Discussion posts or the discussion forum is the main way that students and instructors interact with one another in an online class.
While they are generally shorter than essays and research papers and even narrower in focus, discussion boards are essential to understanding course material.
Although these “mini-essays” do not have to be too formal, instructors always insist that they follow some general rules of essay writing.
This means that students should pay attention to punctuation, grammar, spelling, and sentence structure while writing discussion posts.
In addition, all facts must be backed up with proper references and in-text citations.
However, over the years, questions have been raised regarding discussion board posts and plagiarism.
The main question has been: does Turnitin detect discussion posts? Even though other rules to be followed in discussion postings are clear, one is usually missing-will the discussion post be checked for plagiarism?
Does Turnitin detect discussion posts?
Currently, Turnitin does not check discussion posts for plagiarism. Turnitin is not enabled to check the originality of discussion posts and responses. As such, it is not possible to determine the similarity index in the discussion board.
However, it is essential to note that while the discussion board is not set automatically to check plagiarism, this does not stop your instructor from checking plagiarism.
If your school has Turnitin, nothing stops your instructor from manually copy-pasting the posts to Turnitin to determine whether your work is original.
If you don’t have time to write your discussion posts you can hire a cheap homework help service.
Therefore, as a safety precaution, it is important to ensure that your posts are plagiarism-free.
This means that you should cite all the information you get from other sources and include references at the tail end of your post.
Avoid copy-pasting at all costs and ensure your work is original. You will be safe in the event your professor decides to manually check the discussion post for plagiarism with Turnitin.
Also see: Will My Instructor Tell If I Hired An Online Essay Writer?
Can discussion posts be checked for plagiarism?
Currently, discussion posts are not checked for plagiarism. Most plagiarism checkers, including Turnitin, are yet to enable their systems to check for plagiarism. This means that discussion posts and responses are not automatically checked for plagiarism.
It is, however, advisable that students should ensure their posts are original.
This means that all facts should be cited appropriately, and a list of all resources used listed at the bottom of the discussion board post.
Your instructor might manually decide to check for similarity if they have any reason to believe that your work is not original.
As such, avoid copy-pasting from the internet and ensure your work is plagiarism-free.
Does canvas discussion board have Turnitin?
Canvas discussion board does not have Turnitin enabled to check for originality of discussion posts and responses. Therefore, Canvas discussion board is not able to check the similarity index of discussion posts and responses from students.
While this is true, some professors have been known to manually check for originality of discussion posts before grading.
Others also will manually check for plagiarism if they have any reason to believe that the work submitted is copied.
As such, it is of paramount importance to ensure that, like your essays and research papers, your discussion posts are original.
Take your time to post thoughtful, original posts to avoid running into any problems with your instructor or institution.
Also see: Does Turnitin Check Images?
Does canvas check discussion posts for plagiarism?
Canvas is not enabled to automatically check if discussion posts submitted are plagiarism-free. As such, it is not possible to automatically determine if posts and responses submitted are original.
Despite the fact that they are not checked for plagiarism, it would not take much time to have them completed due to their short nature.
Most discussion posts should be around 150-300 words which will not likely take much of your time to complete.
Some professors also habitually check if their students submit original posts using their school’s official plagiarism checkers.
Also see: Can canvas detect cheating?
Do discussion boards go through SafeAssign?
Currently, discussion boards in blackboard do not go through SafeAssign. Blackboard does not check the originality of discussion posts through SafeAssign. SafeAssign has not been enabled to check the originality of posts.
The discussion board in an online class represents the discussions that the students and their instructors have a normal classroom.
As such in their own wisdom, most plagiarism checkers, including SafeAssign decided not to check the originality of discussion posts.
Also see: Does SafeAssign Check Previously Submitted Papers?
However, it is important to ensure that all your posts are original. You may ask why? And does Turnitin detect discussion posts?
Although both Turnitin and SafeAssign cannot automatically check the originality of posts, nothing stops the instructor from checking manually if the posts are original.
Be advised: always ensure that your discussion posts are original.
How long does SafeAssign keep papers?
SafeAssign will keep your paper in their database forever. SafeAssign has a database in which all papers submitted are stored.
SafeAssign will save all papers submitted in their database. When checking whether a paper is original, the plagiarism checker will run the paper via sources in the world wide web and run the paper via papers in its own database.
Once originality is determined, a report will be generated to show if the paper is original.
Also included in the report will be the original sources of all work that is not original. So, if you copied from a journal, SafeAssign will show the journal and even provide a link to the journal.
Does SafeAssign check other students papers?
Yes, SafeAssign checks other students’ papers. SafeAssign has a database where all papers submitted are saved. As such, your paper will also be checked if you copied from other students’ papers.
Each paper submitted to SafeAssign is saved in the SafeAssign database. As such, when checking whether a paper is original, SafeAssign will also run the paper via its own database.
This ensures that students from the same class do not copy from one another.
Remember SafeAssign is a software whose main aim is to ensure academic integrity.
As such, they save all papers in their database to ensure no student copies from another.
Why does SafeAssign take so long?
SafeAssign takes long to sometimes check papers because of too many students submitting assignments at the same time. This especially happens during the end of the semester when all students are rushing to hand in their papers.
During this busy period, SafeAssign might even take hours to generate the originality report. However, during normal times SafeAssign typically takes a few minutes to have the originality report ready.
As long as you have submitted your assignment on time, you have nothing to worry about.
Just keep on checking after a few minutes to see if your report has been generated.
If not, you can run some errands or finish up an oncoming essay and check back in a few hours.
SafeAssign keeps saying report in progress
SafeAssign keeps saying report in progress because many students are submitting their assignments at the same time. As such, the software is overwhelmed, and in effect, it takes a lot of time to produce originality reports.
This will generally happen during busy periods during the semester when everyone is rushing to submit their assignments for grading.
If this happens, be patient and check after a few minutes or a few hours to view the originality report. In the meantime, you can work on a research paper due to even go hang out with friends.
Conclusion
In the post above, we have answered the questions, does Turnitin check or detect discussion posts? Can discussion posts be checked for plagiarism?
Do discussion boards go through SafeAssign? Does canvas board have Turnitin? Among others.
A majority of plagiarism checkers used by schools are not enabled to check discussion posts for plagiarism automatically.
Other assignments like essays and research papers are checked for plagiarism automatically when being submitted.
However, we advise students to ensure they only submit original posts as nothing stops professors and instructors alike to manually check if your post is original.
Watch the video below to learn more about discussion posts