Does Moodle Check for Plagiarism?


Moodle is an open-source learning management system. It is commonly used for distance education, flipped classrooms, blended learning, and other forms of e-learning. With all these uses, it is vital to make sure the work being turned in is original and not plagiarized.

Does Moodle check for plagiarism? Yes, Moodle utilizes different plagiarism plugins to check users’ submissions for plagiarism. The LMS uses many different plugins, such as:

  • Turnitin
  • PlagScan
  • CopyCheck
  • PlagiarismCheck
  • PLAGIARISMA
  • StrikePlagiarism.com
  • Crotpro Plagiarism Checker
  • Source-Code Plagiarism Plugin
  • UNPLAG Plagiarism Checker Plugin
  • VeriCite

If you are debating switching your students to learn through Moodle, it is essential to know how plagiarism will be detected when students submit their work.

How Plagiarism is Detected in Moodle

All of the content that is submitted to Moodle can be scanned for plagiarism. The submissions are scanned easily and automatically. The student’s submission can be checked for authenticity with a report. The report detects paraphrased content and similar texts that it finds. The plagiarism checker is used to confirm that the student’s work is original.

There are additional plugins you can add, though, to enhance the plagiarism detection.

Turnitin

The Turnitin plugin can be used to detect students’ work for plagiarism. It is a commercial plagiarism detection system that you have to pay for. Many instructors enable Turnitin to detect plagiarism as it is very effective.

Turnitin uses an Overall Similarity Index to instantly determine the amount of the student’s paper that matches outside sources. The Originality Report will then help educators investigate suspicious passages in the student’s work. Turnitin is efficient in detecting plagiarism to test the authenticity of a student’s work.

PlagScan

PlagScan also allows educators to scan a student’s work for plagiarism automatically. Assignments can easily be checked without using an external interface. Moodle instructors, teachers, and students are all offered a PlagScan account to guarantee that only users who are supposed to access a document are allowed to do so.

Plagscan does all of the plagiarism detection for you so that you don’t have to. It is automatic and easy to use. You can also edit, open, and leave comments in the PlagScan plagiarism reports. You can even open side-by-side comparisons of the submitted work and the highlighted plagiarism matches in the source that has been found.

Teachers can access all documents that are submitted. They don’t have to ask for special rights. They are able to access all submission settings when a document is submitted to Moodle. You can even share the reports with colleagues to review and comment on these submissions as well.

CopyCheck

CopyCheck is also used to detect students’ submissions for plagiarism. It can identify if the text has been composed from the Internet or even other students’ submissions. It can detect slightly changed, mutated, and even translated words. Within a few minutes of a document being uploaded to Moodle, a report that includes references will be available to the teacher.

CopyCheck can also process text in any language. It can also process most document types that are submitted.

PlagiarismCheck

PlagiarismCheck has all of the following features available for Moodle users who install this plugin to detect if plagiarism occurs:

  • Algorithm- The algorithm searches for word-to-word similarities. Still, it also checks submissions for word rearrangements, word substitutions, changing from a passive to active voice, poor paraphrasing, and changes of the alphabet from different languages.
  • Smart Report– With the Smart Report feature, you can access all of the sources where there is a similarity to the submission. The similarity that has been found from quotes or references can be either included or excluded from the total similarity percentage. These things can be highlighted in a different color when they are detected.
  • Search Database– This feature’s capabilities depend on the type of subscription that you have, but there are many search options available to users. With this feature, you can search all of the public resources available, or you can even search in closed libraries or depositories. You can also create a personal archive and search through it.
  • Usability- With this feature, integration can be easily set up by an administrator with a Moodle account. It also gives you the ability to set up who will have access to the software. Integration also allows both students and teachers to have access to the similarity reports,
  • Throughput- This allows for minimum downtime, no restrictions of daily use, and no limitations on how soon a student can resubmit their work
  • Customer Service– PlagarismCheck’s customer service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They respond to clients’ requests within 24 hours too.

PLAGIARISMA

The PLAGIARISMA plugin requires a paid subscription. It will work on Moodle’s assignment module, file submissions, and for online text. It supports the following file formats:

  • PDF
  • DOC
  • DOCX
  • RTF
  • ODT
  • TXT
  • HTML

StrikePlagiarism.com

This plugin also requires a paid subscription to use. The company will give Universities and corporate partners a deal to help them pay for this subscription. You can even check 500 characters for a free trial with this system to determine if you like the system, and you can get familiar with it. It supports Moodle so that you can use it on Moodle.

StrikePlagiarism.com supports the following file formats:

  • PDF
  • DOC
  • DOCX
  • RTF
  • ODT
  • TXT
  • HTML

The plugin can even recognize texts in languages such as:

  • English
  • German
  • Spanish
  • Russian
  • Polish
  • Romanian
  • Arabic
  • Georgian
  • Arabic
  •  Georgian
  • Bulgarian
  • Azerbaijani
  • Ukrainian
  • Portuguese
  • Croatian
  • Turkish
  • Italian
  • French
  • Dutch

You can use this plugin with Moodle’s Assignment module and in their Forum and workshop activities.

Crotpro Plagiarism Checker

Studies show that 10% of plagiarized papers are plagiarized from Wikipedia. Crotpro is a plugin for Moodle that is completely free to download; however, it can only conduct plagiarism searches with Wikipedia. The service plans to extend their searching capabilities in the future.

Users have a limitation of ten checks per month. It is important to note that this plugin is in the BETA testing stage.

Source-Code Plagiarism Plugin

This plugin uses MOSS and JPlag to help detect students’ submissions for plagiarism. The educational tool’s goal is to help raise awareness of plagiarism.

This plugin has many great features. When you use this plugin, assignments are scanned for plagiarism very quickly and easily. It can mark pairs of students with possible plagiarism if their work is similar to one another’s. It allows students to submit a rough draft, and it permits scanning a submission multiple times. The history will show where it detected plagiarism and if it was fixed or not. The plagiarism report is easy to navigate.

The new version of this plugin is 1.3. This version provides corrections for any reported bugs. It also provides users with a better interface and also better navigation. It also allows for code seeding. You can upload an additional code like past assignments and scan them with your current assignment.

It is important to note that this plugin works with Moodle 2.0 to 2.3. It isn’t available for Moodle 2.4, but the company plans to fix this compatibility issue and release it soon.

UNPLAG Plagiarism Checker Plugin

This plagiarism checker plugin was designed based on educators’ feedback. This plugin helps educators detect plagiarism.

You will need to get in contact with the sales team to start using this plugin. The plugin checks submitted content for plagiarism, and you can use it with Moodle’s assignment, forum, and workshop activities.

VeriCite

This program is simple and is also on the cheaper side. Instructors can examine sources with VeriCite. It can scan textual material in any common file format. The plugin has reliable and smooth reporting that costs less than one-third of its competitors. VeriCite can report on inline text, single attachments, and multiple attachments. If you are struggling to use VeriCite, they have a technical support team that is very responsive.

What Next

Now that you know how Moodle can check plagiarism how about looking at some of the other articles in the Learning Management System category on the website.

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