Copyleaks can assist instructors in detecting and preventing plagiarism. Copyleaks crawls the internet for content that is not behind paywalls. It also has an integrated AI detector that is enabled and scored separately from the plagiarism detector.
Remember that AI detection is not foolproof and may produce false positives, especially for students whose first language is not English. Use Copyleaks AI detection results as one data point and a starting point for discussion rather than definitive evidence of academic dishonesty.
On November 21, 2024, Copyleaks updated its generative AI detection algorithm and provided a , which explains how to read the reports and that the tool will increase the number of positive results. The tool provides a probability of whether a particular phrase is more likely to be AI generated or human generated. When using this tool, it is important for instructors to assess the whole of the work in the context of their discipline and other student writing samples. The AI detector flags phrases that are common in technical and professional writing.
Copyleaks is integrated into Canvas Assignments when you choose "online" as your submission type or as a separate Teacher Scan tool.
Errors when Accessing Copyleaks
Be sure to enable 鈥淎llow Third Party Cookies鈥� in your browser to use Copyleaks in Canvas (and access advanced settings for Copyleaks). See to see specific instructions for your browser settings (Safari has an extra step).
Important Information on Copyleaks Settings
Text-Entry Submissions
For Text-Entry submission types, Copyleaks will only scan the first attempt submitted by students. If you wish students to complete multiple attempts on an assignment, we do not recommend using the text entry submission type.
Removing Submissions from Copyleaks
Submissions cannot be removed from the CopyLeaks internal database once they have been added, so please make sure you are aware of if this setting is enabled.
Copied Copyleaks Assignments
Duplicated, imported, or copied assignments with Copyleaks configuration settings will NOT be copied into the new assignment. You must edit the Copyleaks settings in the new instance of the Copyleaks-enabled assignments if your prefered settings are different than the Copyleaks default settings. This applies to assignments duplicated inside a single course or copied from another course.
"Self Plagiarism" Identified by Copyleaks on Assignment Drafts vs Final Submission
When instructors choose to enable the "Scan Internal Database" tool in Advanced Settings, all student submissions are also added to the Copyleaks internal database. In cases of multiple assignment draft submissions, this can lead to the student's own work being identified as a case of plagiarism by the tool when the final version of the paper is submitted to another assignment with the "scan internal database" feature enabled. This is true within a single course and across separate courses courses.
If you wish to use Copyleaks for multiple versions of a draft, consider using one of these scenarios:
- Students submit all draft and final versions to the same Copyleaks-enabled assignment: When a student makes multiple submissions to a single Copyleaks-enabled assignment, the submissions to that single assignment will NOT be compared to previous submissions to that same assignment. For example, if a student uploads Version 1 and Version 2 of a document to the same Canvas assignment, Copyleaks will NOT scan Version 2 against Version 1.
- Students submit drafts and final versions to separate Canvas assignments: If you wish to have separate assignments for drafts and final versions, we recommend turning off the "scan internal database" tool under Advanced Settings.