Plagiarism

Unplag Updates Interface, Adds Commenting for Canvas LMS Users

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 06/23/16

Unplag has updated its cloud-based plagiarism detector with a new user interface and the ability for instructors using Canvas to leave comments on student assignments.

"After each student assignment is checked with Unplag, an educator receives a report with a percentage of citations and references found and a list of sources used by students," according to a news release. "This way educators can evaluate the quality of the research carried out by students in a matter of minutes. When citations and references are omitted from the report, a similarity and originality percentage is immediately updated. Thanks to the exclusion option, educators can figure out what is a student contribution amount. For educators to be able to navigate reports with ease, Unplag highlights citations in blue, references in purple and similarities in yellow."

With the new commenting feature, teachers will be able to add feedback anywhere in the text or edit or remove it. Students will have a read-only mode and will receive notifications when new comments are added. In addition, Canvas users can now use Unplag in speedgrader mode.

"We keep on asking educators using Unplag about the features they might need to simplify their interaction with students", said Anastasia Parokha, CEO at Unplag, in a prepared statement. "Once we get this valuable feedback, our team of developers starts working on the Unplag functionality enhancement. Thus, a commenting feature has been released. It allows teachers and professors share their advice with students or explain why particular parts of their assignments need improving."