Classroom

The Feature That Aims to Deter Student Plagiarism

Google for Education, a popular resource for K–12 classrooms, includes tools that can help gauge the originality of submitted work.

Raymond Steinmetz

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Raymond Steinmetz is a Rhode Island-based seventh-grade math teacher and education blogger.

A new Google for Education feature saves educators and students time and energy while ensuring the integrity of student work.

What Are Originality Reports and How Do They Work?

Google’s originality reports do the heavy lifting of identifying unattributed citations, finding sources and identifying plagiarism — intentional or unintentional — by automatically searching the web for matching text results. Similar to other online anti-plagiarism tools, originality reports put this functionality directly into Google for Education’s existing platforms, including Classroom and Assignments.

What Does This Feature Mean for Educators?

When educators turn on originality reports for an assignment, they will receive a detailed originality report for each student submission. These easy-to-use reports cross-reference student work with billions of search results and millions of books and provide the user with links to matching content.

How Can Students Use Originality Reports?

Students can run up to three of their own originality reports per assignment to check the integrity of their work against the entire internet before submitting it to their teacher. Students can only run an originality report on assignments where the instructor has turned on this functionality.

Are There Any Costs for This Feature?

Educators can designate up to three assignments per course to use originality reports without being charged for extra services. G Suite Enterprise for Education users get unlimited access to this new feature.

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How Does This Feature Work with Other Google Platforms?

Look for even more features for using originality reports in the near future. Integration with Google’s Assignment platform is already in beta. Soon, organizations will be able to create their own repositories of work to search against as well.

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