SafeAssign tool for Blackboard - The Petroleum Institute

SafeAssign tool
for Blackboard
Prepared by PI IT Department on behalf of the e-learning
committee
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Table of Contents
Purpose & Scope ........................................................................................................................................... 3
What is SafeAssign? .................................................................................................................................. 3
When do I use SafeAssign? ....................................................................................................................... 3
SafeAssign Originality Reports .................................................................................................................. 3
How SafeAssignments Work ..................................................................................................................... 4
1.1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 4
1.2. ........................................................................................................................................................... 4
Synchronize the course with SafeAssign BEFORE creating a Safe Assignment. ...................................... 4
1.3. View SafeAssign Documents ......................................................................................................... 5
1.4. Create a Safe Assignment ............................................................................................................. 5
1.5. Grade a Safe Assignment .............................................................................................................. 6
1.6. Check a document that was not submitted through a Safe Assignment ..................................... 8
1.7. Definitions of reported percentages for checked papers. ................................................................. 9
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Purpose & Scope
Students at the Petroleum Institute are expected to comply with the university's honor
system and to cite the work of other's appropriately. Faculty benefit from tools designed to
check for possible occurrences of plagiarism.
What is SafeAssign?
Safe Assignment (SafeAssign) is a plagiarism prevention service offered by Blackboard.
This tool is designed to assist in the prevention of plagiarism in students' papers.
When do I use SafeAssign?
Blackboard supports two tools for submission of assignments that are linked to the
gradebook - Assignment and Safe Assignment. Use Assignment for submissions that do not
need to be checked for plagiarism. Use Safe Assignment for submissions that need to be
checked for plagiarism, either against other users in the course or against other users in the
course and the Internet.
SafeAssign Originality Reports
Once a paper has been processed, a report is available that details the percentage of the
submitted paper that matches existing sources. It also shows the suspected sources of each
section of the submitted paper that returns a match. Instructors can remove matching sources
from the report and process it again. This may be useful if the paper is a continuation of a
previously submitted work by the same student.
Because SafeAssign identifies all matching blocks of text, it is important to read the report
carefully and investigate whether or not the block of text is properly attributed.
SafeAssign reports are divided into three sections:
Report Information: This section lists data about the paper, such as the author, percent
Matching, and when it was submitted. This section also includes options for
downloading the report, emailing the report, or viewing a printable version. Note that
the printable version may be the most effective view of the report for those users that
rely on assistive technologies to access the Blackboard Learning System.
Suspected Sources: This section lists the sources that have text that matches the text of
the submitted paper. Users may select sources, exclude them from the review, and
process the paper again. This is useful if a source is a previous work from the same
student for the same assignment, or if there is some reason that lengthy sections of a
particular source appear in the paper. Processing the paper again will generate a new
value for the percent matching without using the excluded sources.
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Manuscript Text: This section shows the submitted paper. All matching blocks of text
are identified. Clicking a matching block of text will display information about the
original source and the probability that the block or sentence was copied from the
source.
How SafeAssignments Work
1.1. Introduction
SafeAssign is based on a unique text matching algorithm capable of detecting exact and
inexact matching between a paper and source material. SafeAssignments are compared against
several different databases, including:
• 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 1990s to present time, updated weekly (exclusive access);
• Institutional document archives containing all papers submitted to SafeAssign by users in
their respective institutions;
• Global Reference Database containing papers that were volunteered by students from
Blackboard client institutions to help prevent cross-institutional plagiarism. Blackboard’s Global
Reference Database is a separate database where students voluntarily donate copies of their
papers to help prevent plagiarism. It is separated from each institution’s internal database,
where all papers are stored by each corresponding institution, and students are free to select
the option to check their papers without submitting them to the Global Reference Database.
Students submit their papers to the database voluntarily and agree not to remove papers in the
future. Submissions to the Global Reference Database are extra copies that are given
voluntarily for the purpose of helping with plagiarism prevention. Blackboard does not claim
ownership of submitted papers.
