New plagiarism tool developed by educators

Text-matching software for detecting and preventing plagiarism is nothing new, but new software released by Swedish start-up Urkund in partnership with Androgogic promises to up the ante.

In a world increasingly full of “copy and paste” and students paying for completed university assessment, a recent study found that 68 per cent of Australia’s higher education teachers suspect instances of plagiarism and cheating and 31 million university students worldwide are paying third parties to complete university assessments. Research conducted by the Australian Government’s Office for Learning and Teaching found that 27 per cent of the 14,000 students surveyed had shared a completed piece of assessment with another student.

It goes without saying, then, that Australian universities need the “best of breed” anti-plagiarism software on the market. Urkund’s anti-plagiarism software is being hailed for its accuracy, showing very few false positives of plagiarism that can lead to unnecessary and stressful conversations between educators and students. The software is also easy to use and readily integrated into popular Learning Management Systems such as Moodle, Canvas, Blackboard, Sakai and Brightspace.

“One of Urkund’s most important development guidelines is to keep the system easy to use. The integrations in LMS/VLE systems are non-intrusive, where we work merely as a background service, allowing the instructors to work in the LMS/VLE system rather than in the plagiarism checker,” Urkund said in a statement.

Urkund is also an experienced player in the market, creating a strong reputation in the 20 years since it began as a Swedish start-up. The company was also founded by teachers, who have a sophisticated understanding of plagiarism in its many guises. The CEO for the Australian market, Andreas Ohlson, said: “We aim to ensure the collaboration will provide schools, universities and colleges access to our reliable and easy-to-use plagiarism prevention software,”

Alexander Roche, Founder and Principal Education Technologist at Androgogic said: “Our partnership with Urkund, will mean we're able to provide yet another layer of value to clients in the form of a best of breed anti-plagiarism software. Today, our partnership with Urkund will mean that our Higher Education clients will now have an alternative that’s compelling and superior."