Plagiarism Detection in Canvas Assignments with Copyleaks

Copyleaks is a software program that helps instructors detect plagiarism by comparing text from student assignments to a database of outside sources. Copyleaks can be enabled in a Canvas assignment to produce an originality report for each student submission.

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Enabling Copyleaks in an Assignment

Copyleaks can easily be enabled in your Canvas assignment. One thing to note is that this feature is only available with Online Submissions where one of the following Online Entry Options are selected: Text Entry and File Uploads. Below are the steps on how to activate this tool into your assignment.

1

Navigate to Assignments

Arrow pointing at assignments tab.

 
2

Click + Assignments

If you already have an assignment created, locate and select it and proceed to Step 4.

Arrow pointing at blue + Assignment button.

 
3

Fill in the necessary details

Example of assignment details.

 
4

Select Online as the Submission Type

Submission Type with Online in the dropdown.

 
5

Choose the Online Entry Options

The Copyleaks settings will only appear if you have either the Text Entry or File Uploads options selected.

Submission type section with Online highlighted and arrows pointing at Text Entry and File Uploads

 
6

Expand the Plagiarism Review dropdown and select Copyleaks Plagiarism Checker

Plagiarism Review dropdown expanded with Copyleaks Plagiarism Detector highlighted.

 
7

Click Edit scan settings

Arrow pointing at Edit Scan settings link.

 
8

Review the different settings and adjust them as necessary

Copyleaks settings preview screen.

 
9

Click Save Settings

Arrow pointing at Save Settings button.

 
10

Navigate back to the Canvas window

Arrow pointing at Canvas tab.

 
11

Fill in the rest of the course settings, then click Save

Arrow pointing at Save button in the bottom-right corner.

How Copyleaks Reports Appear / Interpretting Results

With Copyleaks enabled, you will see a colored originality score indicator in the SpeedGrader for each student's submission. You can click on the indicator icon to view a full Copyleaks report. Indicators also appear in the Canvas gradebook, but you can only access the originality score through the SpeedGrader.

No matching text

1-24%

25-49%

50-74%

75-100%

The above ranges represent the percentage of text found within the submitted assignment that matches text found in any of the resources in Copyleaks' database.

Arrows pointing at yellow icon with 48.8% inside.
Canvas gradebook similarity score example with orange and yellow icons.

What Students See When They Submit

With Copyleaks enabled for plagiarism review, students will be asked to check a box certifying that their submission is their own work at the point of assignment submission.

Preview of plagiarism review certify button.

Once the assignment is submitted, if you have enabled the students to have access to their reports in the Copyleaks settings, they will be able to view the same report that you can see by going into their submission and clicking on the colored icon with the similarity score.