When you activate TurnItIn for any Assignment Folder, TurnItIn will automatically check all documents submitted to that folder for text matches. After performing this check, by default, TurnItIn will store a copy of that document in its repository, where it can be checked for matches against any future documents submitted to TurnItIn anywhere in the world.

This can create a problem when dealing with student "rough draft" submissions. If a student submits a draft copy of their work to a folder that uses TurnItIn, and then later submits a cleaned-up copy of the same document, TurnItIn will likely return a very high Originality Score, matching all of the unchanged text from the draft against the same text in the final submission.

You can avoid this problem-- while still running Originality Checks on the drafts-- by creating a dedicated folder for draft submissions, and then toggling TurnItIn to NOT store copies of work submitted to that folder in its database.

Configuring a Draft Folder

1. Go to Course Tools -> Assignments.
2. Click New Assignment at the top of the screen.
3. Enter a Name for the Draft folder-- this could be as subtle as "Final Report DRAFTS", or even as blatant as "Submit Your Final Report Drafts HERE!", at your preference.
4. Click the Evaluation & Feedback block on the right side. Scroll to the bottom, then click Manage TurnItIn.
5. Check the box labeled "Enable Similarity Report for this folder".
6. Configure any TurnItIn settings you would normally enable (e.g., decide whether to show the Originality Reports to students), then click More Options at the bottom of the screen.
7. A pop-up will appear. Under the label Submit Papers To, click the drop-down box and choose Do not store the submitted papers.

8. Scroll down and click Submit.

Once configured in this way, documents submitted to the Draft folder will be checked for originality, but will NOT be stored to be checked against future documents, sparing the student from an extremely high Originality Score on their final submission.