Why are my students able to see their Turnitin assignment grades before the Turnitin post-date?
Answer
In some circumstances, when using Turnitin assignments it is possible for students to see their grades in the Grade Centre (in Original courses) or Gradebook (in Ultra courses) prior to the Turnitin post-date.
When a grade is added to a Turnitin assignment, that grade is passed to the Grade Centre (in Original courses) or Gradebook (in Ultra courses), and there are settings in the Grade Centre and Gradebook which can allow students to view these grades prior to them being officially released. The following guide explains how to check that the Grade Centre or Gradebook has been correctly set up so as not to disclose grades to students in advance of the Turnitin post-date.
Please note that where a Turnitin assignment has been set up following the Turnitin guides on the Learning Technology Team's website (see links at the bottom of this page) it will have been set up so that grades are not released to students in advance of the Turnitin post-date.
And regardless of the Turnitin post-date and the settings in the Grade Centre or Gradebook, once grades have been passed to Student Records and entered into the student records system, they will be visible to students via the MyNorthampton app even if they are not visible to students via NILE.
• Original courses
Assuming that the Turnitin post-date is in the future, in the following situations students will be able to see their grades in the Grade Centre prior to the Turnitin post-date:
1. If the Grade Centre column is set to 'Show to students'.
If the assignment's Grade Centre column is not hidden from students during the marking period, students will be able to see their assignment grades as soon as they are entered.
• The old type of Turnitin assignment, known as Turnitin Basic, automatically hid the Grade Centre column when the assignment was set up. However, the new type of Turnitin assignment, known as Turnitin LTI, does not do this, therefore it is especially important that the Grade Centre column is manually set to 'Hidden from students' after setting up a Turnitin LTI assignment. The Grade Centre column will be automatically set to 'Visible to students' on the Turnitin post-date.
• Any changes at all to the Turnitin LTI assignment settings in an Original course will cause a hidden Grade Centre column to be unhidden. If any changes are made to the settings, or even if the settings are viewed and not changed, please check the status of the Grade Centre column to check that it is still hidden.
• Please see our blog post, Important Updates to Turnitin, for more information about the differences between Turnitin Basic and Turnitin LTI assignments.
A Grade Centre column which is hidden from students is marked by a blue circle with a red diagonal line through it in the column header.
The visibility of a Grade Centre column can be quickly set to visible or hidden by selecting 'Hide from students (on/off)' in the column header menu.
2. If, in 'Optional settings', 'Reveal grades to students only on post-date?' is set to 'No'.
The correct setting for 'Reveal grades to students only on post-date? is 'Yes'. (Please note that 'Reveal grades to students only on post-date?' is an optional setting only in the old type of Turnitin assignment (Turnitin Basic). You will not see this setting if you are using the new type of Turnitin assignment (Turnitin LTI).
• Ultra courses
Grades entered into Turnitin assignments in Ultra courses will normally be automatically hidden from students during marking in the Ultra Gradebook, and need to be manually posted on the Turnitin post-date in order to be visible to students.
In the following example, students cannot see their grades for 'ES1 Essay', even though grades for all six students have been entered. However, for 'AS1 Assignment 1' all of the students can see their grades, as indicated by the green 'Posted' message next to each of their grades. Grades in the Gradeboook can be posted individually or all at once, and 'ES2 Essay' shows an example of some grades which have been posted, and some which cannot. It also shows a submission which has yet to be graded, as indicated by 'Mark Now: New Submission, and a non-submission, as indicated by 'Mark Now'.
Once grades have been posted the only way of hiding them from students is by setting the Turnitin submission point to be 'Hidden from students'. This will hide both the submission point and the Gradebook column from students, thus hiding their grades. However, it will also mean that students can no longer submit any assessments to the hidden Turnitin submission point.
Please note that the posting of grades in the Ultra Gradebook and the Turnitin post-date are independent. For students to see their grades in the Ultra Gradebook and to be able to read their feedback in Turnitin, the Turnitin post-date must have passed and the grades in the Ultra Gradebook must have been posted.
If the Turnitin post-date has passed but the grades have not been posted in the Ultra Gradebook, then, assuming that the Turnitin assignment submission point has not been hidden, students will be able to see their numeric grade and feedback via Turnitin submission point.
• More information
Full details of how to set up and assess Turnitin submissions are available on the Learning Technology Team's website (see the guides linked below).