Administrator's Guide

 

Overview

Integration Scenarios

Integration Procedure

Testing and Managing Active Integrations

How and When Are Unicheck Reports Delivered to Instructors?

"File not Found" Error

Can Instructors Edit Unicheck Reports?

Shared Libraries (Associations)

 

Overview

Unicheck is a plagiarism checker that verifies the originality of submitted texts or documents and delivers detailed similarity reports to instructors and students.

Unicheck can be integrated into Google Classroom to provide instructors and students with similarity reports for assignments submitted within the Classroom environment. Unicheck will automatically check for new submissions in selected classes, generate similarity reports, and send similarity report links to instructors via email.

Please refer to our Unicheck Report Guide for details on design and functionality of the Unicheck Report.

Note: Similarity reports sent via email are available in view mode only (i.e., instructors will be unable to modify exclusion filters, manually exclude sources or add comments). To provide instructors with an option to edit similarity reports please follow the steps described in Can Instructors Edit Unicheck Reports?

Integration Scenarios

There are two main integration scenarios:
(1) A centralized integration is created by institution’s administrator.
(2) Institution’s instructors create their individual integrations.

Please note that in order to create integrations, instructors need one-time access to the Unicheck Admin account. We do not recommend providing instructors with a permanent password to the Unicheck Admin account. It is suggested to change the Unicheck Admin password after instructors create individual integrations.

Each of these two scenarios has its own benefits, so it’s up to an institution’s administrator to decide which scenario suits them best.

Centralized Integration Workflow Features	Multiple Integrations Workflow Features
Administrator logs in at corp.unicheck.com using a Unicheck Admin account and creates one integration using a G Suite Admin account.	Instructors log in at corp.unicheck.com using credentials provided by a Unicheck Admin and create individual integrations using their institution’s Google accounts.
Administrator logs in at corp.unicheck.com using a Unicheck Admin account and manually selects classes that need to be monitored by Unicheck.	Administrator or instructor logs in at corp.unicheck.com using a Unicheck Admin account and manually selects classes that need to be monitored by Unicheck.
At corp.unicheck.com, all classes of all instructors are displayed as one list in Classes section.	At corp.unicheck.com, one integration corresponds to one instructor, and Classes section displays a list of classes for a particular instructor.
A comment with a Unicheck Report link is displayed—when instructor opens a submission in Classroom—only in those classes where the G Suite Admin account is added as a teacher.	A comment with a Unicheck Report link is displayed when instructor opens a submission in Classroom. There is no need to add the G Suite Admin account as a teacher to each class.
Unicheck system settings are the same for all instructors.	Unicheck system settings can be adjusted individually for each instructor.

 

The sequence of steps presented in the section below is generally the same for both scenarios.

Integration Procedure

To integrate Unicheck into Classroom you need a Unicheck Admin account and a Google account that has access to required classes in Classroom. 

Go to https://unicheck.com/login/education and log in to your Unicheck Admin account. Then go to Integration → Create New.   

Follow the steps below to create the integration: 

STEP 1: Click Create Integration under the Google Classroom Integration icon, then choose a name for the integration (e.g., “School D”), and click Next Step.

 

Make sure that the Google account has access to required classes in Classroom. Unicheck will not be able to access Classroom submissions that cannot be accessed using this Google account. 

STEP 2: Log in with a G Suite Admin account or instructor’s Google account and click Next Step.

Note: If integration is created using an instructor’s Google account, Unicheck will only be able to check classes in which such instructor is the owner or added as a teacher.  

Click Allow in the pop-up window to give Unicheck access to Google Classroom. 

 

STEP 3: Select the classes to be monitored by Unicheck and click Next Step.

After you have enabled the integration for specific classes or all classes (not recommended), Unicheck will automatically generate similarity reports for all new submissions within these classes.

 

Note: Unicheck does not automatically check submissions within new classes when they are added in Classroom. You need to log in to your Unicheck account and manually tick the box of any newly created class if you want it to be monitored by Unicheck.

 

STEP 4: Configure who will receive reports and when, then click Next Step.

Choose who will receive reports (multiple selection available): 

• Teachers of a class
• Class owners
• Me (Unicheck admin).
  
  

Instructors will access reports via links sent to their email addresses. Such similarity reports are available in view mode only (i.e., instructors will be unable to modify exclusion filters, manually exclude sources  or add comments). Please refer to Can Instructors Edit Unicheck Reports? to learn how to create Unicheck accounts for instructors and allow them direct access to similarity reports at corp.unicheck.com. 

Choose how to receive reports (choose one of the options):

• Send a separate email for each submission.
  
  A separate email will be sent after each submission. For example, when ten students submit their papers, recipients will receive a separate email after each submission has been made (ten emails in total).  
  
  
• Send one email for all submissions in an assignment upon a due date (recommended).
  
  One email containing reports for all submissions will be sent when assignment is due (regardless of how many submissions have been made within the assignment). Unicheck will also check late submissions and send a separate email for each late submission.
  
  
• Add a comment with Unicheck Report URL to each checked file on Google Drive.
  
  Enable this option to display a comment with a Unicheck Report link when instructor opens a submission in Classroom. The link is view-only, i.e. instructor will not be able to edit the report.
  
  

STEP 5: Review the default integration settings (only Administrator can change them). 

• Store files in original format.
  
  If the setting is ON, instructors will be able to download originally submitted files. If the setting is OFF, originally submitted documents will be unavailable, but their content (text) will still be stored and used by Unicheck for comparison with other submissions.  
  
  
• Show custom logo in Unicheck Reports.
  
