This article will dive deeper in the Restrictions Tab of a Turnitin Assignment. We will explain each setting and what the impact will be for you and your students.
Moreover, we will discuss the following topics:
1. Visibility- Hide from Users
By default an assignment is hidden from users. If the Assignment is still hidden from users, only staff members enrolled in the course will see the assignment. Students will not see the Assignment in their overview. This also applies if you set the assignment to Hide from users after students submitted their work and you have published their feedback.
Make the assignment visible in case you want students to hand in their work.
Please note that Hide from Users overrules all restrictions you set under availability, release conditions and/or special access. Meaning: if the assignment is still set on Hide from Users no student will be able to access the assignment or their feedback for that assignment.
1.1. Instructor View Hide from Users
- This assignment is set to Hide from Users, although Feedback is Published: students will not be able to see their feedback on this assignment.
- This assignment is set to Visible for Users and Feedback is Published. Students will be able to see their submission + feedback.
- This assignment is set to Visible for Users and Feedback is not Published. Students will only be able to see their own submission, until you publish the feedback.
1.2. Student View Hide from Users
- As you can see, the first assignment of the Instructor view is not visible for the student, nor is the published feedback.
- For this assignment students can see their own submission and your feedback in Turnitin Feedback Studio.
- For this assignment students can see their own submission but no feedback yet, since it is not yet published.
2. Has Due Date
The Due Date automatically appears in the Course Calendar!
By default no Due Date is entered. If you enter a Due Date, students will see that there is a deadline for the Assignment, but they can still hand in submission after the Due Date has passed.
In the submission overview you will see which students did not meet the deadline you've set under Due Date. You can use this information (e.g., # of hours late) to determine if/how you want to apply a late submission policy.
2.1. Instructor View Due Date
- This is an Assignment with a Due date in the future, and the student has already submitted his work.
- This is an Assignment with a Due date in the past, and the student has already submitted his work.
- This is an Assignment with a Due date in the past, and the student has not yet submitted his work.
2.2. Student view Due Date
- The student handed in his work on time and the Instructor has already published the feedback and score for him.
- The student handed in his work on time and the Instructor has already published the feedback for him.
- Although the due date for this assignment has passed, the student can still hand in their work by clicking on Not Submitted.
3. Availability - Start & End Date
The Start & End Date also automatically appears in the Course Calendar!
Now comes the tricky part!
By default Start and End Date are empty. If you enter a Start Date, students will be able to see the assignment, but are not able see the instructions & attachments and they are not able to hand in anything until the start date has passed.
If you enter an End Date, students will not be able to hand in work after the End Date has passed, but they are able to see published feedback and their grade.
3.1. Instructor View
Please note that for the assignments below no Due Date was entered. However, Brightspace will fill in the End Date in the Due Date column. This is where you might get confused.
The supplier is working on this issue to reduce possible confusion.
- This is an Assignment with a Start date in the future, students are not yet able to hand in work.
- This is an Assignment with a End date in the past, and students submitted theirs work before the End Date.
- This is an Assignment with an End date in the past, and there are no student submissions yet.
3.2. Student View
Although it seems that students can click on Not Submitted of an Assignment with a Start Date in the Future or an End Date in the Past, they will receive an Not authorised error message when they click on it.
The supplier is working on this issue to reduce possible confusion.
- The student cannot hand in anything yet.
- The student handed in his work on time and can see his own submission and published feedback.
- The students is not able to hand in a submission after the End Date has passed.
4. Release Conditions
You can set release conditions to make your assignment only available for certain groups or based on a grade on a specific test/assignment. Please see here for more information on using Release Conditions.
Did you know that you can set different due dates per group with special access? Creating different assignments with each their own release condition per group is only beneficial if the content of the assignment (e.g. instructions) are different per group OR in some cases when you need to review submissions with multiple instructors in Feedback Studio.
Please feel free to contact us, in case you have questions on this matter.
5. Special Access
With the Special Access functionality you can not only set different dates per user, but also per group. Please see here for more information on using Special Access.
6. FAQ - Turnitin Assignment Restrictions
When should I use a Due Date or an End Date?
- Only set a Due Date if you allow late submissions. NB Brightspace indicates these submission with a "Late" label.
- Only set an End Date if you absolutely do not allow any late submissions. NB Beware of the consequences!
- In some situations it might be useful to set both a Due Date AND an End Date.
When is it smart to set a Due Date and an End Date?
Consider this scenario:You allow late submissions, but only until 1 hour after the deadline. You will still see who did not meet the initial deadline, but you do not have to worry about submitting a file on behalf of a student in Turnitin.
In casu, you would set a Due Date that matches your deadline and set the End Date 1 hour after the Due Date. So students have an 1 hour window to submit after the deadline, but after that hour passed, students can no longer hand in submissions.
Please note that there is no beneficial purpose to set the Due and End Date at the same time.
Can I set different due dates per group?
Yes, you can. With the Special Access functionality you can set different dates per group. Please see here for more information on using Special Access.