Frequently asked questions

🔍 Using Turnitin at MRU

Some MRU courses use Turnitin to review student submissions. Turnitin can provide a similarity report, which highlights text matches with other sources, and may also provide an AI writing indicator, which estimates whether some text may have been generated by AI.

For guidance on how Turnitin is used in courses at MRU, and for related teaching resources, see the supports below:

• Academic Development Centre (ADC): Guidance for instructors on using Turnitin, sample syllabus language, and broader teaching support related to assessment and AI. MRU’s ADC guidance also notes that expectations around GenAI use may vary by course and assignment, and that AI detection scores should be used only as the start of a conversation, not on their own. 
• Turnitin Help Center: documentation for instructors and students.
• Pedagogical support: Connect with the ADC (adc@mtroyal.ca) or check the current webinars page to explore instructional approaches for using Turnitin as a learning tool in your course.

⚠️ Important notes

• Similarity reports: highlight matching text; they do not determine whether plagiarism has occurred.
• AI writing indicators: are not definitive and should be interpreted with caution.
• Instructor review: is needed to interpret both kinds of reports in context.
• Student learning: when student access is enabled, similarity reports may help students review citation, paraphrasing, and source use before final submission.