Early Bird

Canvas Spotlight

Use Unicheck to assess the originality of students’ Canvas assignment submissions.

By Alex McDaniel, Laura Berryman and Nicholas Ogg

January 26, 2021

Unicheck is a helpful tool available in Canvas that measures the originality of student work by comparing students’ assignment submissions to text on the internet and in Unicheck’s databases. You can use Unicheck as a teaching tool to ensure academic integrity in your course in the same way you may have used SafeAssign in Blackboard. Unicheck is integrated with Canvas and can be easily activated on an assignment-by-assignment basis.

Best practices

• Encourage students to create original content by using unique assignment prompts that ask students to connect the subject matter to their personal lives/opinions/experiences.
• Support students by scaffolding assignments (for example, students submit a rough draft prior to the final draft) to reduce the likelihood of plagiarism.
• Review the detailed Unicheck report, not just the percentage score.
• If a student’s assignment contains uncited/unsourced material, use it as an opportunity to discuss academic integrity, including how to correctly quote and cite sources.

Let’s walk through it together

For complete written step-by-step instructions, head over to the Center for Teaching, Learning and Design Ready Spotlight tutorial page.

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