Tech Support

After logging into online.ptc.edu.au, there are two ways of getting into your units.

For online students, PTC staff will have added the unit to your unit list. The unit will show on your ‘Dashboard’ page. Your unit will not be available until you have completed registration with the Registrar.

If you are taking a unit on-campus, the lecturer may instead provide you with an enrolment key. You need to find the unit (there is a search bar on the Home page), click on it, and enter the enrolment key when requested. Thereafter, your unit will appear on your Dashboard.

1. FIND THE ASSESSMENT SECTION

In the relevant unit page, scroll down the page until you see the section with the assessment item/s for your unit.

CHOOSE CAREFULLY: the unit page might have assessment items in more than one section and might have assessments for the differing levels of the course you are doing.
• E.g. there might be as assessment section for undergraduate students and another for postgraduate students.

2. CLICK ON THE ASSESSMENT ITEM

There are several possible assessment types and submission methods, so the way you submit your work can vary. The following applies to a Turnitin assignment. Turnitin is anti-plagiarism software. You will notice a Turnitin icon next to a Turnitin assignment. 

Click on the assessment item.

The submission details page will load. It shows the due date (and the post date, which is the earliest date at which your lecturer’s feedback can be shown). There is a blue icon to click to see the assessment rubric.

3. CLICK ‘SUBMIT PAPER’.

You might need to scroll down to see the ‘Submit paper’ button.

The Submit Paper popup page will then appear.
• Online submission is usually required by 11:59pm on the due date, unless the Unit Guide has directed otherwise.
• If the site is not working when you try to submit the item, email the assignment to your lecturer, as proof that you had it completed by the due date, and upload the file as soon as the site becomes available again.
• If the due date has passed, you might not be able to upload your assignment, depending upon how your lecturer has configured settings.
• For an extension, apply to the College Extensions Officer on the form available on on the main PTC website. The form must be submitted prior to the expiry of the Due Date, except in certain circumstances.
• Remember that the late penalties policy applies. 

4. FILL IN THE SUMBISSION DETAILS

On the Submit Paper popup page:
i. Fill in the Submission Title textbox, in the following: 
• Unit code – Assessment name – ACT number. E.g. ‘OT001-512 Topical essay 2014123123’

ii. Add the submission file. 
– Drag and drop a file from your file browser into the box with the dotted borde, or click the ‘Add’ icon and use the dialog box to add a file.
– The file should have the same name as the Submission Title.
– The format can be .doc, .docx, or .pdf. 
PDF upload is best and is essential if you have complex formatting or non-standard fonts. Turnitin accepts Word docs and converts them into a PDF as best it can. 
– Filename examples: OT001-512-Topical essay-2014123123.pdf
  OT001-512-Topical essay-2014123123.doc
OT001-512-Topical essay-2014123123.docx

iii. Click the box to acknowledge that the assignment is your own work except where you have acknowledged the work of others—assuming you believe the statement to be true, of course. If you do not believe the statement to apply to your assignment, go back and revise your work.

5. CLICK ‘ADD SUBMISSION’.

Click ‘Add submission’.

The submission is uploaded to Turnitin. A ‘Digital Receipt’ will be displayed. This is your proof that the work was submitted. 
• The receipt will be emailed to your PTC email address (and forwarded to your regular email address, if you have set this up), and you can retrieve it within the PTC online site later, too.
• Unlike other assessment submissions on the PTC site, a Turnitin assignment is not submitted to the PTC server space but to an ACT Turnitin account. Authorised PTC and ACT personnel will be able to access your work.

6. CLOSE THE DIGITAL RECEIPT POPUP

Close the digital receipt by clicking on the grey shaded area around the popup.

The assignment details page then shows up again. There is an option to see the digital receipt.

