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| Summary | Validating student created work |
| Author | Maintained by Matthijs van Mierlo |
| Help | Get help with this article |
| Status | Up-to-date for the 2024-2025 school year. |
Why we care...
As teachers, we want to ensure that all student work is authentic and reflects the students' own efforts. With the rise of digital tools and resources, maintaining academic integrity can be challenging. Here are several ways to validate that student work is genuinely student-created. The following suggestions are applicable to most departments, and if you have questions you can reach out a member of the Tech Team.
Caution Against Using AI Text Detectors for Plagiarism Detection
While it may seem tempting to use AI text detectors to identify potential instances of plagiarism, there are several reasons why these tools may not be suitable for a school setting:
- Accuracy Concerns: AI text detectors often struggle to accurately identify whether a piece of text was written by a human or generated by AI. False positives can occur, unfairly penalizing students for work they genuinely created. These inaccuracies can damage trust between teachers and students and undermine the educational process.
- Lack of Transparency: Many AI text detection tools operate as "black boxes," meaning they do not provide clear explanations for their decisions. This lack of transparency can make it difficult for educators to justify their conclusions about potential plagiarism or to provide meaningful feedback to students.
- Privacy and Ethical Issues: AI text detectors often require access to students' work, which can raise concerns about data privacy and security. The use of such tools might conflict with privacy policies or student rights, especially if sensitive data is shared with third-party services without proper consent.
- Pedagogical Limitations: Relying on AI text detectors can shift the focus away from fostering critical thinking, research, and writing skills. Instead of teaching students how to write effectively and ethically, it may encourage a culture of fear and mistrust. Educators should prioritize methods that promote learning and growth rather than over-relying on automated tools.
Given these concerns, it is generally advisable to avoid using AI text detectors in favor of more reliable methods, such as using revision history in Google Workspace or Turnitin's plagiarism detection capabilities. These tools offer a more transparent, effective, and ethical approach to maintaining academic integrity.
Utilize Google Workspace for Transparent Creation
Encourage students to use Google Workspace products—such as Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides—for all assignments and projects. By keeping everything within our Google domain, teachers can easily monitor the revision history of documents to see when and how changes were made. This transparency allows teachers to ensure that students are completing assignments as intended and provides an additional layer of accountability.
To make the most of Google Workspace tools:
- Remind students to always create and edit their work within their Google accounts.
- Regularly check the revision history to track changes and see the development process of student work.
- Use the "Version history" feature in Google Docs, Sheets, and Slides to identify any unusual editing patterns that may suggest copying and pasting from external sources.
Tip: it may be useful to create Google Assignments for your courses so that you know exactly which document students are expected to work on. Make it clear in your syllabus that all of their work should happen on that document.
Leverage Turnitin for Plagiarism Detection
Turnitin is a powerful platform that integrates directly with Schoology, enabling teachers to automatically check for originality and potential plagiarism in student submissions. Turnitin provides a comprehensive report that identifies text matches from a vast database of academic papers, publications, and internet content, helping ensure the authenticity of student work.
To start using Turnitin in Schoology, please refer to this Turnitin Assignment Tutorial or one of these articles:
Explore Digiexam for Secure Assessments
Digiexam offers a secure and user-friendly platform for digital examinations and assessments. It helps maintain academic integrity by providing a controlled environment where students cannot access unauthorized resources or applications. Digiexam also allows for automated grading, which can save time and provide immediate feedback to students.
If you are interested in using Digiexam for your classes, reach out to Matthijs or Matt to get started. For more information, check out this article: Access DigiExam.
Use Brisk for Teachers: Inspect Writing Feature
Brisk for Teachers is a free tool that offers a unique "Inspect Writing" feature, which provides a detailed account of how students complete and edit a Google Doc. This feature is particularly useful for detecting instances where content may have been copied and pasted from other sources, whether generated by AI or otherwise. It provides insights into the student's writing process, including time spent on each section, edits made, and more, helping to identify potential academic dishonesty.
Get started with Brisk by downloading the Chrome Extension from their website: https://www.briskteaching.com/
Note: you only need to use the free version. If you have questions about this, please reach out to Matthijs or Matt in the Tech Team.