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Draftback Replays a Google Document's Changes in Video Format!

Student plagiarism can be a problem.  The world we live in makes it easy for students to copy/paste,  using works not their own. Identifying plagiarism and addressing it is a big part of students learning to be good digital citizens. 

My last post outlined the new Originality Reports in Google Classroom, which check student submissions for plagiarism and incorrect or missing citations.    Occasionally, you will have a situation that needs a thorough investigation.  The Google Chrome extension Draftback is your superhero in this situation!  (Shout out to the Science Department, who discovered this gem!)

Can't I see a document's version history?

You may be aware that you can look at the revision history for any Google Doc or Slide.  Click File>Version History>See version history.  


You are provided a right sidebar.  You can click on any revision to review the document at that time.  Changes from the previous version are highlighted in green.  The person making changes is clearly identified.  You can also revert to an earlier version if you created a mess!




How can Draftback help?

Looking through the version history can be time-consuming and confusing if you are trying to determine if a student is turning in their own work.  Backdraft will start at the beginning of the document's creation and create a video of the document history.

Once you have added Draftback to your Chrome browser, you will note the number of revisions on a document located in the top right.

By clicking the icon above, Draftback will create a video of how the document was created. 




Draftback begins rendering the video of document creation:



The video will show you exactly how the document was crafted. Distinct copy/paste moments are immediately visible.



Draftback can also generate an easy to understand report.  Click on the top right-hand side of the video where it says document graphs and statistics.


A report, similar to the one below, will be generated:


This is also a great way to see which students participated the most in a group project!



Technical Considerations:

To use Draftback, you must have Edit rights to the document.  If you assign documents using Google Classroom and the 'Make a copy for each student' feature,  you ensure you have full privileges. 

What to do if you don't have Edit rights to the document:

Students can upload a Google Drive document to their assignment.  You may not have the proper privileges to use Draftback in this case.  You can ask the student to give you edit rights, and I believe you should be able to run Draftback and receive full edit history. 

If your Draftback report shows a big copy/paste episode during creation, students might tell you that they wrote in a separate document.  Ask them to share that document with you with edit privileges, and I believe you can run Draftback and see full edit history. 

Of course, it is your prerogative as the teacher to not accept any submission that doesn't contain a history of all the work that has been done.  

I hope Draftback helps you in the (hopefully) few instances where a more thorough investigation is needed!

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