Turnitin empowers educators with new offerings as AI moves into schools

Today, Turnitin, a leading provider of technology solutions in academic integrity, announced it will expand its offerings to advance classroom digitization through AI-powered grading, enhanced AI writing detection and customizable individual feedback for students. The launch includes a Paper to Digital add-on, helping educators provide faster online grading for paper assignments, ensuring prompt feedback to students, and an enhanced Similarity Report to help educators identify when content generated by AI writing tools may have been submitted.

Education-related AI is predicted to be a $6 billion market by next year. Yet, according to Tyton Partners,* students continue to lead in regular GenAI adoption rates at 59 percent compared to approximately 40 percent of instructors and administrators. The 2024-2025 school year is anticipated to be the year of AI, and educators need resources that help them adopt the technology in the classroom.

“This school year, AI will likely be in every classroom,” said Annie Chechitelli, chief product officer, Turnitin. “Yet, there’s still a disconnect between students and educators about what constitutes acceptable generative AI use and access to technology to support learning. Turnitin is helping to address these challenges by providing teachers and administrators with new offerings to adapt to AI’s ever-evolving role in education, and supporting ethical AI usage for students.”

New Paper to Digital add-on improves grading accuracy and consistency

AI in education goes far beyond plagiarism detection. If used correctly, this technology can simplify the challenges of grading paper-based assessments, and eliminate unintended bias while streamlining customized feedback for students and improving the learning process overall.

A recent preprint paper by University of Michigan researchers revealed a significant correlation across 30 million grading records: students with surnames lower in the alphabet tend to receive lower grades. This bias stems from sequential grading practices compounded by the default alphabetical ordering of student submissions in learning management systems.

The new Paper to Digital add-on for Turnitin Feedback Studio uses handwriting recognition, AI-assisted grouping and horizontal (question by question) grading of paper quizzes, tests and assignments. By streamlining grading and strengthening the consistency of instructor feedback, institutions can foster a fairer and more effective assessment environment. The new innovative tool also offers faster feedback, enhanced security and integration directly into learning management systems (LMS).

Enhanced Similarity Report helps identify AI-Generated content

In April 2023, Turnitin launched its AI writing detection feature to help educators identify AI-generated content in student work while safeguarding students’ interests. Since the launch, Turnitin has sourced pedagogical feedback from educators and administrators to inform product improvement and additional tech support features.

As a result, Turnitin’s enhanced Similarity Report provides a new foundation for Turnitin’s AI writing detection feature. The tool helps educators identify unoriginal or improperly cited student writing, facilitating productive conversations on proper citation practices and accidental plagiarism. The new report has been thoughtfully redesigned with an intuitive interface and new categorization of match types, making it easier to interpret and use as a formative learning tool to strengthen academic writing skills.

This update comes shortly after the launch of Turnitin’s AI paraphrasing detection feature, which is integrated within Turnitin’s AI writing capabilities - as an Originality add-on - enabling educators and publishers to identify when AI paraphrasing tools may have been used to modify AI-generated text to avoid detection.

Turnitin and the company’s innovative product portfolio have received numerous accolades recently, including the 2024 Bett Awards nominee, EdTech Breakthrough Awards 2024 winner, 2023 Tech & Learning winner and 2024 GSV 150 winner.

*Turnitin was a partner in providing compensation to conduct Tyton Partners’ research and reports: Time for Class 2023, Time for Class - Fall 2023 Update and Time for Class 2024.