Copyleaks

Copyleaks is our plagiarism detection software (replacement for SafeAssign)

Features of Copyleaks

  • Copyleaks has the ability to detect plagiarism (including self-plagiarism) as well as AI generated work including the GPT4 model, ChatGPT, Bloom, Jaspr, Rytr, GPT4and more.
  • It works in upload or online text Assignments.  Please note that Copyleaks needs at least 140 words in the upload text to work.
  • It works in Forums.  Please note that Copyleaks needs at least 140 words in the post to work. To set this up:
    • Go to the forum for your course and click “settings”
    • Scroll down until you see the “Copyleaks settings” drop down 
    • Follow the directions for “enabling Copyleaks on an assignment” below
  • It will check for self-plagiarism as long as the student’s work has been previously loaded into the Copyleaks repository.
    • For example, a student takes a course in the fall and turns in an assignment that was run through Copyleaks.  Then, in the spring, they submit the same paper in another class. Copyleaks it will detect that work as self-plagiarism.
  • It includes cross-language detection, meaning plagiarism can be detected in other languages.
    • NOTE: this is a feature that has to be enabled for specific languages.  Please contact a member of eLearning if this is a setting you need.
  • It includes cheat detection such as:
    • Students typing random words at the bottom of the page, then changing the colors of that text to match the background so that their work meets word counts
    • Changing random letters in words to similar looking letters from other languages
  • If Copyleaks is used, students must check the box agreeing to its use to submit.
  • COMING SOON: A tool that allows instructor’s to run assignments through Copyleaks without an assignment set up.

Enabling Copyleaks on an Assignment

First create an assignment in Moodle.

  1. Scroll to the bottom of the assignment page until you see the drop down for “Copyleaks settings.” Open the drop down and ensure the box for “Enable Copyleaks” is checked.
  2. Choose when you want to generate the reports. 
    • “Generate reports immediately” will create a report as soon as the assignment is uploaded. 
    • “Generate reports on due date” will delay the report creation until the actual due date of the assignment, regardless of when it is uploaded.
    • NOTE: Depending on network and server traffic, immediately may be “a few minutes”!
  3. Check the desired options for the report.  At the bare minimum you want to make sure the “Scan internet” and “Scan internal database” boxes are selected.  If you want students to be able to view their plagiarism report, be sure to check the box to enable it.  If this box is not checked, students will not see any of the report.
  4. Click Save at the bottom of the page.

Additional report options:

    • Disable view of database for students – recommended so if similarities are seen between their file and previously uploaded files they can click and see the text that matches theirs
    • Allow students access to plagiarism reports – whether or not students see the report (same as for SafeAssign)
    • Ignore references – content which has been formatted properly following one of the style guides (MLA, APA, etc.)
    • Ignore quotes – any text found within a closed set of quotation mark
    • Ignore titles – content which has been formatted properly as a title following one of the style guides (MLA, APA, etc.)
    • Ignore table of contents – content which has been formatted properly as a Table of Contents following one of the style guides (MLA, APA, etc.)
    • Ignore source code comments – when uploading code this ignores comments included in the actual coding
    • Scan internet – look for similarities across information available on the internet
    • Scan internal database – checks against all papers uploaded to Copyleaks
    • Enable safe search – eliminates adult or violent content from appearing (even if there are similar results to the excluded content they will not appear in the results)
    • Check for paraphrased text – text that has specific restructuring along with similar word choices and phrasing or from a text spinner
    • Enable cheat detection – looks for common ways students try to get around plagiarism checking, details here (opens in new window)

Enabling Copyleaks on a Forum

  1. Open your forum and go to “settings”
  2. Scroll down until you see “Copyleaks Settings.”
  3. Drop down the “Copyleaks settings” and choose the settings you want.  (The settings look identical to the dropdown in assignments)
  4. Choose “save”

Accessing a Copyleaks Report for an Assignment

***Note: Copyleaks reporting works best on Google Chrome.  If you receive any failure messages when pulling up a similarity report, try opening the report in Chrome.

 

To access the report for assignments, select the actual assignment and you should see a “Similarity score” link.

 

Accessing a Copyleaks Report for a Forum

In the forum, below the forum post, you will see a spot for the similarity score. You can click the score to open a report. (Note: report opens in a new window)

 

 

Reading a Copyleaks Report

The Copyleaks report will break down the detections into the following categories:

  • Identical
  • Minor changes
  • Paraphrased
  • Omitted words

The percentage of each detected finding will display at the top right corner of the report.

Similar words or phrases will be highlighted in the text.  

The right side of the page will show where the words/phrases were detected.  Each of these detections is a clickable link, so you can visit the site where the words/phrases  were found.

Reports can also be downloaded as a PDF.  PDF reports look slightly different, but the information is the same.  The percentages will be across the top, followed by the possible links and then highlighted text will show at the end.

Learn more about reading Copyleaks reports (opens in new window)

 

AI and Copyleaks

Copyleaks will also automatically check for AI generated work!  The way the AI report looks in Moodle differs slightly from the PDF version.  

  • For a report inside Moodle, there will be an alert in the top right corner, near the percentage.  When you click this alert you will see the likelihood of AI generated work.  Clicking on the alert will highlight the text suspected of being AI generated.
  • For the PDF version, the AI detection percentage will appear in the top right corner, next to the plagiarism percentages.  The text that is likely AI generated will appear in full on the final page of the report.

 

 

Remember that Copyleaks is a deterrent and you, as the instructor still need to do your due diligence and check the reports thoroughly to make a professional judgement regarding AI generated work.  Consider the following while reading the report:

  • You know your students and their writing styles.  If it seems out of place and Copyleaks detects a high alert for AI, it was likely AI generated.
  • Read the report in full and look at the suspected/highlighted areas to be sure that citations are used properly.
  • Look at the percentages and the report details; a paper can have a low plagiarism percentage with a high AI detection score.  You have to read through both to make a professional decision.

Copyleaks Teacher Tool

The Teacher Tool can be used on Moodle to scan papers outside of assignments.  To scan a document using the teacher tool follow these easy steps:

  1. Make sure you’re in “edit” mode in Moodle.
  2. Choose “Add an activity of resource” in your course.
  3. Choose the “Copyleaks Teacher Tool” from the menu. 
  4. Give the tool a name.
  5. Then, under the activity name box click “select content.”
    1. Note: this will make a pop up box and it will disappear. This is normal and you can proceed to step 6 after it disappears. 
  6. Then, under “Common Module Settings” drop down the availability box to “Hide on course page.” This ensures only the instructor will see/use it. Then save the tool.

If you chose “save and display” the scan screen will show next. If you chose “save and return to course” click the teacher tool on the page to open the scan screen.

To scan documents click the “Scan Documents” button at the top right corner. Then, click “upload files” to load the files you want to scan. 

You can upload more than one doc at a time. Please note that the scan tool can take up to 15 minutes to finish.

Once complete, the report page will look similar to this:

You can quickly see the score percentages on this main screen. To view the full report, click the boxed arrow under one of the categories. (Either AI content detected or Plagiarism score) This will send the page to your downloads, where you can open it. The reporting is the same as the Copyleaks reports in assignments. (See  Reading a Copyleaks Report above for details)