Proctoring and anti-plagiarism: differences and online tools

Proctoring and anti-plagiarism are complementary systems that contribute to developing an education system that promotes academic integrity, which is increasingly challenging to achieve in e-learning environments.

In fact, this combination of tools is crucial in the face of the rise of virtual classrooms, as it enables fair and efficient assessments while fostering honesty within the educational community.

In line with this, we believe it’s important to discuss this duo to strengthen the value of your programs and certifications and even enhance your competitive edge compared to other educational offerings.

Additionally, we will share a set of tools you should be aware of to ensure that your educational projects respect your students’ rights.

Differences between proctoring and anti-plagiarism

The distinctions between proctoring and anti-plagiarism lie in the factors detailed below.

Purpose

Proctoring focuses on the online supervision of various types of tests and exams through remote monitoring techniques.

On the other hand, anti-plagiarism aims to detect copied content from existing sources.

Techniques and operation

In proctoring, online supervision is achieved through the combination of artificial intelligence with three resources:

1. A webcam for capturing images.
2. A computing device (smartphone, laptop, desktop, etc.).
3. Human oversight. 

In contrast, plagiarism detectors identify similarities by comparing the analyzed document with databases such as academic repositories, publicly available internet content, publications across various platforms, and more.

Strengths of the proctoring and anti-plagiarism tandem

While proctoring and plagiarism detection systems are not the same, they both offer complementary tools that work together to improve the evaluation process in education. In fact, their combination allows for:

• Ensuring education based on respect and integrity.
• Promoting the recognition of students’ original contributions.
• Safeguarding the creation of protected content, highlighting the ethical importance of their efforts.

Objectives and features of proctoring systems

Proctoring aims to ensure the quality and accuracy of results in online assessments through remote supervision.

Thanks to this monitoring, these systems can detect potential fraud or deception, such as identity impersonation, unauthorized access to resources during tests, or the unauthorized involvement of third parties.

At Smowltech, we have developed a wide range of proctoring plans and features tailored to your specific needs. Our tools assist you in creating secure and student-friendly environments through:

• Various methods for verifying students’ identities.
• User-friendly interfaces.
• Customizable security levels.
• Access to personalized reports for each assessment.
• Integration of artificial intelligence algorithms.
• Solutions compliant with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act)

Objectives and Features of anti-plagiarism programs

Anti-plagiarism programs aim to ensure that students submit original work, verifying that they have not copied existing content.

In addition to this, one of the advantages of these anti-plagiarism solutions is their ability to optimize your resources.

To achieve this, plagiarism detectors offer various functions, which can vary from one program to another. Some common functions include:

• Cross-referencing content with internet and/or internal databases.
• Generating reports with the percentage of similarities found.
• Identifying the original sources of the content.

As you can see, integrating these resources into your educational strategy promotes responsible and fair education.

5 highly useful anti-plagiarism tools

If you haven’t yet explored anti-plagiarism tools, you can start with some of the free solutions presented below.

Plagiarism Detector

Plagiarism Detector allows you to analyze texts of up to 1,000 words for free by copying and pasting the content into the designated box.

It also offers a PRO version that allows for extended searches, up to 25,000 words, and provides reports and support for analyzing multiple files.

Duplichecker

Duplichecker is another free anti-plagiarism tool that lets you analyze content by copying it or by adding the web address of the page you want to check. 

It also allows you to exclude up to 5 web addresses from analyzing plagiarized sources. 

You can download the analysis report in PDF or Word format or edit the text directly within its environment to ensure 100% originality.

For more comprehensive features, you can consider paid plagiarism detectors. Here are three of the most widely used tools available in the market.

Viper

Viper is a user-friendly tool for detecting duplicate content and operates on a credit system.

Each credit allows you to analyze 30,000 characters, which is roughly 5,000 words. Its extensive database includes over 10 billion online sources, ranging from web pages to books, academic publications, and PDFs in various languages.

Additionally, it can analyze content in multiple file formats, such as PDF, Word, OpenOffice, PowerPoint, Google Docs, and more.

EduBirdie

EduBirdie is a platform that offers professional essay and paper writing services and editing and proofreading for all types of texts.

It also includes a plagiarism detector that identifies grammatical errors, word redundancy, text readability, and synonym usage percentages.

Turnitin

Turnitin is another anti-plagiarism tool supporting an education system prioritizing content integrity.

This tool is widely used due to its extensive information network, which includes indexed websites and university repositories.

It offers a range of rigorous plagiarism checkers suitable for different educational levels, from secondary education to higher education.

It also provides specific resources for research professionals and academic text editors.

Combining a plagiarism detector like Turnitin with our proctoring system allows you to create comprehensive virtual environments that uphold the principle of academic integrity. Such partnerships foster trust between evaluators and students through ongoing feedback.

Request a free demo to explore effective, user-friendly, and adaptable online monitoring solutions for your remote assessments.