Program to nail copycats
2004-11-01 10:48
Stellenbosch - The days are numbered for students who copy each other's assignments.
A computer studies student at the University of Stellenbosch has designed a plagiarism detection program.
McElroy Hoffmann, 21, of Springbok in the Northern Cape, who is studying BEng(computer systems), wrote the program that checks assignments for similarities.
The program was written to run on assignments written in the C programming language, but can be adapted to also check text documents.
Dr Lynette van Zijl of the computer science department said copying of assignments is a worldwide phenomenon. The program was developed to protect honest students.
Hoffmann's program consists of a pre-processor that was written specifically to check C programs. The main program is a comparison engine that traces similarities.
Van Zyij said the program could assist lecturers. As she strongly believed in free and accessible software, she would gladly make it available to interested parties.
The plagiarism detection program uses colour codes to show similarities in two documents checked against each other, clearly indicating the copied parts.
During trials, the program checked 98 C programs by first-year students and highlighted similarities within three minutes.
The program compares one assignment with every other one checked against it and calculates the percentage of similarities.
The program can also be adapted to find keywords on the internet and compare them with an assignment.
Hoffman said he started working on the program in June last year, and completed the bulk of the program this year. He said he still had to make a few minor adjustments, but the program could already be put to use.
Van Zijl said Hoffmann's system compared well with a German plagiarism detection programme, JPlag, and did the same work in the same time.
Send e-mail to agouws@dieburger.com