1.2. Synchronize the course with SafeAssign BEFORE creating a Safe
Assignment.
YOU MUST SYNC THE COURSE WITH SAFEASSIGN BEFORE creating a Safe Assignment.
Note that you can create the assignment without syncing the course, but IT WILL NOT CHECK
THE ASSIGNMENT against the INTERNET. If the course is not synchronized the assignment will
only be compared to other papers already submitted for this assignment.
To sync the course go to the Control Panel > SafeAssign > Synchronize this Course.
From now on, all SafeAssign papers will be checked with information available through the
Internet.
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1.3. View SafeAssign Documents
You can view the SafeAssign documents two ways
1. Through the Gradebook (refer to "Grade a Safe Assignment" that follows)
2. Through the SafeAssign Link in the Control Panel (refer to "Check a document that was not
submitted using a Safe Assignment?" that follows)
1.4. Create a Safe Assignment
To create an assignment using SafeAssign follow these steps
1. Once in your course, click Control Panel
2. Select a content area, for example Assignments
3. In the drop down box to the right, select SafeAssign, then Go
4. Enter the criteria for the assignment
5. If you want students to be able to view the report set Student Viewable to 'Yes'. Leave
Urgent Checking set to 'No'.
6. You can also add an additional announcement for the assignment which will show up in
the Announcement section of the course.
7. Submit
The assignment is now available for students to complete. The assignment is also
entered in the gradebook for you to view/score student submissions.
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1.5. Grade a Safe Assignment
Each time a student submits a Safe Assignment, a report is generated indicating the
SafeAssign score. It takes a few minutes for the reports to generate after an assignment is
uploaded; it is not instantaneous. Once the report is available, you will see a "green check
mark" in the Report section of the Gradebook view of the Safe Assignment. Select this check
mark and you will get the report about the assignment.
1. Once in your course, click Control Panel
2. Click on Gradebook
3. Select the item to be graded by clicking on the "!" then click the View button
4. To view the Detailed Report, click on the Green Check Mark in Section 2.
5. Manually enter the grade in Section 3.
6. If desired, enter comments or files for the student in Section 4
7. Submit.
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Please read "Definition of the Percentages" at the end of this document for an explanation of
the reported number.
1.6. Check a document that was not submitted through a Safe Assignment
In some cases, you will receive a paper by email or other communication system and not
through a Safe Assignment. You can check these documents using the "Direct Submit" option
where documents can be submitted directly to SafeAssign by the instructor only, without
having the students submit them as an assignment.
1. Once in your course, click Control Panel
2. Click SafeAssign
3. Click the Direct Submit tab
4. Submit the document and wait for the report
5. View the report
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1.7. Definitions of reported percentages for checked papers.
This information was obtained from the SafeAssign Documents provided by Blackboard.
1. Sentence matching scores represent the percentage probability that two phrases have
the same meaning. This number can also be interpreted as the reciprocal to the
probability that these two phrases are similar by chance. For example, a score of 90
percent means that there is a 90 percent probability that these two phrases are the
same and a 10 percent probability that they are similar by chance and not because the
submitted paper includes content from the existing source (whether or not it is
appropriately attributed).
2. Overall score is an indicator of what percentage of the submitted paper matches
existing sources. This score is a warning indicator only and papers should be reviewed to
see if the matches are properly attributed.
3. Scores below 15 percent: These papers typical include some quotes and few common
phrases or blocks of text that match other documents. These papers typically do not
require further analysis, as there is no evidence of the possibility of plagiarism in these
papers.
4. Scores between 15 percent and 40 percent: These papers include extensive quoted or
paraphrased material or they may include plagiarism. These papers should be reviewed
to determine if the matching content is properly attributed.
5. Scores over 40 percent: There is a very high probability that text in this paper was
copied from other sources. These papers include quoted or paraphrased text in excess
and should be reviewed for plagiarism.
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