instructor guide - purdue university · 2012. 11. 9. · best practice resources . plagiarism is an...

Blackboard SafeAssign

Instructor Guide Instructions for Creating and Managing Assignments

using SafeAssign Plagiarism Detection

Blackboard Learn SafeAssign Instructor Guide

For a guide for your students on SafeAssign,

please see “Blackboard SafeAssign Student Guide”

This instruction set was developed by ITaP for instructor use.

For comments, suggestions, correction, etc. please contact us at:

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

Blackboard Learn SafeAssign – Instructor Guide

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Contents What is a SafeAssign? ................................................................................................................................... 4

Comparison of SafeAssignments to Regular Assignments........................................................................ 4

SafeAssign File Types ................................................................................................................................ 4

Potential functions of SafeAssign ............................................................................................................. 4

Best Practice Resources ................................................................................................................................ 5

Best Practice Resources for Faculty .......................................................................................................... 5

Student Resources .................................................................................................................................... 5

Set-up SafeAssignments ................................................................................................................................ 6

Setup Student Draft Submissions ................................................................................................................. 9

Modify Settings on a SafeAssignment ........................................................................................................ 10

Delete Student Submission ......................................................................................................................... 10

Submit papers using the DirectSubmit feature .......................................................................................... 11

DirectSubmit Options .............................................................................................................................. 11

Submit Using DirectSubmit ..................................................................................................................... 12

.ZIP files ................................................................................................................................................... 13

View DirectSubmit SA Reports ................................................................................................................ 14

Review Submissions and Reports ............................................................................................................... 15

Review the Student’s Submission ........................................................................................................... 16

Notes on interpreting reports ................................................................................................................. 18

Understanding the Report ...................................................................................................................... 19

Mark up student papers submitted through SafeAssign ............................................................................ 20

Clear a Student’s Paper ........................................................................................................................... 21

Materials for students ................................................................................................................................. 21

Terms .......................................................................................................................................................... 21

References .................................................................................................................................................. 22

Blackboard Learn SafeAssign – Instructor Guide

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What is a SafeAssign? SafeAssign is a tool within Blackboard Learn that instructors and students can use to check papers for plagiarism. SafeAssign is based on a text matching algorithm capable of detecting exact and inexact matching between a submitted paper and source materials.

A key concept with SafeAssign is that it DOES NOT determine plagiarism. While it provides a view of matching text, it does not check that the matching text from the student’s paper has been cited correctly. For example, text in quotes may show on the SA report as a match, even though it is properly cited. Instructors can use SafeAssign as a guide, but must make the final determination of whether text is plagiarized, cited properly, or is original. Matching: SafeAssign compares submissions to a database that includes:

• Internet - comprehensive index of documents available for public access on the Internet • ProQuest ABI/Inform database with over 1,100 publication titles and about 2.6 million articles

from '90s to present time, updated weekly (exclusive access) • Purdue-specific document archive containing all papers submitted to SafeAssign by users at

Purdue • Global Reference Database containing papers that were volunteered by students from

Blackboard client institutions to help prevent cross-institutional plagiarism

By using SafeAssign and working with students, instructors can educate students about plagiarism as well as deter and detect plagiarism.

Comparison of SafeAssignments to Regular Assignments Setup and use of SafeAssign is similar to Assignments, but there are a few notable differences: SafeAssignments Assignments Plagiarism checking Yes No Accepted file types Specific (see below) Any Number of attachments allowed One Multiple Number of attempts allowed One One to unlimited (up to instructor)

SafeAssign File Types SafeAssign only accepts certain types of files, including:

• Microsoft Word: .doc and .docx • Plain text: .txt • OpenOffice Writer: .odt • Rich text: .rtf • Adobe PDF: .pdf • Web page: .htm and .html • Instructors can also submit packages of multiple files: .zip

Potential functions of SafeAssign Instructors can use SafeAssign for two primary purposes:

1. To check student papers for possible plagiarism 2. To allow students to check their own papers for potential plagiarism


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Best Practice Resources Plagiarism is an international issue which has implications for almost all instructors. As we are responsible for teaching critical thinking and academic conduct, we need to support students in appropriate research and citation methods. Purdue University provides support to faculty by providing

1. SafeAssign as a plagiarism detection tool, 2. OWL which includes lessons instructors can adapt for their classes as well as information for

students 3. Regulations which detail impact of plagiarism 4. Information for students through OWL, regulations, and the code of conduct.

Remember that SafeAssign does not determine plagiarism.

Instructors can use SafeAssign as a guide, but must make the final determination on whether text is plagiarized, cited properly, or is original.

