Instructor
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1. FAQ’s
a. What is SafeAssign?
SafeAssign is a plagiarism prevention service, offered by Blackboard to its Blackboard Learning System, Enterprise, Vista Enterprise, and CE Enterprise License clients. This service helps educators prevent plagiarism by detecting unoriginal content in student papers. In addition to acting as a plagiarism deterrent, it also has features designed to aid in educating students about plagiarism and the importance of proper attribution of any borrowed content.
SafeAssign is a part of the Blackboard Beyond family and is centrally hosted by Blackboard, like the rest of the Beyond products and services. Although it is a new Blackboard service, it is based on a mature and proven technology that Blackboard acquired from Sciworth Inc. (MyDropBox) and enhanced to offer even better stability, performance, and integration with other Blackboard products.
b. What training materials are available?
The following training materials are available to SafeAssign end-users:
-User manuals in online (wiki) and printable formats.
-Installation guides for administrators
-Frequently asked questions
C. What kind of technical support is offered with the product?
Matt Long (Longm@ecu.edu)
d. What databases does SafeAssign currently use for plagiarism checking?
SafeAssign currently checks all submitted papers against the following databases:
-Internet - comprehensive index of billions 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);
-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.
e. What is the Institutional Database?
The Institutional Database is the archive of papers submitted by students in your institution. Each institution's Institutional Database is stored in the central SafeAssign service and kept separate from other institution's databases. Papers are automatically added to this database upon submission and are stored in the central service to be checked against other papers submitted from your institution. The Institutional Database is completely separate from the Global Reference Database which extends across institutions and students must volunteer their papers to.
f. What is the Release Statement?
The Release Statement is text included with every SafeAssignment to inform students that their paper will be compared to other sources through SafeAssign. The specific text of your Release Statement is determined by your institution's System Administrator and is entered during configuration of the SafeAssign Building Block or PowerLink.
g. Will the tool be offered in multiple languages?
SafeAssign can generate originality reports for papers written in all alphabet-based languages with left-to-right writing. The user interface is currently only available in English.
h. How does the tool work?
SafeAssign can be used in two ways. First, instructors can set up SafeAssignments" in their courses on Blackboard and let students submit papers to complete these assignments, in a way very similar to the one provided currently by Blackboard Learning System. The papers will then be delivered to instructors through the Blackboard Learning System together with the SafeAssign Originality Reports, which details the results of the matching process. Second, instructors may upload papers directly, without student involvement through the Direct Submit feature.
What information does SafeAssign provide in its reports? A SafeAssign Originality Report highlights any blocks of text in submitted documents that match reference sources, and links back to the matching documents on the Internet or in supported content databases. SafeAssign reports also show similarity ratings for each matching sentence and allow instructors to view a line-by-line comparison of potentially unoriginal text from submitted papers and the matching external documents.
i. How does SafeAssign compare to other plagiarism services?
-Powerful, flexible, and effective plagiarism prevention algorithm
-Opt-in Global Reference Database puts the student in control of their work
-Comprehensive and interactive Originality Reports support faculty decision-making
-Tightly integrated with the Blackboard Learning System
It's included (at no additional cost).
-And more. Because it's available and at no additional cost, we encourage you to download and install SafeAssign today so you can check it out for yourself!
j. Who owns the intellectual property rights for each submitted paper?
Blackboard does not claim any ownership rights on the content submitted to SafeAssign.
k. How long does it take to generate plagiarism reports?
Reports are not generated instantaneously - it usually takes from several seconds to few minutes to receive a report.
l. What file formats does SafeAssign support?
SafeAssign supports Word (DOC). Plain text (TXT), Rich text format (RTF), PDF, and HTML formats. We anticipate supporting Office 2007 file format in the future.
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2) Technical
a. Does SafeAssign work on load-balanced/multi-server Blackboard systems?
Yes.
b. How does your Global Reference Database work?
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.
c. Are you claiming ownership on the content submitted to your Global Reference Database?
No, we are only authorized to store extra copies of student papers that were volunteered and use them for plagiarism prevention purposes.
d. What is the size of your Global Reference Database?
Our Global Reference Database is a new product, so its current size is not an indication of its future potential. We expect accelerating growth, based on rapidly increasing adoption of this new service among our clients.
e. What if a student decides to remove a paper from the Global Reference Database?
Students submit their papers to the database voluntarily and agree not to remove papers in the future.
f. Are students forced to submit papers to the Global Reference Database by your company or by institutions they are enrolled into?
All papers are submitted to the Global Reference Database voluntarily, and students are free to choose not to submit their papers to this database. Instructors can still use the service effectively, even when students choose not to submit their papers to the Global Reference Database.
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3) Instructor Manuals
Instructor Manual for Blackboard Learning System
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4) Submitting Papers
a. Overview
SafeAssignments appear in courses as a new content type and can be added to any course content area. SafeAssignments function like the existing Assignment content type with the added layer of a plagiarism detection check once papers are submitted.
b. Create a SafeAssignment
Once the SafeAssign Building Block is installed and enabled, instructors have a new content type in their course called "SafeAssign".
