<p>Academic integrity plays an important role in maintaining the quality and credibility of higher education. To further support teaching, learning, and assessment activities, the Digital Learning Division, Universiti Malaysia Terengganu (UMT), has developed <strong>ScholarScan</strong>, an academic similarity review system designed specifically for the Universiti Malaysia Terengganu e-Learning ecosystem.</p><p>ScholarScan is currently entering its pilot testing phase, where lecturers and students are invited to experience the system and provide valuable feedback. This pilot phase is an important step in ensuring that the platform delivers reliable performance, user-friendly functionality, and meaningful similarity analysis before its wider implementation across the university.</p><h2>Supporting Academic Integrity</h2><p>ScholarScan has been developed to assist both lecturers and students throughout the assignment submission and review process. Rather than functioning solely as a plagiarism detection tool, ScholarScan serves as an academic writing support system that encourages originality, proper citation practices, and responsible use of academic sources.</p><p>By providing detailed similarity reports, the system enables users to better understand where similarities occur within submitted assignments, allowing improvements to be made before final evaluation where appropriate.</p><h2>Integrated with UMT e-Learning Platforms</h2><p>ScholarScan is fully integrated into the Assignment activities available across UMT's Moodle-based e-Learning platforms, making it accessible without requiring additional systems or separate logins.</p><p>The pilot implementation is available on:</p><ul><li>Oceania</li><li>Oasis</li><li>Wadi</li><li>Estuary</li><li>Bayou</li></ul><p>Lecturers can enable ScholarScan directly within their course assignments, while students will automatically benefit from similarity checking during the submission process based on the assignment configuration.</p><h2>Key Features</h2><p>ScholarScan provides several features designed to improve the assignment review process:</p><ul><li>Reviews submitted assignment content for textual similarities.</li><li>Identifies potential sources containing similar content.</li><li>Encourages students to improve academic writing, citation, and referencing practices.</li><li>Assists lecturers in conducting more structured and consistent assignment evaluations.</li><li>Generates clear, easy-to-understand similarity reports that support academic review.</li></ul><p>These features aim to promote good academic practices while reducing the time required for manual similarity checking.</p><h2>Understanding Similarity Reports</h2><p>One of the most important aspects of ScholarScan is the proper interpretation of its reports.</p><p>A similarity score or AI-content indicator should <strong>not</strong> be interpreted as automatic evidence of plagiarism or academic misconduct. Similarities may arise from correctly quoted materials, commonly used technical terms, reference lists, templates, or other legitimate academic writing practices.</p><p>For this reason, ScholarScan reports should always be considered together with:</p><ul><li>The context of the assignment.</li><li>The nature of the matched content.</li><li>Appropriate referencing practices.</li><li>The lecturer's professional academic judgement.</li></ul><p>ScholarScan is intended to support academic decision making rather than replace it.</p><h2>Pilot Testing</h2><p>The current pilot testing phase is intended to evaluate several aspects of the system, including:</p><ul><li>Overall system functionality.</li><li>Accuracy of similarity detection.</li><li>User experience for lecturers and students.</li><li>Performance under real academic workloads.</li><li>Quality and usefulness of similarity reports.</li></ul><p>Feedback collected during this period will guide further improvements before ScholarScan is deployed more broadly throughout the UMT community.</p><h2>How to Access ScholarScan</h2><p>ScholarScan is available through the Assignment modules on UMT's e-Learning platforms.</p><p><strong>Access UMT e-Learning:</strong></p><p><a href="https://epembelajaran.umt.edu.my" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://epembelajaran.umt.edu.my</a></p><p>For technical support or to submit feedback during the pilot testing period, please visit:</p><p><a href="https://support.epembelajaran.umt.edu.my/ticket" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://support.epembelajaran.umt.edu.my/ticket</a></p><h2>Looking Ahead</h2><p>The development of ScholarScan reflects UMT's ongoing commitment to strengthening digital learning services and promoting academic integrity through locally developed educational technologies.</p><p>By participating in the pilot testing programme, lecturers and students play an important role in shaping the future of ScholarScan. Every suggestion, observation, and piece of feedback contributes towards building a more reliable, practical, and effective academic similarity review system for the entire UMT community.</p><p>The Digital Learning Division would like to thank all participants for their support and valuable feedback throughout this pilot phase. Together, we can continue enhancing the quality of digital learning and academic excellence at Universiti Malaysia Terengganu.</p>