  Click Upload to upload a logo to be displayed in PDF similarity reports. Recommended file formats: PNG or JPG.
  
  

• Exclude Quotes & References. 

If this option is enabled, Unicheck will search and highlight in-text citations and references (APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, Harvard).

Excluding quotes means highlighting them in the submitted document. Detected quotes will not be checked for plagiarism.

Excluding references means highlighting them in the submitted document. Detected references will not be checked for plagiarism.

• Exclude sources.
  
  This filter allows to automatically exclude matched sources based on the set parameters. The minimum value for “Words” is “8”. Sources with combined matched word count less than the set value will be excluded.
  
  
• Exclude self-plagiarism in the course.
  
  If this option is enabled, Unicheck will not highlight matches with previous submissions made by the student within the same class.
  
  

Testing and Managing Active Integrations  

Follow the steps below to test the integration:

STEP 1: Make a submission in Classroom within a class selected to be monitored by Unicheck.

You can check which classes are currently selected by clicking Classes under the integration title at corp.unicheck.com. 

STEP 2: Click Refresh  to immediately check new submissions within the classes connected via the integration.

Data is auto-synced by the system every three to six hours. Auto-sync frequency cannot be changed by users.

 

 

STEP 3: At corp.unicheck.com, go to the Library tab, check if there are folders that correspond to the names of your integration / class / assignment, and find the path to your submitted file. This will indicate that integration has been set up correctly. 

 

After your integration has been set up, you can access it under Active tab in Integration section. You can select the classes to be monitored by Unicheck by clicking Classes, change global settings by clicking Settings, or change report recipients and delivery mode by clicking Report Delivery.

Note: The time when recipients receive similarity report links to their email addresses will depend on the settings you selected during STEP 4 of the integration process (see the Integration Procedure section). If “Send one email for all submissions” option was selected, recipients will not receive email notifications before the assignment deadline.  

Click Disable to the right of an integration name if you want to disable any particular integration. Such integration will appear under Disabled tab and can be enabled at any time. Please note that when integration is re-enabled, only subsequent submissions will be checked by the system (i.e., Unicheck will not scan submissions made while integration was disabled).

 

How and When Are Unicheck Reports Delivered to Instructors?  

Links to similarity reports are automatically sent to instructors via email.

Additionally, if the Add a comment with Unicheck Report URL option is enabled, a comment with a Unicheck Report link is displayed when instructor opens a submission in Classroom (please refer to this section of Instructor's Guide for more details on this feature).

For each integration, administrator can assign one or all of the following email recipients of similarity reports:

• Teachers of a class
• Class owners
• Unicheck administrator

Administrator can select one of the two delivery options for each integration:

Option 1 — Send a separate email for each submission.

A separate email will be sent after each submission.

 

Option 2 — Send one email for all submissions in an assignment upon a due date.

One email containing reports for all submissions will be sent when assignment is due.

 

"File not Found" Error

If an email from Unicheck contains a “File not found” error message, it means that the Google account which was used to create the integration does not have permission to access the submission file, and therefore, Unicheck was unable to generate a similarity report for the submission.

Please make sure that the Google account used during STEP 2 of the integration process has access to all required Classroom files (classes).

 

There are two ways to solve the “File not found” error:

 

Option 1 

Go to admin.google.com and sign in to the Google Admin console as G Suite Administrator. Then navigate to G Suite app’s Settings for Drive and Docs, choose Sharing Settings, and enable the Link Sharing option. Anyone within your institution’s domain will have access to files with the link.   

 

Note: These changes may take up to 24 hours to propagate to all users.

 

Option 2 

Whether an integration was created by Admin or Instructor, the Google account used during STEP 2 of the integration process should be added as a teacher to all the required classes. Link sharing (Option 1) can be switched off in this case.

 

Can Instructors Edit Unicheck Reports?

An instructor does not have an option to edit a similarity report (e.g., modify exclusion filters, exclude sources manually or add comments) using the report link received via email. However, this option is available if instructor has direct access to the similarity report at corp.unicheck.com.

Below are the steps the administrator should follow to give instructors access to similarity reports generated for Google Classroom submissions:

 

STEP 1: Go to corp.unicheck.com and log in using the details of your Unicheck Admin account. Click on your account icon and select Instructor Accounts. 
 

 

Click Add + to create an account (or multiple accounts) for instructor(s) to whom you want to provide access to similarity reports.

The people you invited will receive email notifications with instructions on how to activate and access their Unicheck accounts.

 

STEP 2: Select the folders you want to share and click the Share button. Each folder represents a class created in Google Classroom.

 

STEP 3: Choose the instructor accounts you want to share the folders with and click Share. 
 

Please note that editing similarity reports will still not be allowed outside the Unicheck account (i.e., when using a report link received via email).    
The people you selected will receive email notifications. They will be able to edit similarity reports and access submission files in the shared folders when logged in to their Unicheck accounts.  

 

Shared Libraries (Associations)

Unicheck offers its users an option to share libraries between different institution accounts. This means that plagiarism search/comparison can be conducted across submissions stored in two or more associated accounts.

Associations can be useful, for example, when several branches of the same institution have separate accounts, and the institution wants to search across submissions made by students in all its branches.

Another example is an institution that has an agreement with other institutions to expand plagiarism search and share libraries on a mutually beneficial basis.

For any Association member, Unicheck does not provide access to documents stored in another Association member’s library. Unicheck only highlights matched segments in the submitted document and displays the following information related to the matched document: Institution’s Name, File ID, Submission Date.

Please contact the Unicheck Team or Account Manager to request this service.