Plagiarism Detection Using Blackboard’s SafeAssign Feature

What is SafeAssign and Why Use It?  Built-in Blackboard plagiarism detection tool – free to use!  Creates opportunities to help students identify how to properly attribute sources rather than paraphrase  Prevents intra-institutional and inter-institutional plagiarism  Effective as both a deterrent and as an educational tool

What Does SafeAssign Use?  Internet - comprehensive index of documents available for public access on the Internet  ProQuest ABI/Inform Database - over 1,100 publication titles and 2.6 million articles from '90s to present time, updated weekly  Institutional Document Archive - contains all papers submitted to SafeAssign by CWRU users  Global Reference Database - contains papers that were volunteered by students from Blackboard client institutions

Steps for Using SafeAssign 1. Make sure SafeAssign is enabled 2. Create a SafeAssignment – or –

3. Use DirectSubmit to submit content 4. View the SA Report 5. Evaluate student performance

1. Enable SafeAssign Tools  This step only needs to be performed once for each course: 1. Enter into your course 2. From the Control Panel, select “Customization” then “Tool Availability” 3. Make sure the check boxes next to “SafeAssign” and “SafeAssignment” are selected 4. Click “Submit” to save your changes

2. Create a SafeAssignment 1. 2. 3. 4.

Enter into a Content Area (e.g. Course Documents, Assignments, etc.) Click on the “Assessments” button and select “SafeAssignment” Enter in a title, description, points, and dates for the SafeAssignment Select additional options  Draft – doesn’t submit a copy to the institutional database; this prevents 100% matches from another submission  Urgent Checking – places papers higher into the SafeAssign queue

5. Click “Submit” to save the SafeAssignment

3. Use DirectSubmit 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

From the Control Panel, select “Course Tools” then “SafeAssign” Select “DirectSubmit” Click on the “Submit a Paper” button Choose a paper to upload or copy/paste the submission text Click “Submit” to send the paper to the SafeAssign queue Note – papers submitted through DirectSubmit are not connected with the Grade Center

4. View Report  If using DirectSubmit, navigate to the DirectSubmit page Control Panel >> Course Tools >> SafeAssign >> DirectSubmit

 If using SafeAssignment, navigate to one of the following: Control Panel >> Grade Center >> Needs Grading Control Panel >> Grade Center >> Full Grade Center >> Specific Student Attempt Control Panel >> Course Tools >> SafeAssign >> SafeAssignment

 Click on the SA Report icon to view the report

Report Components Matching percentage is displayed Matching sources are highlighted – Click on section to see source

Word count is also displayed

Resubmit SA Report  SA Reports can be resubmitted after removing resources 1. Click “Select Sources & Resubmit” 2. Unselect check boxes next to sources to remove 3. Click “Resubmit” to reprocess the submission

 Useful if a source is a previous work from the same student for the same assignment or if there is a reason that lengthy sections from the source appear in the paper  Submitting a paper again generates a new matching percentage

5. Evaluate Below 15% These papers typically include some quotes and common phrases or blocks of text that match other documents; typically, these do not require further analysis as there is no evidence of plagiarism

Between 15% and 40% These papers include extensive quoted or paraphrased material, or they include plagiarism; review these papers to determine if matching text is properly referenced

Above 40% These papers include quoted or paraphrased text in excess, and need to be reviewed for plagiarism

Common Errors  “You are not logged in” If you see a message about not being logged in, make sure your browser allows third-party cookies

 “This course is out of sync” Synchronize the course: Control Panel >> Course Tools >> SafeAssign >> SafeAssignments >>