Mcopyfind is a Moodle plagiarism plugin based on WCopyfind/Copyfind which aims to provide an easy to use tool to generate similarity reports. These reports can lead to the detection of collusion.
To start developing you need a running moodle instance. If you use windows you can Download pre packaged windows moodle. With the windows version we change the opcache settings to speed up the refreshrate of our php files. Change cache settings to be able to develop more comfortably by disabling the opcache in the php.ini At the bottom of the file change the settings to the following:
# Moodle4Windows customizations
;opcache.enable=1
;Custom Development settings
opcache.validate_timestamps=on
opcache.revalidate_freq=0
Or use the instructions for a windows based git installation: Version used: Moodle 3.9.12+ (Build: 20220226) If you are using Linux use the official guide.
If you want to contribute to the Plugin development the learnMoodle Plugin developer couse is recommended, or better the newer academy course. The Sql client used was heidisql. The developer documentation is also helpful.
- Log in to your Moodle site as an admin and go to Site administration > Plugins > Install plugins.
- Upload the ZIP file with the plugin code. You should only be prompted to add extra details if your plugin type is not automatically detected.
- Check the plugin validation report and finish the installation.
The plugin can be also installed by putting the contents of this directory to
{your/moodle/dirroot}/plagiarism/mcopyfind
Afterwards, log in to your Moodle site as an admin and go to Site administration > Notifications to complete the installation.
Alternatively, you can run
$ php admin/cli/upgrade.php
to complete the installation from the command line.
To enable it the settings have to be saved once.
The Pugin only adds two buttons at this point in the view all submissions grading view.
The preset button to change presets and the compare all button.
The compare all button starts comparing all assignments but only the submissions of students who opted in.
In this Plugin there are four presets the recommended setting, the absolute matching, minorEdits, and pdfheaderfooter. The minor edits has a lower threshold in matching accuracy and generally reaches a higher similarity score. An option was added to exclude header and footer margins in pdf files. This reduction of scanned area of the pdf can result in more accurate matchings as the reoccurring headers and footers are not added to the similarity score. If there are no headers or footers this setting is discouraged. The recommended presets are based on copyfinds recommendations detailed here. For now custom settings are not possible.
Students need to consent when they upload their assignment as the default is opt out.
In the load_document class a testcase is prepared to use the php version without a moodle environment. Possibibly some path issues arise using it located outside of the moodle directory structure. They would need to be adjusted in the constructor of the class generate_report. The testcase is commented out at the bottom of the class load_document.
2022 Johannes Wanner johannes.wanner@web.de
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see https://www.gnu.org/licenses/.