Moving from Turnitin to Blackboard Assignment – Frequently Asked Questions for Academic Colleagues

The move to Blackboard Assignment will provide a single submission and marking system within Blackboard, reducing the need to manage separate assessment workflows across different platforms. In addition, Blackboard Assignment provides functionality that Turnitin does not. Please see this page for a comparison of Turnitin and Blackboard Assignment features.

Before the decision was made, the University consulted academic colleagues through a questionnaire and then discussions with Heads of School, Associate Heads of College, and Directors of Learning, Teaching and Quality, as well as the University's Teaching Committee. Feedback from these activities helped shape how the transition is being planned and supported, including the approach to rubrics, feedback workflows, originality checking, and support for colleagues moving to Blackboard Assignment.

Yes. The University Executive Board (UEB) has approved the decision not to renew the Turnitin contract. The focus is now on supporting colleagues through the transition to Blackboard Assignment.

Turnitin submission links cannot be created after the end of Semester 1 2026/27. From Semester 2 2026/27, all new assignments must be set up and submitted through Blackboard Assignment. The Turnitin contract expires on 31 July 2027. At the close of the contract, Turnitin are not able to provide us with feedback entered on student submissions. Accordingly, the LIDE Team will download and archive Turnitin submissions from Semester 1 of 2026/27 and the previous 8 academic years. There would not be time to archive the Turnitin submissions from Semester 2 2026/27 before the contract with Turnitin terminates.

Yes. Turnitin will remain available during Semester 1 2026/27, but colleagues should prepare to move to Blackboard Assignment from Semester 2 2026/27.

With immediate effect for Semester 1 2026/27, if you wish. From Semester 2 2026/27, modules will only be able to use Blackboard Assignment for new assignments. The LIDE team will support colleagues with setting up submission links for Semester 2 before and during Semester 1 2026/27. After the end of Semester 2, it will not be possible to create working Turnitin submission links.

Blackboard Assignment is the submission and feedback tool built into Blackboard. Many colleagues already use it in some of their modules. It allows students to submit work and enables markers to provide inline feedback, annotated comments, rubric-based grading, and overall written feedback, all in one place.

From the start of the 2026/27 academic year, Blackboard Assignment will also include an AI-assisted feedback tool . After reviewing a student's submission and selecting the relevant rubric level for each marking criterion, colleagues can use the tool to generate draft feedback for students based on those rubric selections. The AI does not analyse or read the student's submission directly.

SafeAssign is Blackboard's built-in originality checking tool. It compares submitted work against internet content, published material, and a global database of student submissions to produce a similarity report that supports academic judgement when reviewing potential text matches. SafeAssign is enabled through a Blackboard Assignment submission point.

Both tools generate similarity reports that can support academic judgement when reviewing potential academic integrity concerns. However, SafeAssign and Turnitin use different databases and approaches to originality checking, so the reports they produce are not identical. The LIDE team can provide guidance on interpreting SafeAssign reports. If you wish help with this please email blackboard-support@westminster.ac.uk .

No. Like Turnitin at Westminster, SafeAssign does not include an AI writing detection feature. The University's approach to academic integrity in the context of AI does not rely on automated detection. AI detection tools have limitations regarding accuracy and fairness. Instead, the University provides an authorship tool through Grammarly that students can use to demonstrate authorship and support the development of their written work.

Yes. Blackboard's inline grading tool (Bb Annotate) supports in-text comments, highlighting, annotations, and drawing tools directly on student submissions, as well as an overall feedback area and rubric grading. It works with the most common file types, including Word, PDF, and PowerPoint.

Yes. Blackboard has a full rubric builder that supports percentage, point, and range-based rubrics. Rubrics can be attached to any Blackboard Assignment submission point and used during marking.

Your existing Turnitin rubrics will need to be recreated in Blackboard. By early September, there will be a tool in Blackboard that academic colleagues can use to convert Turnitin rubric files into Blackboard Assignment Rubrics. Look out for email communications about this tool in the near future. If you need support please contact the LIDE team via blackboard-support@westminster.ac.uk .

Yes. The LIDE team will work directly with colleagues who have a high volume of rubrics or particularly complex ones. If you are in this position, please get in touch as soon as possible so we can plan your support. Contact: blackboard-support@westminster.ac.uk .

You will lose access to Turnitin and, therefore, to your rubrics as they exist there. This is why the migration work needs to happen well before the contract ends. The LIDE team will be in touch proactively to help you prioritise and migrate your rubrics in good time.

Blackboard's inline grading tool does not have a direct equivalent to Turnitin's QuickMark sets. However, it does support custom comment banks - a set of reusable feedback comments you can save and insert with a click. The LIDE team will provide guidance on setting these up and transferring commonly used feedback phrases from Turnitin.

Yes. Bb Annotate allows you to add typed comments, sticky notes, highlights, strikethroughs, and freehand annotations directly on submitted documents, in a similar way to Turnitin's document viewer.

The Office for Students (OfS) requires universities to retain student coursework for up to nine years. Before the contract ends, we will archive submitted work and associated feedback needed to fulfil the OfS requirements up to and including Semester 1 2026/27.

Once the contract ends, students will no longer be able to log in to Turnitin to access previous submissions or feedback. We will communicate this to students in advance and advise them to download anything they wish to keep before the contract ends.

If you have a live misconduct case involving Turnitin originality reports or submission records, please flag it to the LIDE team and the Registry as soon as possible. We will ensure that relevant records are preserved before the contract ends.

We are very aware of this. The LIDE team will proactively contact module leaders on calendar-year master's programmes to migrate submission links and rubrics before the contract ends, so that the transition does not fall mid-programme in a disruptive way.

If your students submit after February 2027, those submissions will need to be submitted through Blackboard Assignments.

From September 2026, the LIDE team will run:

• Live workshops on using Blackboard Assignment for submission and marking
• A dedicated session on setting up and using SafeAssign
• Guidance on migrating rubrics and creating feedback comment banks
• Regular drop-in clinics (online and on campus)
• One-to-one support for colleagues with complex setups

All sessions will be recorded and made available on demand. Self-service written guides and video walkthroughs will also be published as soon as possible. Please look out for email announcements or pop-up notices in Blackboard about the availability of workshops, clinics, guides and on-demand recordings.

You are ahead of the curve, which is great. You may still find it useful to attend a session specifically on SafeAssign, or on rubric migration if any of your existing assessments use Turnitin, but you will not be starting from scratch. In addition, you may wish to attend a session on the new AI-assisted feedback tool in Blackboard.

The LIDE team is your first point of contact - email blackboard-support@westminster.ac.uk . This document will be updated as the project progresses.