for QAA purposes.

The Blackboard back up file (called an archive) is created by the server at your request and stored on the course site. You can take a copy of the file to download to your own computer. The archive file cannot be opened and viewed but can be restored to Blackboard if needed.

to create an archive file:

go to the CONTROL PANEL and choose ‘archive course’ from the course settings menu

control panel

next click on ‘Archive’ to create the backup file

archive file

The file will be created by the server and you will be sent an email when it has been created

Going back to the ‘archive course’ menu, you will now see a new file has been created. Right click on the long filename in blue to download the file to your local computer.

right click on long filename

Is my list of students up to date on Blackboard?

Jo Badge has updated all the student enrollments for the second semester on Blackboard. If you believe that you have students registered on your course erroneously, please contact Jo, or check with Louise Johnson in the school office.

Can I re-use a Turnitin assignment from last year?

Turnitin assignments can be re-used from year to year. All assignments are recycled at the end of the previous academic year and the student attempts and submissions removed.

Click on ‘modify’ next to the assignment and change the dates for the new deadline for the current year. Don’t forget to update the deadline in the text box as well. You will need to refresh the list of students by using ‘roster sync’ to list them all in the Turnitin Assignment inbox. This means you will be able to see which students have not submitted thier work.