Getting the Most out of Project Zarape
Project Zarape is designed to work with computer-generated PDFs: we’ve generally had good luck with scanned documents, but backgrounds that are dark or uneven may limit the effectiveness of our protections.
While we support Word documents, the way these files are formatted can sometimes break the protections. If possible, convert your Word docs to PDFs first, then run them through PZ!
Project Zarape works best if it’s hard for students to find a “clean” copy of your assigned reading: we’ve found that if it’s behind a paywall, that’s a huge advantage! For other readings, you can take advantage of our editing tools in the “obfuscation” tab to remove URLs, change author names, or replace just about anything else.
GenAI companies regularly tweak and modify their algorithms: make sure you keep an original copy of your documents are run them through Project Zarape each semester!
Technical Troubleshooting
If another program on your computer uses Port 5000 for internet connectivity, you may experience issues connecting to Project Zarape (we’ve noticed this issue is common with screen sharing applications.) Try disabling these programs if you run into an issue connecting to the web interface!
The .exe file name for Project Zarape currently doesn’t change when we update it: make sure to delete old versions of the co-processor when installing an update!