7. REVIEW YOUR SIMILARITY SCORE

See below

1. SEEING YOUR SIMILARITY SCORE

After submitting in Turnitin, the assignment details page will reload. You will see a column marked ‘Similarity’.
• If you have just submitted your assignment, it will most likely say ‘Pending’.
• If you wait for a short while, the Turnitin similarity score will show, as a percentage.
• You might need to hit ‘refresh’ in your browser to see this. You might even need to come back in a few hours to get the score.

2. UNDERSTANDING YOUR SIMILARITY SCORE

The score is not a plagiarism score, but a similarity score.
• It indicates the extent to which submitted text matches text in the Turnitin database and on the internet.
• Turnitin is unable to determine if you have appropriately cited sources.
• The score includes text you have within quotes and includes your bibliography.
• An essay that has appropriately quoted references and cited sources could well have a similarity score of 24%, for example. There is nothing wrong with that, and the goal is not to reduce the score to 0%.
• TIP: even if you have appropriately cited all sources, you still want your essay to show your own thinking. The Turnitin score might help you to see if you have used too many quotes.

The sample assignment in the picture above has a massive (and quite unrealistic) 91% similarity score. That means that 91% of the submitted text matches text in the Turnitin database or on the internet. In this case, this is no surprise, considering that the assignment merely cited Gen 1:1 and a modified form of John 3:16 (see below).

3.GETTING MORE INFO ABOUT YOUR SCORE

Click on the score to find out more information. A Turnitin page will open, probably in a new browser tab.

On the Turnitin page, there will be a red score button (‘91’ in the example). This will show you where Turnitin thinks your text came from.

Alternatively, you can click on the numbers written over the top of your assignment to see the sources that Turnitin has found.

There is also a red filter button, two buttons under the red score button. The filter button lets you tell Turnitin to ignore text within quotes, and ignore your bibliography.

See also the new AI number at the bottom of the icons on the right column. This gives the probability that you used AI.

You might be able to resubmit your assignment, usually only if:

• The due date has not passed; and
• The assignment has not already been graded.

Do not try to resubmit if these conditions are not met.

1. To resubmit, go to the assessment details tab. Click ‘Submit Paper’, as you did when you first submitted the assignment, and see if you can upload a new file.

2. If the site does not allow you to upload a new file, your lecturer might still be able to arrange for resubmission. Note that this is not an easy change, so speak to the lecturer to seek resubmission only if there is a serious issue, such as:

• You submitted the wrong paper.
• The file was corrupted.
• You wish to respond to the Turnitin score to avoid plagiarism.

Do not ask your lecturer for resubmission for lesser matters, such as these:

• You want to fix up some spelling or grammatical mistakes;
• You want to add or delete some words or sentences;
• You want to add or delete references;
• You want to correct a silly error that you think you made or have changed your mind about some aspect of your argument.

For these types of issues, your original submission stands.

When the lecturer has graded your work, you should receive an email at your PTC email address and a message in PTConline.

To view your grade and retrieve feedback, follow these steps.

1. Select the relevant unit from your Dashboard in PTConline.

2. Find the assessment item on the unit page and click on it.

3. This will take you to the submission details page (where the Turnitin similarity score is). You will see your grade in the Grade column.

4. For detailed feedback, click on the assignment title in the ‘Submission Title’ column or on the pencil next to the percentage grade.

This will open up the Turnitin feedback tab in your browser.

5. On the Turnitin feedback tab, find the following information:

• Your percentage grade, at the top right.
• Comment labels written on the assignment itself, including perhaps a talking balloon. Click on these for more information.
• The lecturer’s ‘Text Comment’ in the right column. (An audio comment is also possible.)
• The rubric feedback. Click on the ‘View Rubric’ button.

Note that the final grade does not always follow the exact suggestion from the rubric, though usually the rubric’s suggested grade is followed. In the example below, the mathematics of the rubric point to a grade of 58.4%. The lecturer adjusted this, though, to 5% (a rather unlikely alteration for which there would need to be a very good explanation!).