Montana State University

MSU-Bozeman D2L Learning Environment

Instructor Help

Using Dropbox Originality Checking

Originality Checking enables you to monitor your dropbox folders and identify potential cases of plagiarism by automatically comparing submissions to an online database of original content. You can then view Originality Reports which highlight key areas, show a breakdown of matching sources, and provide direct links to the matching content.

You can also take advantage of the integrated Online Markup tool which enables you to add comments, inline text, and highlight sections in file submissions, directly from the Dropbox tool.

Note Montana State University has adopted the use of Turnitin for all campuses (Bozeman, Billings, Great Falls, and Northern) starting in Fall Semester 2012. All MSU faculty members have access to Originality Checking in the Desire2Learn Dropbox tool.

Turnitin is supported through the Office of the Provost MSU-Bozeman - Go here for Tii Support Information.

Creating a dropbox folder that uses Originality Checking

If Originality Checking is activated for your org unit, a check box appears in the properties tab of the New/Edit Folder page.

Important  You cannot disable Originality Checking once it has been enabled for a dropbox folder.

Enable Plagiarism Detection

  1. While creating or editing a dropbox folder, select the Enable for this folder check box in the Originality Checking section of the Properties tab.
  2. Click the Restrictions tab and update the start date and end dates to your desired range.

Setting up Originality Reports and other advanced features

When you enable Originality Checking, an options area appears at the bottom of the New/Edit Folder page. Here you can enable detailed Originality Reports for dropbox submissions, control end user visibility, set the Originality Reports frequency, select which sources to check the submission against, and decide whether the current submission you are running the report against is added to the file index for new submissions to be checked against.

Enable Originality Reports

Select the Generate Originality Reports check box in the Originality Checking Options section of the Properties tab.

Allow submitters to see Originality Reports

  1. Click Show Advanced Originality Checking Options to open the advanced options area.
  2. Select Allow submitters to see Originality Reports.
  3. Click Save.

Change the frequency of your Originality Reports

  1. Click Show Advanced Originality Checking Options to open the advanced options area.
  2. Choose one of the following options:
    • Automatic originality checking on all submissions
    • Identify individual submissions for originality checking
  3. Click Save.

Select which sources to check a submission against

  1. Click Show Advanced Originality Checking Options to open the advanced options area.
  2. Choose any combination of the following options:
    • Use paper database
    • Current and archived internet
    • Periodicals, journals, & publications
  3. Click Save.

Allow submissions to be added to the index (used in future searches)

  1. Click Show Advanced Originality Checking Options to open the advanced options area.
  2. Select Allow other files to be checked against submission.
  3. Click Save.

Manually submitting files for Originality Checking

If your Dropbox folder has Identify individual submissions for originality checking enabled, you will need to manually submit file submissions for Originality Checking. This is useful for when you don’t want to check every file submission for plagiarism, but still want the ability to do so on a case by case basis.

Manually submit files for Originality Checking

  1. Ensure that Identify individual submissions for originality checking is enabled in the properties tab on the New/Edit Folder page.
  2. On the Folder Submissions page, click the Submit file for Originality Checking icon. A message displays indicating the file has been submitted for review.
  3. Check the Folder Submissions page to view the status of your Originality Report.

Viewing Originality Reports

View Originality Reports from the Folder Submissions page. When a report is available, the status changes from In-Progress to a percentage rating, which indicates the level of matching content.

Viewing a file submission summary

Viewing a file submission summary

A lower percentage rating indicates that the content is original and has not been copied; a higher percentage rating indicates the content is not original and has been copied from another source.

The percentage ranges are associated with colors:

  • Blue >= 0 and <20% </li>
  • Green >= 20 and <40% </li>
  • Yellow >= 40 and <60% </li>
  • Orange >= 60 and <80% </li>
  • Red >= 80 and <= 100%</li>

View an Originality Report for a submission

Click the colored section beside the percentage rating to view the associated Originality Report.

Opening Originality Reports

Opening Originality Reports

The Originality Report is comprised of two panes. The right pane lists all of the matching sources, including the percentage of text that matches and a link to the online content. The left pane displays the submission text using colored highlights to draw attention to the matching content.

Tip  For more detailed help with Originality Reports, click the help link in the top-right corner of the report page.

Originality Checking file type compatibility

The following file types are compatible with Originality Checking:

  • MS Word
  • WordPerfect
  • PostScript
  • Acrobat PDF
  • HTML
  • RTF
  • Plain text

Note  If your file type is incompatible with Originality Checking, the Information icon displays instead of the percentage rating.

See also

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