Turnitin Multipart Assignments: A New Approach to Staged Assessment

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Introduced in August 2026, Multipart Assignments allow educators to connect two or more Turnitin assignment parts into a single assessment workflow. The intention is to support larger pieces of work through stages such as planning, drafting, feedback, revision and final submission.

The approach is particularly interesting because it sits somewhere between an ordinary assignment and a fully scaffolded assessment process. Rather than treating an essay or project as one submission point, educators can create a sequence of connected activities, with each stage having its own instructions, dates, settings and submission.

What are Multipart Assignments?

A Multipart Assignment can contain up to eight connected parts. The parts can use different Turnitin assignment types, including Standard and Clarity, depending on the institution's available licences.

For example, a research project could be structured as:

1. Research question and outline
2. Annotated bibliography
3. First draft
4. Feedback and revision
5. Final submission

Each part remains a distinct submission, but students and instructors can navigate between the stages as part of the larger assignment. Students can see the status, dates, grades and feedback associated with the different parts through the Multipart Overview.

For educators, this creates a way of making the process of completing an assessment more visible rather than focusing exclusively on the final product.

Why might educators use them?

Breaking complex assignments into manageable stages

Large assessments can be difficult for students to approach, particularly when the expected outcome is clear but the route to get there is not.

A Multipart Assignment can divide that journey into smaller, more explicit milestones. A research paper, for example, might begin with a proposal, move to source selection, then a draft, before reaching the final submission.

This can make expectations clearer and potentially help students avoid leaving a substantial piece of work until the last few days.

Building feedback into the assessment process

One of the more significant advantages is the opportunity to provide feedback before the final submission.

An educator might comment on a research proposal or draft and then ask students to apply that feedback in the next stage. Students can therefore receive formative feedback at a point when it can still influence the work, rather than receiving comments only after the assessment has effectively finished.

The model could be particularly useful for courses where developing a skill is as important as assessing the final product.

Making progression visible

Because the different stages are connected, instructors can move between a student's submissions and see how their work develops over time. This could provide useful context when assessing a final piece of work.

It may also support conversations with students about their learning. Instead of discussing only why a final submission received a particular grade, an educator can potentially discuss how the work evolved, where feedback was or wasn't incorporated, and what could be improved at the next stage.

Supporting different assessment designs

Multipart Assignments aren't limited to essays. Potential uses could include:

• Research projects: proposal → literature review → draft → final paper
• Academic writing: outline → first draft → revised draft → final submission
• Reflective assignments: initial reflection → feedback → deeper reflection
• Group or project work: project plan → interim report → final report
• Dissertations: research proposal → methodology → draft chapter → final chapter
• Professional portfolios: initial evidence → commentary → revision → final portfolio

The important distinction is that the different parts should represent meaningful stages in a larger learning activity, rather than simply dividing one assessment into several arbitrary submissions.

Where does Turnitin Clarity fit?

The combination with Turnitin Clarity is arguably one of the more interesting aspects of the Multipart model.

Clarity provides a dedicated writing environment in which students compose and revise their work. Its Writing Report gives instructors information about the student's writing process, including a timeline and aspects of writing activity.

Multipart Assignments can include multiple Clarity parts. Where consecutive parts use Clarity, educators can allow students to continue from their previous Clarity submission. The earlier submission appears in the next writing space, allowing the student to develop the existing text rather than starting again.

This potentially shifts the emphasis from asking “Is this final piece of writing authentic?” towards a broader question: “Can we see how this piece of writing developed?”

That distinction may become increasingly relevant as educators consider how to design assessment in an environment where students have access to generative AI.

A possible example: teaching academic writing

Consider a first-year academic writing module.

Instead of setting a 2,500-word essay with a single deadline, an educator could create a sequence such as:

Part 1 – Essay plan
Students submit a proposed argument and structure.

Part 2 – First draft
Students develop the plan into a complete draft, potentially using Clarity.

