Learn more about Handwritten Assignments and using this assignment type for your institution and course.
In this guide:
General FAQ
What’s the difference between Paper to Digital and Handwritten Assignments?
Handwritten Assignments are a feature of Paper to Digital, our new add-on to Turnitin Feedback Studio. Paper to Digital is an application designed for educators that use paper-based assessments in their classrooms. After purchase, when the add-on is enabled by administrators, instructors will have access to a new assignment type, Handwritten Assignments.
What web browsers does Handwritten Assignments support?
We support the same browsers as Turnitin Feedback Studio, but we recommend using Chrome, Edge, or Firefox for best results. For more information, check out our System Requirements article.
Administrator FAQ
Who can I contact for more information about getting it enabled for my institution?
You can contact your Turnitin Administrator for more information.
What do I need to do to set up Paper to Digital for my institution?
The Paper to Digital add-on is available for Turnitin Feedback Studio customers using the Turnitin website and customers using Turnitin Feedback Studio with an LMS LTI 1.3 integration. Contact your Turnitin Sales Representative to ask about getting Handwritten Assignments enabled for your institution.
Once it’s made available to your institution, Paper to Digital is enabled by default in your Admin account settings. In your account settings, you will see the Handwritten Assignments option checked in the Allow these features section.
What is the recommended set up for testing?
For admins that want to test Paper to Digital and Handwritten Assignments before making it widely available to their institution, we recommend that they enable and test the product on a sub account before enabling it on their parent account for all users.
Am I able to control when I want to enable Paper to Digital for my institution?
Once it’s made available to your institution, Paper to Digital is enabled by default in your Admin account settings. In your account settings, you will see the Paper to Digital option checked in the Allow these features section. If you want to get Paper to Digital enabled or disabled for your institution, contact your Turntin Administrator and have them disable it.
Instructor FAQ
Does my LMS course roster sync to Paper to Digital?
Yes, the LMS course roster will sync to the course roster in Paper to Digital. If the course roster is updated on the LMS side, the Paper to Digital course roster will take 2-3 hours to reflect the update.
What type of answers does the Multiple Choice question type include?
The Multiple Choice question type supports answers that are either in the form of a bubble that the user fills in, a checkbox they have to check, or where the student writes in the correct letter for the response. To use answer grouping for grading, the answers must be formatted as described above. Auto-grouping is not supported with the "circle the correct answer" multiple choice format.
Template
Can I replace the assignment template I uploaded with a new one?
An assignment template can be replaced any time before student submissions are uploaded via the Scans page. Once submissions are uploaded, the assignment template cannot be deleted on the Template page.
If, for some reason, the template needs to be replaced, such as the template doesn’t match the submissions uploaded or vice-versa, we recommend that the instructor creates a new assignment with the correct template and then re-uploads the batch of submissions. To avoid template and submission-matching issues, we recommend that instructors make sure the template file uploaded is an exact match of the student submissions that will be scanned and uploaded later on.
What if my assignment template does not match the submissions uploaded or vice versa?
If you find that your submissions and template do not match for whatever reason, once submissions have been uploaded, there is no way to modify the defined regions of the template on the Questions page. In this case, we recommend that a new assignment is created with the correct template and matching submissions. Note that the questions, scoring method, and point values can be modified at all times.
Questions
What happens if I paused creating my handwritten assignment while I was on the Questions page?
If the instructor has a partially complete assignment outline on the Questions page and closes the app, when they open their handwritten assignment again, they will be brought to the upload scans page rather than back to the Questions page and editor.
Submissions
Is there a limit on the number of submissions I can upload at one time?
At this time, instructors can upload a file that contains up to 1,000 submissions.
What happens if I upload the same batch of submissions a second time?
Once uploaded, this second batch of submissions will attach to the first batch of submissions. Because the submissions are the same as the first batch and have been previously assigned to students, the second batch does not get assigned to anyone.
If the instructor deletes any of the original submissions from batch 1, those students will no longer have a submission assigned to them, and the instructor is then able to assign the submissions from the second batch to the students missing a submission.
What is the submission number for an uploaded submission?
Once uploaded on the Review Submissions page, each uploaded submission will have a number assigned to it. Once a submission is assigned to a student, the submission’s number will remain consistent throughout grading and publishing grades. The submission number is maintained regardless of where the submission appears in the submission list.
How can I upload my students’ paper submissions without scanning them?
For the purpose of allowing instructors to upload exams and avoid scanning, try:
- Microsoft Office Lens
- Google Drive
- From a mobile phone, students can send the instructor a PDF version of their assignment submission. Then, the instructor could upload the submission on their behalf.
For more information, check out tip #9 from our Scanning Tips article.
What happens if two student submissions are incorrectly merged together after they’ve been uploaded on the Scans page?
If there are two submissions incorrectly merged together after scanning and processing, we recommend that the instructor deletes the additional pages that should be assigned to the other student and then uploads a new submission for the student whose submission was missing.
Grading
What happens when I make a grade adjustment to an individual submission?
If you make a grade adjustment to a submission before a grade is published, you will see an updated score for the student in the Score column. When you publish grades, the student’s score will be published.
If you make a grade adjustment to a submission after a grade has been published, the new assignment score will display as New in the Score Column. However, the student’s original score will still be displayed as Published. The instructor will need to republish the student’s grade for the newly adjusted score to be made available to the student and the LMS gradebook.
What happens when I make a grade adjustment for a question with answer groups?
For questions with answer groups, an instructor can make an adjustment to the grade at the group-level and it will automatically update for every student submission in the group. To do this, instructors will need to go to the Grading Dashboard, and select the question they want to make the adjustment to. Once on the grading page, instructors can use the Group Specific Adjustment field to add or subtract points from the total points amount.
If you make a grade adjustment at the group-level after a grade has been published, the adjusted assignment score will be displayed as New in the Score column . However, the student’s original score will still be displayed as Published. The instructor will need to republish the students’ grades for the newly adjusted score to be made available to the student and the LMS gradebook.
What happens if I change the Scoring Method during grading?
We don’t recommend changing the scoring method after grading has started because instructors risk losing their grading work and data. However, the scoring method can be changed at any time in the Scoring Settings.
Instructors will see an informative message in the Scoring Settings to alert them of what happens if they save their changes.
Once a scoring method is changed, any previously graded submissions will become ungraded and will need to be regraded. Any existing scoring criteria and point values will remain intact and need to be updated in the grading side panel.