When the first Turnitin assignment is created in a new Blackboard course, a corresponding Turnitin class is created for the course. The Turnitin class is set to have a default end date that is either one year from the creation date of the class (i.e., the date on which the first assignment was created in the course) or on the day of the latest post-date for any Turnitin assignments in that class; whichever is the latest. Once this end date is reached the class expires, and when the Turnitin class expires all the Turnitin submissions in the Blackboard course become read-only.

You will know if your Turnitin class has expired, as the following message will be displayed when you access any of the papers submitted to any of the Turnitin assignments in your Blackboard course:

Because Turnitin classes expire after a year it is possible to find that your Turnitin class has expired in your current Blackboard course. However, this is not a problem unless changes need to be made to the grades and feedback that have already been given to the papers submitted to an expired class.

While you cannot change any grades or feedback if your Turnitin class has expired, you can still: 

• open submitted papers and view any grades and feedback previously entered;
• download papers;
• set up new Turnitin submission points.

And while students cannot submit assignments to Turnitin submission points in expired classes, they can still:

• view previously submitted papers, including grades and feedback;
• download previously submitted papers.

Reactivating an expired Turnitin class

Even though a Turnitin class has expired, this will not prevent you from setting up a new Turnitin assignment in a Blackboard course, because setting up a new Turnitin assignment automatically reactivates an expired Turnitin class. And because all of the Turnitin assignments in a Blackboard course share the same Turnitin class, once the class is reactivated all the Turnitin assignments in the Blackboard course will be taken out of read only mode.

• Ultra courses

In Blackboard Ultra courses, the only way to reactivate an expired Turnitin class is to set up a new Turnitin assignment and then to access the assignment inbox for the new Turnitin assignment. Once this has been done, the Turnitin class will be reactivated and all the Turnitin assignments in the course will no longer be in read only mode.

If the only reason to create the new Turnitin assignment is to reactivate the Turnitin class, then the new Turnitin assignment can be hidden from students.

• Original courses

In Blackboard Original courses, the only way to reactivate the expired Turnitin class is to set up a new Turnitin assignment and then to access the assignment inbox for the new Turnitin assignment. Once this has been done, the Turnitin class will be reactivated and all the Turnitin assignments in the course will no longer be in read only mode.

If the only reason to create the new Turnitin assignment is to reactivate the Turnitin class, then the new Turnitin assignment can be made unavailable to students.