Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2017

Document Type

Problem/Project Report

Degree Type

MS

College

Statler College of Engineering and Mineral Resources

Department

Lane Department of Computer Science and Electrical Engineering

Committee Chair

Elaine Eschen

Committee Co-Chair

Alan Barnes

Committee Member

Afzel Noore

Abstract

We developed a software system to detect academic integrity violations within the course of Computer Science 101 taught at West Virginia University. In this course students are instructed on how to use the Microsoft Office suite of applications, including Access, Excel, PowerPoint, and Word for data analysis. Academic integrity is taken seriously at West Virginia University. The current system of checking for academic integrity violations has been effective, but there is room for improvement. The new software system for detecting academic integrity violations is user-friendly, computationally efficient, and time-saving for instructors of Computer Science 101. The underlying idea is to tag each file with a hidden user-specific identification. The software system creates unique starter files which identify the student to whom it was assigned. Unique string tokens are generated for each student and saved in a database. These tokens are then injected into the starter files in concealed locations. The tokens facilitate checking for violations at the content level, in addition to the existing file-level detection. When completed assignments are submitted by the student, the software extracts these unique string tokens to match with ones already in the database to detect violations.

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