City University of Hong Kong

Digital Learning Support

City University of Hong Kong

Digital Learning Support

How to Create and Manage Turnitin Assignment using Submission Type "External Tool" in Canvas Course
(Canvas LTI 1.1)

  • last updated on 30 July 2024

Create a Turnitin Assignment (External Tool)


  1. After logging in Canvas, go to the course site under Courses from left
  2. Click Assignments from left Course Navigation
  3. Click + Assignment
  4. Input Assignment Name and Points fields
  5. In Submission Type, do the below steps:   
    1. Select External Tool option from drop-down menu
    2. Click button Find
    3. Mouse over the list under Configure External Tool, scroll down the list and select Turnitin, click "Select"
      (animated instruction about selecting Turnitin from External Tool)
    4. Tick Load this tool in new tab (recommended).
  6. Click Manage Assign To, set the fields for the assignment available period such as Due (deadline) and click the Apply button
  7. Click the Save & Publish button if ready

Video Instruction


Further Actions



Re-confirm Turnitin Settings


  1. Click on the assignment name in Assignments;

  2. Click Load ... in a new window and then click Settings ;
    (or click Settings directly if no this button Load ... in a new window )

  3. Click Optional Settings, the below options can be set:

    • Submissions to this assignment will be stored in standard paper repository?
    • Allow late submissions?
    • Allow resubmissions until due date?
    • Allow students to view Originality Reports?
    • Exclude assignment template?
      (Available in this "External Tool" method only)

  4. Click the Submit button.

View Submissions in Assignment Inbox


(Once students have submitted assignments......)

After clicking on Load ... in a new window , you can use the below features in Assignment Inbox.

  • View the list of student submissions with similarity index sorting
  • Access Similarity Report of each submission
  • Download original submitted files

Those features are introduced in the infographic instruction (point 1 - 3)   .


Access Similarity Report


As the infographic instruction (point 2)   , click the similarity score from the % column to open the document viewer (Turnitin Feedback Studio).


Download Similarity Report


You and students (if "Allow students to view Similarity Report" is enabled) can download their own similarity reports by clicking Download button and then Current View on the document viewer.

More instructions about downloading similarity report are located at below links.