Best Practice Resources for Faculty Preventing Plagiarism http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/3/33/ A series of lesson plans, class activities and handouts for faculty (Purdue OWL)

Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices http://wpacouncil.org/positions/WPAplagiarism.pdf Recommendations to instructors on creating a context and assignments which prevent plagiarism. This includes best practices. From WPA (Council of Writing Program Administrators, 2003)

University Regulations - Regulations Governing Student Conduct, Disciplinary Proceedings, and Appeals http://www.purdue.edu/univregs/studentconduct/regulations.html Purdue University regulations regarding plagiarism, cheating, academic integrity, etc.

Educational tips on plagiarism prevention from plagiarismdotOrg Plagiarism prevention, types of plagiarism (intentional and unintentional), and FAQs http://plagiarism.org/

Research Paper on Cultural Issues in Plagiarism “Overcoming the cultural issues associated with plagiarism for International students”

Student Resources The companion guide Blackboard SafeAssign Student Guide includes resources for students.

http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/section/3/33/

http://wpacouncil.org/positions/WPAplagiarism.pdf

http://www.purdue.edu/univregs/studentconduct/regulations.html

http://plagiarism.org/

http://www4.rgu.ac.uk/files/ACF52AC.doc


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Set-up SafeAssignments Before students can submit their papers to SafeAssign, you must set it up in Blackboard.

Considerations - Drafts: • Do you want students to be able to submit a draft so they can see and fix possible issues?

a. Each draft must be set up as a separate SafeAssignment b. If you make Draft available, you can still review and comment on the papers c. If make a SafeAssignment a draft, you will need to create another SafeAssignment for

the final version To setup a SafeAssignment:

1. Access your course 2. On the left menu, click on the Content option

3. Move to Create Assessment 4. From the drop-down menu, click on SafeAssignment

You will see the following Add SafeAssignment screen


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5. Complete the fields based on the following: Field Name Description Name Create a title for the SafeAssignment. Points Possible Enter the total possible points for the SafeAssignment. The value you input will

be shared with the Grade Center item created for this SafeAssignment. Instructions Enter instructions for the SafeAssignment. Make the assessment available

Select whether or not the students are able to see the SafeAssignment.

Track Number of Views

Checking this will give you a number indicating the number of users who have viewed this assignment posting.

Availability Dates Select the date and time ranges when students are able to interact with the SafeAssignment. You can, optionally, enter only a start or end date. Note that even if dates are added, the assignment will also have to be made available to be visible for students.

Drafts ** Use this to allow students to validate their paper without submitting it to the institutional database. This is useful as an instructional tool to help students learn to cite papers properly.

Urgent checking Sets the papers to a high priority in the queue. Papers are checked against a database managed by Blackboard and are competing with all other institutes using SafeAssign for database time.

Student viewable Use to allow students to view (or not view) the report generated when they submit their paper for analysis.

** NOTE: Each draft must be set up as a separate SafeAssignment. If you make Draft available, you can still review and comment on the papers. If you make a SafeAssignment a draft, you will need to create another SafeAssignment for the final version.

6. If you would like to have an announcement display on the course, complete the Optional Announcement fields

7. Click on Submit

An announcement will display in Student View From the Blackboard home page:


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And when opened, students will see the message:

Depending on where you have included your safe assignment, the students will be able to recognize it by its title and icon. In this example, the assignment has been added to the Course Content page.


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Setup Student Draft Submissions Use this if you would like students to be able to submit a draft so they can view their plagiarism report. To have an assignment that is actually graded, you will need to create another SafeAssignment.

NOTE: If you would like students to submit multiple drafts, each must be a new SafeAssignment.

From the SafeAssignment screen: 1. Click on the checkbox for Draft:

2. If desired, add a message:

3. Click on Submit


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Modify Settings on a SafeAssignment If you want to change any setting on a SafeAssignment, from your Content page:

1. Click on the Selection arrow for the SafeAssignment 2. Click on Edit

3. Make the desired changes 4. Click on Submit

Delete Student Submission At times you may need to remove a student paper, for example if the student submitted the wrong paper. To do this, use the Clear Attempt option.

1. Follow instructions below to “Review the Student’s Submission” and access the Grade Center and student’s paper.

2. To the far right of the student’s name, click Clear Attempt

3. Click OK to confirm the deletion


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Submit papers using the DirectSubmit feature FYI: DirectSubmit is also referred to as QuickSubmit and Direct Submit.

At times, you may want to submit a batch of papers into SafeAssign without grading them. One instance may be if you want to enter papers into the institutional SafeAssign database so future assignments are checked against them.

