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MyDropBox.com
Majors and Programs | Instructors
Using MyDropBox.com to prevent and detect plagiarismMyDropBox.com is a teacher's dream. Its an online service that does a very good job at preventing and detecting plagiarism. While the site mydropbox.com offers many services for teachers, the main one we're referring to is what they call SafeAssignment. Students upload their papers, and the MyDropBox computers check it against tens of thousands of periodicals, web sites, and amazingly enough, papers from online paper mills!
It then issues a report saying what percentage of the paper was copied from other sources. You can then click on the report, and it highlights all the writing that it thinks came from some other source. When you click on any one of the highlighted sentences, a box pops up with the name and URL of the suspected source.
No more grading papers in front of a computer so you can do searches on Google for suspect sentences!
This isn't just great for catching deliberate plagiarists, however. You can also let students turn in drafts of papers, check the reports themselves, and correct the citation errors themselves before turning it in. Believe me, students are motivated to do this when they know that their final paper will be scrutinized this way!
(You can tell that English teachers like this service - we generally don't like using exclamation marks, and I've used 3 already!...now make that 4.)
Caveats:
1. If students basically cite their source correctly in terms of content, but don't punctuate or format it correctly, MDB will still indicate that it's plagiarized. The quoted material might be in quotation marks and the source listed at the end of the sentence, but if the citation is off in terms of punctuation and formatting, it will still show up as plagiarism. Students need to be warned about this and be instructed to decide whether they need to fix the form, or the content.
2. MDB can't find every paper-mill essay or every paper from the fraternity/sorority/friend collection that students may have access to, and so won't be able to catch everything. You'll still need to follow the college's plagiarism guidelines to for giving plagiarism-proof assignments, etc.
Here's a list of the sources that SafeAssignment searches:
The index of the Internet (close to 8 billion documents);
All major publicly accessible digital databases, such as MedLine, PubMed, Project Guttenberg" (over 12,000 books) and others;
The FindArticles" database provided by LookSmart" (over 5.5 million articles from over 900 periodical publications, updated daily);
The entire family of the ProQuest" ABI/Inform databases (over 1100 publication titles, about 2.7 million articles, updated weekly);
MyDropBox's proprietary database of over 300,000 academic papers that are known to be offered for sale by paper-mill Web sites;
Any proprietary institutional archives and databases that MyDropBox clients provide for inclusion into the search span of their respective institutional accounts;
ZIP archives and some password-protected areas available on the Internet indexed on demand.
How do you access MyDropBox.com?
LBCC faculty who require their students to buy the LB Brief English reference handbook with "MyCompLab" supplement (another great service) may use MyDropBox.com for free. Please send an email to Andrew Draa, the technical representative for more information and for a password. (please note - this material is in draft form, and will be confirmed shortly)
Once you create your account, use this link to learn more about how to use SafeAssignment:
http://mdb2.mydropbox.com/man/sa_instructor_manual.htm
Below are some instructions and guidelines that we've prepared for our students. You can copy them into your word processor and print them out to distribute to your students.
MyDropBox Orientation and Instructions
Why are we using MyDropBox? While it is useful for identifying blatant plagiarism, we're mostly interested in how it can help you see where you need to revise your quotations, citations, and documentation before you turn in your final draft. NOTE: At any time, you can also click on the Help icon in the upper right corner and then click on either the animated Student Guide or the Student Manual for more information.
To create your user login:
1. Go to mdb2.mydropbox.com
2. Click on New Users: Create Profile and fill out the Create Profile page. Be sure to write down the login name and password you create for yourself!
3. Enter the Join Code given to you by your instructor:
List the correct Join Code here.
To submit a paper to see if you've cited your sources correctly:
1. To submit a paper, click on the course title under My Courses.
2. Click on the Submit icon next to the name of the assignment.
3. Enter the title of your paper, and click on Upload File (the preferred method).
4. Click on Browse to find your file (USB drive, CD disk, hard drive, etc.) Click on Submit.
Viewing and Interpreting the Report
1. Click on the course title under My Courses.
2. Click on Report next to the title of the assignment.
3. For help with interpretation, click on the Help icon in the upper right corner.
4. Scroll down and click on the SafeAssignment Student Manual link for interpreting the results.
Consulting Service Available: if you'd like help implementing any of these tips or techniques, Paul Hagood is available by phone (917-4570) and email (hagoodp@ml.linnbenton.edu) for consultation. You might even get email assistance at night or on weekends!
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