audience-is-any | Thomas' Work Space

How to compare two MS-Word documents for plagiarism detection

2013/11/14 plagwitz 2 comments

You could start with the document properties
1. some students leave even the author and editing time in. However, author does not prove any wrong doing, a student may have borrowed a laptop, including its MS-word installation, to author a document and submit it
2. It may actually be more of an indicator of something illicit if document properties are empty.
3. Students have likely used the “Document inspector”:
  1. (1): File / (2) Info, (3) view the properties (this document looks like it had its privacy information removed), you can use (4) to view even more.
  2. to remove all privacy relevant information, like so: (5) unfold “check for issues”, (6) “inspect document””,
  3. in the window: “document inspector”, click , you will be given the option to “remove all”personal information:
4. However, removing personal information can be perfectly legitimate, unless something else was assigned. And it does not help plagiarizers cover their tracks anyway, for…
…there is the more substantial “compare” documents feature which (even though it was developed for the legal profession, as blackline) tracks what really counts: content changes.
1. Access it form the ribbon’s “review” tab:
2. point the tool to your 2 documents:
3. make your life easier by selecting on the “review” tab to view only content changes (formatting comparisons is noise for plagiarism detection):
4. You get a handy (here blurred, but still demonstrating the amount of similarity (=black), compared with changes (= blue), between the 2 documents ) overview of (from the left)
  1. list of changes
  2. view of changes in a merged document (which you can save)
  3. original document
  4. secondary (likely plagiarized) document:
  5. The feature is nice, but only moderately intelligent (see the first match, I would obviously not count that as substantially different) and best used with discretion, to make it easier for a teacher to decide how likely it is that these similarities are accidental.
  6. In this instance, even if the teacher questions are not counted, it seems obvious that only minor alterations were made to the original document and many responses, including quite lengthy sentences, are entirely the same.
  7. While this *is* an instructional use, you can find happier instructional uses of MS-Word’s reviewing/tracking changes feature here.

Categories: audience-is-teachers, e-learning, office-software, service-is-assessing, Writing Tags: comparing, FAQs, MS-Word, plagiarism, reviewing, track-changes

How to work around “Audio init failed” when recording in MyLanguageLab

2013/11/12 plagwitz Leave a comment

If you see this (or similar errors):
Try running the browser tune-up,

check for any new software versions (you can update Java, unfortunately only for your current session on this computer)
finally run the voice recording setup wizard to check for results.

Suggest you do this before entering a homework assignment, since a timer may be keeping running while you troubleshoot

Categories: audience-is-language-learning-center-temp-staff, audience-is-students, Glitches&Errors, multimedia-recording, textbooks Tags: FAQs, mygermanlab, mylanguagelab, pearson

Why not streaming audio from teacher to students in the Sanako is a poor workaround

2013/11/12 plagwitz Leave a comment

We lost streaming capabilities with upgrade to Sanako Version 7 – still investigating how we can get them back, for the workaround is not working well: Now class activities fail because of permission issues that we did not have when we still were able to stream.
Below is the result of an attempt today to play a listening comprehension activity to students for a TOEFL list mock exam with a student that has regular SANAKO permissions, but not the ones to download from this file location (would need to redo the permissions if we keep streaming).

Categories: audience-is-IT-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, Glitches&Errors Tags: image2013, sanako-study-1200

How to create screencasts of student presentations for the language learner ePortfolio in the digital audio lab

2013/11/08 plagwitz Leave a comment

Students can now easily video-record their own screens during class presentations – not only when using PowerPoint; instead students could demo a website, like their Facebook page.
Last year, we were limited to PowerPoint’s record slideshow with timing and narration feature, and either send the PPSX (small, but requires the PowerPoint viewer) or the “Save as” video (new in PowerPoint 2010; computing intensive and large file size).
Now with MS-Community Clips, screencasts are
1. minimal effort to create (keyboard shortcut WIN+ALT+R or T; save on desktop; drag/drop into Sanako homework folder)
2. and little effort to distribute:
  1. Students could have uploaded to a Moodle’ file upload assignment (default file size limit: 64MB) or Kaltura file upload assignment (not sure whether there is a size limit). This seems more suitable for assignments with screencasts recordings.
  2. In this instance
    1. Sanako collected the Homework files to the Sanako share,
    2. my langlabemailer emailed them as attachment (so far tested to allow for 25MB attachment size, the equivalent of 7-8 minute screencast, a hefty space to fill in L2! We also established: 45MB is too much… ) to the originating student and teacher, for review, grading –
  3. and – provided it passes muster as an attractive and significant piece – possibly for re-use in the student’s language learner ePortfolio.
In addition,
1. Before the presentations, the teacher easily collaborated on proof-reading the slide decks of individual students, by using the Sanako Remote control screen sharing feature.
2. During the presentation, students followed more closely – which seemed to increase their attention and comprehension -, thanks to audio and screen being shared to them from the presenter, using the Sanako’s “Model student” feature.

View a path to where you can start troubleshooting Pearson MyLanguageLab Wimba Voice Java

2013/11/06 plagwitz Leave a comment

We used to do proctored LRC chapter exams using this textbook online component, but the Wimba Voice student recording tools stopped working, although a possible solution has been proposed with the problem report. This screencast leads to an exercise where more testing (each supported browser will behave differently – this is Chrome) is possible::

Categories: audience-is-IT-staff, audience-is-language-learning-center-staff, German, Glitches&Errors, Student-Computers, textbooks Tags: image2013, java, mylanguagelab, pearson, wimba-voice

How to record your screen with MS-Community Clips

2013/11/06 plagwitz Leave a comment

During presentations, when creating demonstrations etc., it can be useful to record your screen (and your voice, if you speak into the headphone microphone). In the LRC, we have MS Community Clips pre-installed for this purpose. To start recording:
To stop recording, follow the same steps, but in step 3 choose “stop”.
Or forget about the menus and remember the keyboard shortcuts: WIN+ALT+R or T.
The video will play automatically. Click stop, menu: Save, Save your recording where you need it (e.g. Desktop).
If your teacher wants you to submit your recording, in the LRC you can drop it into the Sanako Homework window and “send” it:

Categories: assessments, audience-is-students, digital-audio-lab, documentation, e-languages, multimedia-recording, presentations, Student-Computers Tags: ms-community-clips, sanako-study-1200

How to find out whether you have access to your classroom early (e.g. for setup tasks), by using the R25 calendar

2013/10/31 plagwitz Leave a comment

Go to http://calendar.uncc.edu/, and follow these steps:
1. (1) switch to view by “locations” instead of (the default) “events”,
2. (2) select your building,
3. (3) find your classroom,
4. (4) see whether it is blocked=booked before your class (hover over the block to see by what) –
in order to browse to your classroom’s schedule – for example, you could also just (5) search for your classroom.
Sorry, unlike in the LRC calendars from MS-Exchange, here
1. no direct links to your room’s schedule;
2. no simple flexible booking, even though there seems to be a need for one-time bookings (AFAIK, I did not venture behind the screen after top menu: “Reservation request” since I do not know how to answer its question).