Overview

Integration Procedure

Configuring Default Assignment Settings

Changing Teacher Permissions

Updating Unicheck Plugin to the Latest Version

Testing the Integration

Managing Error Files

Enabling Support for RAR Archives (optional)

 

Overview

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

Unicheck plugin can be integrated into Moodle LMS and used by instructors in the following activities: Moodle Assignment, Moodle Forum, and Moodle Workshop. After a student submits an assignment, instructor receives a comprehensive similarity report, which becomes available within a few minutes.

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

 

Integration Procedure

STEP 1: Download Unicheck plugin.

• Go to Unicheck plugin page or search for Unicheck plugin on the Moodle plugins page.
  
• Click Download and save the ZIP file (Unicheck plugin) locally on your computer. Please note the path to the saved file.

STEP 2: Install Unicheck plugin. 

• Ensure that Enable plagiarism plugins option is checked in Site administration → Advanced features. This will allow administrators to configure plagiarism plugins (if installed).
  

 

 

• Log in to Moodle LMS as administrator, go to Site Administration → Plugins, then click Install plugins.
  

 

• Click Choose a file, select the ZIP file saved on your computer, then click Install plugin from the ZIP file.
  

 

• Once you see the "Validation successful” message, click Next and then click Upgrade Moodle database now to finish the installation.
  

If you encounter any problems at this stage, please contact your Unicheck account manager.

• Once you see the Success message, click Continue.
  
  

STEP 3: Configure integration settings.

Navigate to Unicheck plugin settings page via Site administration → Plugins → Plagiarism → Unicheck plagiarism plugin or by typing ‘Unicheck’ into the search box on the Site administration page and clicking the Unicheck plugin link that appears in the search results.

 

• Enable Unicheck Plagiarism Service
  Enable Unicheck plugin in Moodle LMS.
  
  
• Unicheck API region
  Select the appropriate region for your account (the two available options are United States and Europe).
  After saving the settings it is recommended to click the Debugging tab and check if the settings are correct. If the Unicheck API region setting is invalid, please try selecting a different region.

Correct Region Selected

Incorrect Region Selected

 

• Client ID / API Secret
  Go to corp.unicheck.com and log in using the details of your Unicheck Admin account, then navigate to Integration → API Integration.
  
  Copy and paste API Key into Client ID field in Moodle.
  Copy and paste API Secret into API Secret field in Moodle.
  
  

Note: Click Create New App to create an additional pair of keys to integrate Unicheck plugin into a different LMS site.

• Familiarize students about Unicheck Plagiarism Service
  Update the default message if necessary. The message will be displayed to all students on the file upload page.
  
  
• Enable Unicheck in Assignment activity
  Enable Unicheck settings in Moodle Assignment activity.
  
  
• Enable Unicheck in Forum activity
  Enable Unicheck settings in Moodle Forum activity.
  
  
• Enable Unicheck in Workshop activity
  Enable Unicheck settings in Moodle Workshop activity.
  
  
• Enable API logging
  Enable advanced logging. LMS administrator will be able to access detailed information on Unicheck plugin's operation, which would help the Unicheck team to speed up resolution of any potential issues.
  
  
• Exclude self-plagiarism
  If this option is enabled, Unicheck will not highlight matches with previous submissions made by the student within the same course.

Click Save changes to save the settings.

 

STEP 4: Configure Moodle Cron Script

Unicheck plugin recommends Moodle Cron script configured to run every minute. Please refer to Moodle documentation or contact Moodle support to learn how to configure Moodle Cron.

 

Configuring Default Assignment Settings

Navigate to Site administration → Plugins → Plagiarism → Unicheck plagiarism plugin → Unicheck Defaults tab or type 'Unicheck' into the search box on the Site administration page, click the Unicheck plugin link that appears in the search results, and click the Unicheck Defaults tab.

This tab displays default settings applied to all new assignments. Instructors can change these settings for each individual assignment.

 

• Enable Unicheck Plagiarism Service
  If enabled, new submissions will be automatically checked for plagiarism.
  
  
• Check already delivered assignment submissions
  Enable this option if you want to generate similarity reports for past submissions. Within a few minutes after you click Save changes in the assignment, Unicheck will start a bulk check of all past submissions submitted for grading.
  
  
• Add submissions to institutional library
  If enabled, student submissions will be saved to institution’s Unicheck account (Unicheck Institutional Library).
   
