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Using SafeAssign - A Plagiarism Detection Tool

Create a SafeAssignment | View Student SafeAssign Reports

SafeAssign is a tool that students and instructors can use to check a document for plagiarism.  The tool provides feedback as to whether or not the text in a document is a close match with other documents on the Internet, in journal databases, and submitted to Blackboard.  This tool is intended to help students appropriately use and cite sources before submitting their final work for assessment.  This is not a foolproof system for detecting plagiarism.  Rather it is a tool to help students review their work with a critical eye.

Note:  If you have a document that you would like to submit to SafeAssign to check for plagiarism, click here for directions and more information about SafeAssign.

To create a SafeAssignment, please do the following:

  1. Log into your course site.

  2. Click the Control Panel.

  3. Click on the Content Area where you’d like the link for students to submit their papers to appear (i.e. Course Documents).

  4. On the right-hand side of the page, click the dropdown menu and select SafeAssign.  Click the Go button to the immediate right of the dropdown menu.

  5. Type a name for the SafeAssignment.

  6. Enter the number of Points Possible, if applicable.

  7. Type instructions in the text box provided, if desired.

  8. Check Yes for Available.  You can also specify how long the link to the SafeAssignment is available to students by setting the Availability Dates.

  9. For Draft, choose Yes if the document being submitted is a draft. 

    Note:  Only choose No when the document being submitted is a final product.  Otherwise, the draft will be added to the database and compared to their final product resulting in false positives.  So, if the document students are submitting is really just a draft of a work and not a final product, choose Yes for Draft.

  10. For Student Viewable, choose Yes.  This will allow students to see the results of the SafeAssign check for plagiarism.

  11. For Urgent Checking, choose Yes.  The system will generate a report for a submitted document within a few minutes.

  12. Under the section Optional Announcement, you can choose to make an announcement about the SafeAssignment you’ve created.

  13. When finished, click Submit.

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To view student submissions and their SafeAssign reports, please do the following:

  1. Log into your course site.

  2. Click the Control Panel.

  3. Click Grade Center.

  4. Click on dropdown arrow to the right of the exclamation point that appears in the assignment column for that student and choose Grade Details.

  5. Click the View Attempt button.

  6. Click the SA Report icon to view results.
    To view a sample report, click here.

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