Part 3 – Revision
Students receive feedback and continue developing their work in a subsequent Clarity stage.

Part 4 – Final essay
Students submit the finished piece.

This structure gives the educator several opportunities to intervene. A weak argument can potentially be identified at the planning stage; problems with evidence can be addressed in the draft; and feedback can be acted upon before the final grade is awarded.

For students, the assessment becomes a series of achievable steps rather than one large deadline.

But there are potential drawbacks

Multipart Assignments are not necessarily a better replacement for conventional assignments. Their value depends heavily on the assessment design.

More administration

More stages inevitably mean more setup, deadlines and submissions. Educators need to design each part carefully and explain how the stages relate to one another.

There is also an important practical consideration: once a Multipart Assignment has been created, its parts cannot subsequently be added, removed or reordered. Turnitin's current guidance recommends checking the parts, settings, dates and order carefully before creating the assignment.

For a simple 1,500-word essay, introducing several submission stages could therefore create unnecessary complexity.

More deadlines for students

Scaffolding can help students manage workload, but multiple deadlines can also feel burdensome.

Students taking several modules may encounter different staged-assessment systems simultaneously. If every assignment becomes a four- or five-part process, the overall assessment experience could become more complicated rather than simpler.

The approach is likely to work best when each stage has a clear pedagogical purpose.

Feedback takes time

The ability to provide feedback earlier is useful only if educators have the capacity to provide it.

If a cohort submits a draft one week and expects detailed feedback before the next stage, the marking workload can increase considerably. Educators may therefore need to consider whether feedback at each stage is formative, summative, automated, peer-based, selective or some combination of these.

Not every assessment needs a process

Some assessments are deliberately designed around a final performance or product.

A short-answer test, one-off practical task or straightforward piece of coursework may not benefit from being divided into multiple stages.

There is also a risk of over-scaffolding: if students are given instructions for every step of a task, they may have fewer opportunities to make decisions about how to approach it themselves.

When might Multipart Assignments be most useful?

A useful rule of thumb is to consider whether the journey matters as much as the destination.

Multipart Assignments may be particularly appropriate when:

• students are learning a process rather than simply producing an answer;
• the assessment involves drafting and revision;
• feedback needs to influence subsequent work;
• a large assignment can naturally be divided into meaningful stages;
• educators want greater visibility of how work develops;
• students would benefit from intermediate milestones;
• academic writing or research skills are themselves learning outcomes.

They may be less useful when the assessment is short, straightforward, primarily knowledge-based, or does not require meaningful development between stages.

What about academic integrity?

The staged approach may offer some useful benefits here, although it should not be treated as an academic-integrity solution in itself.

Seeing multiple stages of a student's work can give educators more context than a single final document. With Clarity, the Writing Report can provide additional information about the writing process, while Multipart Assignments can connect that process to earlier drafts, feedback and subsequent revisions.

That additional context could be valuable when an educator wants to understand how a piece of work was produced.

However, process visibility is not the same thing as proof of authorship, and educators should be cautious about interpreting individual indicators in isolation. Turnitin's tools should form part of a broader assessment and academic-integrity approach rather than replacing professional judgement.

A potentially useful direction for assessment design

Perhaps the biggest opportunity presented by Multipart Assignments is not a particular Turnitin feature, but the invitation to rethink assessment as a sequence rather than an event.

For educators already using staged assessment, the functionality may provide a more integrated way of connecting those stages. For others, it could prompt a useful question: what would change if students were assessed on how they develop their work, rather than only on what they submit at the end?

Used selectively, Multipart Assignments could provide a practical framework for that approach. Used indiscriminately, they could simply add more deadlines and administration.

As with any assessment technology, the educational rationale should probably come first and the tool second. The strongest use cases are likely to be those where each part represents a genuine stage in learning - with feedback, reflection and revision deliberately built into the journey.

Interested in exploring Multipart Assignments? Register your interest using this form and watch this video to learn more about how this assignment type works.