Papers uploaded through Direct Submit are only added to the Institutional Database - there is no option to add them to the Global Reference Database since students have to opt-in on a paper-by-paper basis. Additionally, there is no Gradebook integration with papers submitted through Direct Submit. (“SafeAssign Wiki - Confluence,” n.d., sec. Direct Submit)

Key points to remember about DirectSubmit (“SafeAssign Wiki - Confluence,” n.d., sec. Direct Submit):

• Papers submitted through DirectSubmit are NOT available through the Grade Center for grading • You can submit up to 100 papers through a single .zip file • Papers should all be under 10MB each and less than 5000 sentences

DirectSubmit Options

Shared vs. Private: Direct Submit Shared Folders are viewable by anyone with access to the Direct Submit tool through the course. Multiple Instructors and Teaching Assistants can view submissions related to a course in Shared Folders Private folders can be used to manage papers for an individual instructors. These folders follow the instructor and are available in any course where that user has Instructor level privileges. (Blackboard Inc., 2010a, p. 10)

If you upload to the Shared area rather than the Private area, then the SA Report will display details about who uploaded the paper and when it was uploaded alongside the phrase "Another user's paper" and the entire paper can be seen by following the link…. If you upload to the Private area, the SA Report will not display details about the suspected sources just "Another user's paper"; the whole paper is not available and no information about who uploaded the paper is given; only the matches are highlighted. (Personal communication, Sarah E. Hoback, 5 Dec 2011)

SA Report vs. Institutional Database options If you select

Submit as Draft If you select

Skip Plagiarism Checking If you select

neither Add to Institutional Database No Yes Yes Get SA Report Yes No Yes

Submit as Draft: A SafeAssign report will be generated however the paper will not be added to the institutional database and will not be used to check other papers.

Skip Plagiarism Checking: Adds the papers to the institutional database without checking for content copied from other sources. This is useful if an Instructor wants to upload papers from an earlier course to ensure that current students are not reusing work.


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Submit Using DirectSubmit In the Course Management menu on the far left…

1. Click on Course Tools to expand it 2. Click on SafeAssign

3. Click on DirectSubmit

The DirectSubmit screen displays:

4. Select whether the files are to be uploaded as shared or private click on the Shared or Private tab (see note above for difference)


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5. Click on the Submit a Paper button 6. Determine if you want these as drafts:

a. If you want the SA Report but do not want the papers added to the Institutional database, click on Submit as draft

b. If you want BOTH the SA Report and the papers added to the Institutional database (so future papers will be checked against them), do not click on Submit as draft

7. If you do not want the SA Report, but do want to add the papers to the Institutional database, click Skip Plagiarism Checking

8. If you have a file (including a .zip file) to upload, click Upload File and browse for the file.

9. If you have one paper and would like to copy and paste it (ex.: your file is in a different format),

select Copy/Paste Document and paste the document text in the field.

10. Click on Submit. You will receive a confirmation notice:

.ZIP files If you need help creating a .zip file, please contact ITaP:

Email: [email protected] Phone: On Campus: 44000 Off Campus: 1-765-494-4000

mailto:[email protected]


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View DirectSubmit SA Reports Because DirectSubmit papers are not available through the Grade Center, you must access them through the Course Tools option:

In the Course Management menu on the far left… 1. Click on Course Tools to expand it 2. Click on SafeAssign

3. Click on DirectSubmit

The Private DirectSubmit screen will display.

4. If you submitted using the DirectSubmit Shared folder, click on Shared

5. In the DirectSubmit screen, you have access to both the individual files and the SA Reports.


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Review Submissions and Reports 9 minute video on reviewing student papers and SA reports - http://www.palomar.edu/atrc/Training/How-to/SafeAssignment/GradingASafeAssignment/default.htm

SafeAssignments (Except DirectSubmit papers) are integrated into the Grade Center and may be accessed and graded directly from the Grade Center like other Assignments. SafeAssignments are not automatically graded; like existing manually graded Assignments they will display with a ‘!’ indicating action required by the instructor. Papers and plagiarism reports are read from the Modify Grade screen.

Field Description 1. Assignment Information

Name The title of the assignment Description The description of the assignment

2. Student’s Work Text Select this option to view the Student’s paper and any comments from the Student. File Select this option to download the Student Submission. Matching The percentage listed is the percentage of the paper that matches other sources. Please read the full

report to determine if the matching is properly attributed. SA Report Select this option to view the full Safe Assignment report. Clear Attempt Select this option to remove the submission from the database, for example, if the Student uploaded

the wrong file. 3. Modify Grade

Points Possible This will reflect the points you assigned when you created the SafeAssignment Grade Enter the number of Points you are assigning to the student for this paper

4. Feedback to Student Comments Enter any comments you would like to provide to the student File to Attach If you have downloaded the student file and added comments, marks, etc., you can save the marked

student paper then attach it here to send back to the student. The student can then access your marked up version via the Instructor’s Feedback section of the assignment.

5. Submit Cancel/Submit Save the changes or cancel without saving

http://www.palomar.edu/atrc/Training/How-to/SafeAssignment/GradingASafeAssignment/default.htm


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Review the Student’s Submission 1. In the Course Management Menu on the left, click on Grade Center to expand the options.