  
• Sources for comparison
  (1) Internet: Unicheck will check submissions against Internet sources.
  (2) Library: Unicheck will check new submissions against past submissions and/or files directly uploaded to the Unicheck account by administrator.
  (3) Internet + Library: Unicheck will check submissions against Internet sources and Library sources.
  (4) External database (additional option): If your institution has connected an FTP server that stores additional text sources maintained by the institution, Unicheck will check submissions against such sources.
  
  
• Exclude sources with a match less than (%)
  Automatically exclude matched sources based on the set match percentage. For large texts like theses or dissertations, it is recommended to set the “%” value to “0” in order not to omit relevant matches. Excluded sources will not add to similarity score.
  
  
• Exclude sources with a match less than (words)
  Automatically exclude matched sources based on the set match word count. The minimum value is “8” (set a higher value to omit sources with longer matches). Excluded sources will not add to Similarity Score.
  
  
• Exclude references and citations
  If this option is enabled, Unicheck will search and highlight references and in-text citations (APA, MLA, Chicago/Turabian, Harvard). Detected references and citations will not be checked for plagiarism.
  
  
• Show similarity scores to student
  Enable this option to let students see similarity scores (for their own submissions only).
   
  
• Show similarity reports to student
  Enable this option to let students see similarity reports (for their own submissions only).
  
  
• Notify students via email
  Enable this option to let students receive email notifications once the similarity check is finished.
   
• Maximum number of files to be checked in archive
  Set a limit for the number of files processed by Unicheck in a ZIP or RAR archive. The system will pick and process only file types supported by Unicheck.
  
  Note: See Enabling Support for RAR Archives to learn how to enable submission of RAR archives.
  

 

Click Save changes to save the settings.

 

Changing Teacher Permissions

Unicheck supports Moodle’s native roles and permissions. Administrator can configure permissions for teachers and other roles using standard Moodle workflow. 

To change teacher permissions, follow the steps below:

STEP 1: Navigate to Site administration → Users → Permissions → Define roles.

STEP 2: Click the ‘cogwheel’ icon to edit teacher’s permissions.

 

STEP 3: Scroll down the page and type ‘Unicheck’ into the search box to display the list of teacher permissions for changing the Unicheck settings.

STEP 4: Untick the required boxes to prevent teachers from changing the corresponding default settings, then click Save changes.

 

Example

If you untick the box Allow change sources for comparison, teachers will be unable to change the default setting when creating a new assignment.

 

Updating Unicheck Plugin to the Latest Version

Go to Site administration → Plugins → Plugins overview and review available updates. It is recommended to check for updates at least twice a year or in case you experience technical issues.

Once the plugin is updated, make sure to select the appropriate region for your account in integration settings. The two options available in Unicheck API Region setting are United States and Europe.

After saving the settings it is recommended to click the Debugging tab and check if the settings are correct. If the Unicheck API region setting is invalid, please try selecting a different region .

Correct Region Selected

Incorrect Region Selected

 

Testing the Integration

STEP 1: Create a test course and assignment in Moodle.

• Log in as Admin or Teacher and follow the standard Moodle procedure to create a new course/assignment.
  
  
• In Submission settings drop-down list, set Require students to click the submit button option to Yes.
  
  

 

• In Unicheck plagiarism plugin drop-down list, set Enable Unicheck Plagiarism Service, Show similarity
  scores to student and Show similarity reports to student options to Yes.
  
  

STEP 2: Create a test Student account and make a test submission. 

• Follow the standard Moodle procedure to create a Student account.
  
  
• While logged in as an Admin or Teacher, add the test Student account to the test course.
  
  
• Log in to the test Student account or use Log in as feature to make a test submission (do not use Switch role to feature).

 

STEP 3: Wait several minutes and check if the Report button and the similarity score are displayed — this will indicate that integration was successful. Click Report to view the online Unicheck Report.

To see the Report button and the similarity score, please enter the submissions list view or submission grading view.

  

 

Managing Error Files

To see the list of submitted files that currently have an error status, go to Debugging tab, scroll down to Submitted Files section, and click Filter options to display the drop-down list. 

You can filter files by submission date or error message, delete or resubmit multiple files.

Enabling Support for RAR Archives (optional)

To enable submission of RAR archives, you need to install a PHP extension using command `pecl install rar`. Find more information in the following article: http://php.net/manual/en/rar.installation.php.