Blackboard SafeAssign Tool

SafeAssign (SA) is the plagiarism detection software that is built into Blackboard Learn. It can be used as a deterrent to discourage plagiarism, and as an educational tool to teach students good citation practices. SafeAssign compares submitted assignments against a set of sources to identify unoriginal content in papers, and produces an Originality Report. These sources include:

• Internet
• ProQuest ABI/Inform database
• Institutional database
• Global Reference Database

The SA Originality Report identifies how much of the work has been copied from other sources. This is not an exact science. Therefore, faculty and students should use SafeAssign as a guide or a tool to make informed decisions by investigating each match to ensure that text is properly attributed.

Instructor Tutorial

A SafeAssign assignment looks like a regular assignment in Blackboard with a few exceptions. There is a section for Plagiarism Tools, which allows the instructor to setup the assignment as a SafeAssign assignment, and a report on the originality of the content is produced. One of the many benefits of SafeAssign is that it is integrated into the Assignment Tool, so that instructors do not go to another location in Blackboard to create a Safe assignment.

Instructors can use SafeAssign in the following ways:

1. Allow a class to submit assignments for which SafeAssign generates an Originality Report.
2. Allow students to submit work, view the Originality Report, and then edit their work before submitting the final copy to be graded.
3. Direct submit by the instructor without student involvement.
4. Check for plagiarism on papers.

SafeAssign DirectSubmit

DirectSubmit is the part of SafeAssign (SA) that is used for assignments submitted outside of a SafeAssignment (e.g. if you did not create a SafeAssignment, or you do not have a file, or for questionable papers that you'd like to review on a case by case basis). Note: DirectSubmit is not integrated with the Grade Center, and as such, no column is created.

Student Tutorial 

From a student perspective, a SafeAssign assignment looks like a regular assignment in Blackboard with a few exceptions. There is a release statement in the assignment, and students are given the option to check their papers without submitting to the Global Reference Database (if enabled by their instructor). In addition, students can be given the option to view their SA Originality Report so that they can edit their work before submitting for a final grade.

Interpreting the SafeAssign Originality Report 

The SafeAssign (SA) Originality Report compares submitted assignments against a set of sources to identify content that is not original in papers/manuscripts. It produces a percent score that indicates the probability percentage of text copied from another source. The report can also be made available to students. However, instructors will need to enable this option for students when setting up the assignment to make the SA Originality Report viewable.