2. In the expanded options list on the left, click on Needs Grading

3. Click on the student name for the SafeAssignment and desired student


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The Modify Grade screen displays

4. To view student paper, you have two options: 1. Click on the icon under Text to see a text-version of the paper 2. Click on the icon under File to see the original (formatted) version of the paper

5. To view the SA report, click on the icon under SA Report


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Notes on interpreting reports The matching text must be interpreted carefully.

1. A high matching percentage may be assignment-specific. For example, if the assignment was to complete a literature review, you could expect a higher matching percentage than if you asked for a daily journal on course reflections.

2. SafeAssign does not check ALL journals. If checks the Internet and the ProQuest ABI/Inform database as well as a Purdue-specific archive and the Global Reference Database (which contains “papers that were volunteered by students from Blackboard client institutions to help prevent cross-institutional plagiarism.” (“How Does SafeAssign Work,” 2009)). A low-matching percentage does not, therefore, guarantee a lack of plagiarism. The following is an example of quoted text which SafeAssign did not catch as matching:

3. SafeAssign will show matches for common combinations of words as well as references which may have been cited. For example, see the following extract of a report:

4. If a submitted paper matches a paper within the Institutional database, you will see the matches. If the first paper was submitted using the DirectSubmit Private option and you were not the original instructor, you will see the matching percentage, but not the name of the original student – so this means that a student may have submitted his/her paper for two courses or that a second student has plagiarized the paper.


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Understanding the Report


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Mark up student papers submitted through SafeAssign SafeAssignments are integrated into the Grade Center and may be accessed and graded directly from the Grade Center like other Assignments. SafeAssignments are not automatically graded; like existing manually graded Assignments they will display with a ‘!’ indicating action required by the instructor. (Blackboard Inc., 2010b, p. 7)

Through SafeAssignment, you have access to your students’ papers in their original format (so a Word document will open up Word and then the document inside Word). You can then either print the papers and comment on them, or you can use any review features available within the software (so, with Word, you could optionally turn on the Review > Track Changes option before making comments).

NOTE: When you open the document in its original format, you are opening a copy of the paper. SafeAssign does NOT save changes you make to this document.

To make changes to a student paper: 1. Click on the icon for the file 2. Use the File > SAVE AS option to save the paper to one of your computer file spaces 3. Make comments and changes to the paper 4. Give it a unique name

5. Save it back to Blackboard for the student to see (In Section 4. Feedback to Student) a. Enter any comments in the Comments field b. Click on Browse c. Select the marked-up paper d. Click on Submit

Students can see their grade through the My Grades section and, by clicking on their Grade, see your comments, your attached marked-up paper, and the SA Report.


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Clear a Student’s Paper Under special circumstances, you may want to delete a submitted paper – this is called “clear an attempt”. You can clear the attempt through the grade center…

1. Access the assignment (follow steps under Review the Student’s Submission) 2. In section 2, click the “Clear Attempt” button

3. Click OK to confirm the deletion

Materials for students A separate guide for students is available from ITaP.

Terms SafeAssign Term Definition TurnItIn Term Direct Submit / Quick Submit

Method to quickly add papers (single or zipped) to the Institutional database. Does not provide ability to grade these papers.

Draft SafeAssignment where the instructor allows the students to submit and view their SA Report. Note that if you want to allow a student to make multiple draft submissions, each must be setup as a separate SafeAssignment.

Draft Assignments

Matching % The percentage of text in the student paper which was found to match SafeAssign resources

Similarity Index

SA Report Report which indicates matching percentage, matching text, and source of matching text.

Originality Report


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References Blackboard Inc. (2010a). Blackboard Learn 9.1: SafeAssign Instructor Guide. Blackboard Inc. Retrieved

from

https://behind.blackboard.com/s/faculty/refcenter/docs/details.Bb?DocumentID=3729&pid=10

0000&rid=-1&dt=

Blackboard Inc. (2010b). Blackboard SafeAssign Instructor Guide Version 9.1 (2010th ed.). Blackboard

Inc. Retrieved from

http://wiki.safeassign.com/download/attachments/37191694/safe_assign_building_block_instr

uctor.pdf?version=1&modificationDate=1230914483293

Council of Writing Program Administrators. (2003). Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA

Statement on Best Practices | Council of Writing Program Administrators. Council of Writing

Program Administrators. Retrieved from http://wpacouncil.org/node/9

How Does SafeAssign Work. (2009, 02).Blackboard: Behind the Blackboard. Wiki, . Retrieved October 10,

2011, from http://wiki.safeassign.com/display/SAFE/How+Does+SafeAssign+Work

SafeAssign Wiki - Confluence. (n.d.).Behind the Blackboard Knowledge. Wiki, . Retrieved November 22,

2011, from http://kb.blackboard.com/display/SAFE/Home

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