Technology doesn’t and should never drive pedagogy. Digital enablement allows institutions to be smarter, more efficient and be more creative in pursuing an innovative path to teaching, learning and assessment.
An example of this can be seen in originality or similarity detection. Technology plays a crucial role in assisting academics in determining whether a candidate has properly referenced resources to create their submission, or whether they have potentially committed plagiarism.
But the determination is more than a score, more than a number and more than a simple yes/no metric. Identifying properly referenced sources versus potential plagiarism requires expert judgment to determine.
Inspera Originality, our new capability, gives you the power to make this important determination using a range of metrics.
Why Originality Checking is Important
The idea of originality has been a cornerstone of human achievement since the dawn of civilization. From the first recorded instances of plagiarism during the Roman Empire to the establishment of Intellectual Property (IP) laws during the Industrial Age, humanity has pursued originality relentlessly.
The rise of the Internet marked the digital era, bringing with it both challenges and opportunities. While it has granted us unparalleled access to information, it has also necessitated the development of tools for similarity detection, ensuring the originality of content.
Parallel to this, the growth of AI technologies, especially Large Language Models (LLM) like ChatGPT, has reshaped the landscape of ensuring originality in written form. These advances signal that originality is a continuous journey rather than a singular achievement. A path that demands consistent innovation, community engagement, and thorough exploration.
Why We Developed Inspera Originality
As we delved into the mechanics of text processing, it became evident that the traditional approaches to ensuring originality have become somewhat rigid. They might work well to identify textual similarities or potential academic misconduct based on predefined rules but lack the dynamic nature of new technologies like AI-based translation and text generation.
The existing approach used in similarity detection solutions is designed to identify textual similarities or potential academic misconduct, and it operates on predefined rules and anomalies. These frameworks, often articulated by academic institutions, are then transformed into solutions by various companies. This pathway demands constant innovation and an open channel of communication with clients and partners; to address this, we have started the Inspera Community to be closer to our clients.
At the heart of our mission is our unwavering dedication to enabling assessments and assignments to be handled with integrity. With the acquisition of Crossplag, Inspera aspires to support institutions in their process to uphold academic integrity standards. Noticing a gap in market solutions regarding originality verification, we are launching Inspera Originality.
How is Inspera Originality Different From Other Solutions?
We differentiate by offering a multilayered analysis, including multilingual and translation similarity checking and AI text detection. Crucially, our view is that you decide which of these is right in your context, not imposing how you detect academic misconduct but enabling you to use the right tools to make the right decisions.
But our commitment goes beyond just advanced analysis. We emphasize robust institutional data management, granting institutions control and customization over their data and originality settings based on your academic integrity policies.
Yet, we believe the true essence of academic integrity is building trust. It’s not merely about surveillance but cultivating an environment where students and educators engage and efforts are celebrated. It’s about ensuring that the sanctity of learning is preserved, originality is affirmed, and false positives are kept to a minimum.
The Truth: Similarity Detection Needs Academics
Although we pride ourselves on our technological advancements, we’re mindful of their inherent limitations. No solution can promise absolute accuracy in textual analysis. Yet, this truth doesn’t diminish the significance that original solutions offer. Research has highlighted their indispensability in academic contexts. On the other hand, we don’t propose a generic solution. Our vision embraces a tailored strategy, providing institutions with the autonomy to shape their originality verification processes that cultivate a culture that cherishes originality.
The Future of Originality Detection
As we navigate this transformative journey, we’re fueled by the potential to redefine the paradigms of originality verification. The time is now for innovative and holistic solutions, and we’re committed to leading the work towards ensuring originality and upholding academic integrity in the world of AI.
Lastly, we’ve initiated our Evaluation Program, available to institutions around the globe where we can gather insight from users during a trial period. This Evaluation Program stands as a testament to our dedication to innovation, cooperation, and openness. We invite institutions to explore Inspera Originality contrast it against their existing systems, and assess its potential to improve how institutions uphold academic integrity and ensure originality in assessments and assignments.
You can now register your interest for the Inspera Originality trial and Evaluation Program.
Written by Besart Kunushevci
October 19, 2023
