Subject: Turnitin Similarity Reports Missing for Quiz Essay Questions after Upgrading to Moodle 5.0 (with latest Turnitin plugin 2025070201)
Hello everyone,
I’m reaching out regarding an issue with Turnitin plagiarism detection in Moodle quiz essay questions after upgrading from Moodle 4.2.2+ (Build: 20230822) to Moodle 5.0 (Build: 20240624).
🔍 Context
In Moodle 4.2.2+, Turnitin plagiarism checking worked perfectly inside quiz essay questions.
After students submitted a quiz, each essay response was sent to Turnitin automatically, generating a Turnitin ID (for example, 2400266315) and displaying a similarity percentage below the answer.
Instructors could click the pencil icon to open the Similarity Report.
However, after upgrading to Moodle 5.0, this functionality stopped working entirely:
- Essay responses are no longer submitted to Turnitin.
- No Turnitin IDs or similarity scores are generated.
- The “Enable Turnitin for Quiz” setting is still available and turned ON.
- Turnitin continues to work correctly for Assignments, Forums, and Workshops — the issue is specific to Quiz essays.
⚙️ Current Environment
| Component | Version |
|---|---|
| Moodle version | 5.0 (Build: 20240624) |
| Turnitin Plagiarism Plugin | 2025070201 (released July 2, 2025) |
| PHP version | 8.2.18 |
| Database | MariaDB 10.11.6 |
| Web server | Nginx 1.24.0 |
| Operating System | Ubuntu 22.04 LTS |
| Feedback Studio | Not in use (Similarity Check only license) |
🧩 Observation
In Moodle 4.2.2+, the Turnitin plugin relied on the following event observer:
\mod_quiz\event\attempt_submitted
In Moodle 5.0, this event appears to have been deprecated or refactored.
The quiz module now triggers different events such as core_question_answered and mod_quiz_attempt_reviewed, which the current Turnitin plugin does not listen to.
As a result, the plugin no longer detects quiz submissions and therefore doesn’t send essay responses to the Turnitin API.
No errors appear in the Moodle logs or the Turnitin diagnostic logs — the event simply never fires.
📉 Result
| Moodle Version | Status | Behavior |
|---|---|---|
| 4.2.2+ | ✅ Working | Turnitin IDs generated for quiz essays |
| 4.3.x | ⚠️ Intermittent | Some partial compatibility |
| 5.0 | ❌ Not working | No API call triggered, no report |
| Plugin v2025070201 | ❌ Not resolved | Still no event observer for quiz |
❓ Questions for the Development Team
- Has official support for quiz essay questions been intentionally deprecated in the latest Turnitin plugin (2025070201)?
- If not, is there a plan to restore this feature in the upcoming Moodle 5.1+ compatible plugin release?
- Are there any recommended workarounds (e.g., custom local plugin or event observer using
core_question_answered) to re-enable quiz essay submissions to Turnitin? - Has anyone successfully tested this with Moodle 5.1 and confirmed whether the issue is fixed?
🧠 Additional Notes
- Our instructors regularly use essay-type questions in quizzes for reflective or short analytical writing, and they rely on Turnitin similarity checking for academic integrity.
- Moving all essays to separate Turnitin Assignment activities is pedagogically inconvenient.
- We would prefer to maintain quiz-based workflows if this feature can be re-enabled or patched.
Any confirmation, patch, or insight from the Turnitin or Moodle HQ developers would be greatly appreciated.
I can provide detailed logs, screenshots, or test results from both environments (4.2.2+ where it worked, and 5.0 where it stopped) if needed.
Thanks in advance for your time and support.
Best regards,
Yunus Akarsu
Educational Technologies Specialist
Kadir Has University – Istanbul, Türkiye
