Important Update - Turnitin Building Block disabled Monday 3rd July 2023
The Turnitin Building Block integration will be disabled, in Blackboard Learn, from Monday 3rd July 2023 and all future Turnitin assignments must be created in the new LTI integration.
Further information about how to do this is available at https://ulster.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BLS/pages/2109079553
We purposefully waited until after the majority of exam boards to disable the old building block integration, even though its has been unsupported for the previous 10 months. This was to minimise disruption for those academic teams who had not updated Turnitin links. It is inevitable that we will now experience some challenges as we formally shut down the old service. This is likely to impact subject teams with later boards and those with Semester Three delivery.
If you see this icon beside your Turnitin drop box, you are using an old and unsupported dropbox and will need to take action if you have unmarked assignments or need submissions for a future exam board.
What this means?
Firstly, no Turnitin submissions or graded papers will be deleted, they just become less accessible from within Blackboard Learn. There are processes in place to access old papers directly via Turnitin so don’t worry.
If you have been using the new Turnitin integration in academic year 22/23, you do not need to do anything.
If you have been using the old integration in academic year 22/23, and Exam Boards are complete, you do not ‘have’ to do anything, but you may wish to archive assignments to make them more accessible should you need them.
If you are expecting to collect resit submissions, you must create these drop boxes using the new integration method https://ulster.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BLS/pages/2109079553
If you have Semester Three delivery, you must ensure all drop boxes are created using the new method. https://ulster.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/BLS/pages/2109079553
The most impacted colleagues will be those with live drop boxes created using the unsupported method. There are processes in place to manage these incidences but there will be more attrition and you may need additional support.
Background
In Summer 2022, official support for the Turnitin Building Block integration ended. The Building Block integration is the way we have used Turnitin, at Ulster, for many years. Further information about this change is available at and Turnitin have published material online at
The old integration has remained live since Summer 2022 but will be formally disabled on the 3rd July 2023 to ensure full compliance with the move to LTI Turnitin assignments.
If you copy module content, from previous years, and have not updated your Turnitin links to the new integration it is possible that you are still using some unsupported drop boxes.
You will recognise these via this icon and these drop boxes will no longer be accessible from within Blackboard after the 3rd July (either for submission, grading or external examiner workflows). The papers will still be accessible via the Turnitin website.
Accessing old Turnitin drop boxes after the 3rd July
If you have old Turnitin drop boxes, submissions for staff and students will only be available by logging in to the Turnitin website directly.
If you have unmarked assignments, within an old Turnitin dropbox, you should download submissions in advance of the 3rd July to make accessing the submissions more simple.
If you have an old dropbox which is still accepting submissions, you will need to create a new LTI dropbox to accept submissions expected after 3rd July.
How do I mark assignments submitted to an old Turnitin dropbox?
This is a more tricky process and can be approached in one of two ways depending on the number of submissions. If you have a small number of students you can download any submissions before the 3rd July 2023, create a new Turnitin dropbox and submit the papers on behalf of the students. You then have the benefit of being able to use all the core Turnitin tools:
If you have a large class size and are unable to upload on behalf of all the students, the only viable option is to grade offline using Word, or similar software, to author feedback. You then need to use a manually created Grade Centre column to provide feedback to students.
Using a Manual Column in Blackboard
How can students access feedback from assignments created in the old integration?
Students can access historical Turnitin assignments, and feedback, directly via Turnitin:
Visit
Select Forgot your password? Click here (only necessary the first time you access Turnitin directly).
Add your Ulster email address and Last Name/Family Name
An email will be sent to your Ulster email address with details of how to reset your password
Log back in to Turnitin
All of your historical submissions, and feedback, will be visible sorted by module title.