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Header Intro: Different Ways of Using a Plagiarism Control Tool

Nina Ree-Lindstad (left),
Tone Vold, Kristin Rĝijen

Euphorus is a Dutch plagiarism control tool that is widely used in international education. It is also market leader in the Netherlands. Assistant professor Nina Ree-Lindstad, Academic Librarian Kristin Røijen, and assistant professor Tone Vold will present different ways to use Euphorus at Online Educa Berlin, exploring the application’s control function and other features.

 

 

The expansion of plagiarism has led to the development of numerous control tools. One of them is Ephorus, produced in cooperation with the Norwegian company Fronter AS, maker of the Learning Management System (LMS) ClassFronter. At Hedmark University College, ClassFronter is used in connection with Ephorus. When students submit their assignments in the LMS, lecturers can decide if they should be sent to Ephorus for a plagiarism check.

The Ephorus tool uses pattern recognition, which requires various patterns for comparison. The databases used are the Internet, the customer database that has been uploaded, and a corporate database whose content is a company secret at Ephorus.

The “customers” in this case are Hedmark University College, Gjøvik University College, and Lillehammer University College. This means that not only previously uploaded material will give hits regarding possible plagiarism, but also assignments submitted earlier at the cooperating university colleges will also be flagged.

A “sneak prevue” of guidelines of use:

  • Check for sources: like Google Scholar - Ephorus can be used to check for other faculty doing research on the same topic

  • Portfolio evaluation: Lecturers can compare subsequent drafts of assignments with the student’s first draft to check for changes. Has the student’s work improved?

  • Control: If a section of the work is flagged – has the student cited correctly? If the citations are correct, it is possible to give students credit; if not the lecturer must act according to the institution’s regulations.

Other issues: How to address translation, in our case: mostly from English to Norwegian and vice versa?

In the presentation, data will also be presented from a major project at the University of Bergen. You are all welcome to learn more about our testing at Online Educa 2006 in the session “DES21 – Innovative Online Learning Tools and Services“, Thursday between 14.00 and 16.00 hours Tone, Kristin and Nina are looking forward to seeing you and to getting YOUR inputs on the issue.

 

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