1. Click the "Edit View" link in the upper right corner of any content area of the course.
2. Choose "SafeAssign" from the drop down
3. Click "Go"
5)Add SafeAssignment Fields
The Add SafeAssignment page includes the following fields.
|
Field |
Description |
|
Title |
Enter a title for the SafeAssignment. |
|
Points Possible |
Enter the points possible for the SafeAssignment. This value will be shared with the Gradebook Item created for the Safe Assignment (in BbLS only - not currently a feature in CE or Vista)
|
|
Text |
Enter instructions for completing the SafeAssignment. |
|
Available |
Select whether or not the SafeAssignment should be visible to Students. |
|
Availability Dates |
Use these controls to set the date range when Students can interact with the SafeAssignment. It is possible to set only a Start date or only an End date. |
|
Drafts |
Allows Students to validate their paper without submitting it to the institutional database. Useful as an instructive tool to help Students learn how to attribute papers properly. |
|
Students Viewable |
Determines whether or not Students can see the report generated when their papers are submitted. |
|
Urgent Checking |
Sets papers to a high priority in the queue. |
|
Optional Announcement |
(Blackboard Learning System only) |
|
-Create |
Select Yes to create an Announcement about the SafeAssignment. |
|
-Subject |
Enter a subject for the Announcement. |
|
-Message |
Enter a message for the Announcement. |
a. Overview
SafeAssignments appear in courses as a new content type and can be added to any course content area. SafeAssignments function like the existing Assignment content type with the added layer of a plagiarism detection check once papers are submitted.
Please note that SafeAssignments are different from Assignments and there is no connection between the content types. It is not possible to make an existing Assignment a SafeAssignment without starting from the beginning. Like regular Assignments, however, SafeAssignments are integrated with the Gradebook in the Blackboard Learning System - Enterprise License.
6) Direct Submit Reports
a. To Access Your Direct Submit management console
For BbLS Enterprise: Go to the Control Panel for the Course
- Click "SafeAssign"
- Choose the Direct Submit tab within the SafeAssign management console.
b. To View Report
1. Once you are in your Direct Submit management console, you should see a list of every paper you directly submitted.
2. Click on the "SA Report" icon to launch the Originality Report for each.
c. Managing Direct Submits
You can store and organize the papers you have directly submitted through the Direct Submit feature the file folders to the left of the Direct Submit management console.
- Private Folders - only you can see the papers and associated reports stored in the Private Folders
- Shared Folders - anyone with access to the Control Panel>Direct Submit in the course can see the papers and associated reports that you store in the Shared Folders
To view papers that students have submitted and the associated SafeAssign Originality Reports through the Gradebook, use following these steps:
1. Go to the Control Panel for the Course.
2. Choose "Gradebook"
3. You are now in your Gradebook view and you should see all the gradeable course content in your course along the top.
4. Find the SafeAssignment you are interested in - you will see a "!" in the field for every student that has submitted a paper to this SafeAssignment.
5. Click the "!" by a particular student to see the following:
|
Text
|
Cick the icon to see an online, formatted version of the paper text. |
|
File |
Click the icon to download the actual file the student submitted. Note: you can use this feature to add comments to the paper and reupload from this page as well. |
|
Matching |
Percentage of the paper that matched with source documents |
|
SA Report |
SafeAssign Originality Report - click the icon to view the interactive report detailing the results of the matching process. |
|
Submitted |
The date and time the student submitted the paper |
|
Grade |
Enter the grade based on the possible points you alloted when you set up the SafeAssignment |
|
Comments |
Add comments to the student here. You can also upload a file with your comments that the student can download and review on their end. |
e. Student Submit Reports through Gradebook
Once you have created a SafeAssignment and made it available to students, they can submit papers to complete the assignment.
To view papers that students have submitted and the associated SafeAssign Originality Reports through the Gradebook, use following these steps:
1. Go to the Control Panel for the Course.
2. Choose "Gradebook"
3. You are now in your Gradebook view and you should see all the gradeable course content in your course along the top.
4. Find the SafeAssignment you are interested in - you will see a "!" in the field for every student that has submitted a paper to this SafeAssignment.
5. Click the "!" by a particular student to see the following:
|
Text
|
Cick the icon to see an online, formatted version of the paper text. |
|
File |
Click the icon to download the actual file the student submitted |
|
Matching |
Percentage of the paper that matched with source documents |
|
SA Report |
SafeAssign Originality Report - click the icon to view the interactive report detailing the results of the matching process. |
|
Submitted |
The date and time the student submitted the paper |
|
Grade |
Enter the grade based on the possible points you alloted when you set up the SafeAssignment |
|
Comments |
Add comments to the student here. You can also upload a file with your comments that the student can download and review on their end. |
Other Video Tutorials:
Click here to see a video of how to synchronize your course with Safe Assign
Click here to see a video of how to create a Safe Assignment
Click here to see a video of how to submit a paper from a student's view
Click here to see a video of how to use Direct Submit to submit a paper in instructor's view
Click here to see a video of how to check an assignment using Safe Assign
Click here to see a video of how to view a report including the functions of the text, file and clear attempt icons
Click here to see a video of how to print a report
Click here to see a video of how to reprocess a report
Click here to see a video of how to show the web locations of plagarisim