It’s tempting…
In any course or programme that results in a certificate or qualification, there is usually a need for candidates to answer questions, record their reflections on the course content, and do assignments to show understanding. And, of course, you want to make sure that candidates have reached a suitable standard before granting them the certificate at the end of their programme.
One of the temptations that arises for candidates when they are doing a course online is to visit other websites, even websites where there are model answers for common programmes, and present that as their own work to the course assessor. Plagiarism in a digital environment is much easier, and so we need to leverage technology to check for plagiarised submissions from candidates.
Plagiarism checker technology
Checking submitted assignments is the routine these days in the higher and further education context, but much less common in organisational learning. Our People Alchemy Learning Workflow Platform (LWP) can change this as it now has a plagiarism checker plugin.
The plugin uses AI to check submitted works to detect similar and copied text. It compares it against billions of pages on the internet, open databases, and journals, and more to find the most relevant results and evidence of plagiarism. Furthermore, it analyses text that has been manipulated and detects identical, similar, and paraphrased versions of text. It then produces a report showing side-by-side comparison of relevant text.
Checking NHS Care Certificate submissions
An example of our own experience in this area is the Care Certificate which is a very common qualification across the healthcare sector in the UK. For example, in many NHS hospitals, it is a requirement for all their band 2 and band 3 healthcare employees.
Digitising the delivery of the care certificate brings many huge advantages but in doing so, it presents a temptation for candidates to copy answers from several websites that provide model answers for the 15 standards within the care certificate. They are provided as a learning aid, but of course they present an opportunity to just copy them, and then paste them into the digital care certificate delivery platform.
This is where a plagiarism checker is essential as it is not always easy to spot when reading through submissions. The platform runs the composed text against any content freely available on the Internet. It then informs the candidate if they need to rewrite their submission to avoid any conflict.
Catching instances of this and automatically suggesting the candidate rewrite their material and resubmit it avoids embarrassment for all. And of course, it is a way to help them learn the material which they are unlikely to do effectively if they are simply copying someone else’s material.
For NHS Trusts this is an important step in digitising care certificates that ensures that patients receive the level of care they should be able to expect.
Further application
But it doesn’t stop with the healthcare sector of course. This plugin works for all our clients from government departments to training providers, where stopping plagiarism is required by the qualification awarding body.
Talk to us to find out how our platform and this functionality could enhance the learning and development programmes you are offering.
Further reading > https://peoplealchemy.com/application/care-certificate/
