Academic integrity on OpenLearning
This article is relevant for learners taking part in UNSW Transition Program Online only.
Overview
At OpenLearning, we strive to provide a platform where your teachers can create socially active and engaging courses for you to participate in. Part of this involves ensuring that academic integrity is upheld through the use of technology on the platform, so that both teachers and learners can be confident in the learning outcomes achieved.
Note: Your teachers have the ability to enable or display 'Know Your Learner' for your course.
What is 'Know Your Learner'?
'Know Your Learner' is an identity verification system on OpenLearning. It consists of multiple methods of learner identification to ensure it is the same learner progressing through the course.
Why is it needed?
Whilst using the OpenLearning platform, we expect learners to progress through their courses in an honest and authentic manner. 'Know Your Learner' is a set of features to ensure that academic integrity is upheld and that teachers can be confident in the work submitted by their learners.
How does it work?
There are several different components to the 'Know Your Learner' system, meant to determine the learner's identity.
User-agent and IP Geolocation check
Whenever you log into OpenLearning, we will create an identity session that will record the following information:
- User-agent (browser / device)
- IP Geolocation (country / state)
If you change your user-agent or location we will create a new identity session for you which will trigger a facial identity check.
Facial identity check
This is conducted the first time a learner accesses one of the TPO courses, and as soon as the learner's IP Geolocation or their device/browser changes. If a leaner’s IP Geolocation and their device/browser remain unchanged, then it’s conducted every 48 hours.
The recordings will be safely stored in OpenLearning's database and can only be accessed by the course administrator upon request.
Below is the step-by-step process you will be going through each time your facial identity needs to be verified.
Step 1 - Allow camera access
At the beginning of a new identity session, click on the Allow camera access button when the facial identity check modal appears.
Step 2 - Start video recording
Once you have allowed camera access, click the red button when you are ready to start the video recording. The video face capture will take approximately 4 seconds.
Step 3 - Get facial identity check confirmation
When your facial identity check is completed, you will see the below confirmation screen.
Keystroke check
A keystroke profile will also be created in the background of every session to record your typing behaviour. This profile will be compared within the session when you are typing (i.e. submitting a comment or post). The keystroke profile generated will consist of timings and durations of various key press events to store a baseline of your typing behaviour.
The keystroke check status of your text submissions will only be visible to the course staff. As a learner, all you need to do is type the way you normally do; the keystroke profile generated is unique to you and your circumstances.
Turnitin similarity check
Turnitin is a plagiarism detection service that promotes academic integrity and improves learner outcomes.
Separate from the 'Know Your Learner' system, your teachers will have the ability to enable Turnitin for certain learning activities within your courses, to ensure that all work submitted is original and authentic.
After you have submitted your work (whether a text piece, a file, or a comment), you may see a shield icon on that particular submission. Clicking on the shield icon will display your Turnitin similarity score percentage. In this case, a low percentage is a good thing - it means your writing bears little similarity to sources in the Turnitin database. Such information will only be visible to yourself and the course staff.
Note: There are a number of instances in which your submission will not get a Turnitin similarity score percentage, despite Turnitin having been enabled for that particular learning activity. These are:
- File type is not supported by Turnitin
- Text submitted is less than 20 words
- Text submitted is over 2 MB size limit
- Text submitted is over 800 pages limit
In each of these cases, the Turnitin stamp on your submission will show the status "Skipped".