
SafeAssign is a tool used to prevent plagiarism and to create opportunities to help students identify how to properly attribute sources rather than paraphrase. SafeAssign is effective as both a deterrent and an educational tool.
SafeAssign compares submitted assignments against a set of sources to identify areas of overlap between the submitted assignment and existing works.
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SafeAssign - Frequently Asked Questions
SafeAssign is a plagiarism prevention service, offered by Blackboard. 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. Learn more .
SafeAssign can be used in two ways.
- Faculty Members 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 Assignmnent tool provided by Blackboard Learning System. The papers will then be delivered to Faculty Members through the Blackboard Learning System together with the SafeAssign Originality Reports, which details the results of the matching process.
- Faculty Members 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 Faculty Members to view a line-by-line comparison of potentially unoriginal text from submitted papers and the matching external documents.
If intructors enable student viewing, each student can view the reports for their own submitted papers.
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.
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.
Can SafeAssign process papers written in languages other than English? 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.
Who owns the intellectual property rights for each submitted paper? Blackboard does not claim any ownership rights on the content submitted to SafeAssign.
How long does it take to generate originality reports? Reports are not generated instantaneously - it usually takes from several seconds to few minutes to receive a report. During peak use (such as the end of the semester), it can sometimes take several hours.
What file formats does SafeAssign support? SafeAssign supports Word (.doc or .docx), plain text (.txt), rich text format (.rtf), .pdf, and .html formats. In addition, supported file types can be compressed to a .zip file for Direct Submit.
What is the file size limit for files submitted to SafeAssign? There is a 10 MB limit on all files submitted to SafeAssign. This applies to individual student uploads to Assignments with SafeAssign enabled as well as .zip files of multiple papers uploaded by faculty using the Direct Submit feature (in which case the .zip file must be under 10 MB). Unfortunately, this limit is set by the SafeAssign servers, which are managed by Blackboard, so it cannot be overridden.
How does the 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.
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.
Are students forced to submit papers to the Global Reference Database either by Blackboard or NIU? All papers are submitted to the Global Reference Database voluntarily, and students are free to choose not to submit their papers to this database. Faculty Members can still use the service effectively, even when students choose not to submit their papers to the Global Reference Database.
What is the SafeAssign "Synchronize this Course" option that appears in the "Direct Submit" area? The synchronize function is to deal with breaks in communication or to update a course which is based on a template or has been copied. It is a good idea for the faculty member to click on this when first using SafeAssign and to periodically update it or update if any course level issues arise. It simply synchronizes the papers in the course with the SafeAssign central database, ensuring the correct associations exist between the course and our central database.
Can students directly submit a draft assignment to check without having it deployed as a SafeAssignment via the instructor or having it be tied to the Grade Center in Blackboard? There is the option to make an assignment a draft. In this case, as mentioned above, the paper is not checked into the institutional database.
Why did SafeAssignment scores in the Grade Center get deleted after the students submitted their assignments? Make sure to enter SafeAssignment scores in the Grade Center after the students submit their assignments. Scores assigned prior to SafeAssignment submission are deleted when students submit their assignments. If paper assignments are collected together with a Blackboard SafeAssign feature, make sure to enter student grades after they have submitted their assignments electronically through SafeAssign.
It is possible to download all of the files that the students submitted to a SafeAssignment. This does not include the originality reports. Those must be viewed within Blackboard directly.
To download all of the submitted files:
- From the course with the SafeAssignment, open Course Tools in the Control Panel
- Click SafeAssign
- On the next page, choose SafeAssignments
- Move your mouse cursor over the SafeAssignment you are interested in. When the Action Link appears, click it and choose View Submissions from the menu
- Click the Download All Submissions button at the top of the page
Your browser will download a .zip folder that has all of the submissions. You can open the folder or extract the files to read the individual submissions.
If you get this error and you are logged into Blackboard, it means that the security or privacy settings of your web browser are set to not allow 3rd-party cookies. You will need to change that setting to be able to use SafeAssign.
For Internet Explorer:
- Click Tools
- Click Internet Options
- Click Privacy
- Set the setting to Low
For Firefox:
- Click Options
- Select Accept cookies from site
- Select Accept third-party cookies
- Change Keep until to they expire
For Safari:
- Click Safari
- Click Preferences
- Click Security
- Change Accept cookies to Always
If you or your students receive this error, you will need to re-synchronize your course. To do so:
- Underneath the Control Panel , expand the Course Tools menu.
- Click SafeAssign .
- On the following page, click SafeAssign Items .
- On the SafeAssign Items page, click the Synchronize this course button.
- You may briefly see a message telling you it will take a moment to synchronize. Your student(s) should now be able to access the Assignment.
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SafeAssign is a plagiarism prevention tool that allows your instructor to check the originality of a homework submission. SafeAssign automatically conducts the check by comparing your assignment against a database of other assignment submissions. SafeAssign can only process files smaller than 10MB. If your submission is larger than 10MB ...
Get Started Submit with SafeAssign Originality Report Language Support Avoid Plagiarism Accessibility SafeAssign Help for Students Instructors can use SafeAssign to check submitted assignments for originality. SafeAssign compares your submissions against multiple sources to identify areas of overlap between your work and existing publications.
Under Assignment Settings or Test Settings, select Settings to open the panel. Under SafeAssign, select Enable Originality Report. Select Check submissions for plagiarism with SafeAssign . When you enable SafeAssign for the assessment, you can also allow students to view the Originality Report.
Tests, Pools, and Surveys Track Performance Watch Videos Ultra Experience Administrator Enable the Ultra Experience Web Folders and Shared Locations Use SafeAssign in Assignments You are viewing Original Course View content Go to Ultra Course View page. Get started with SafeAssign in Blackboard Learn
Quick Start Stay in the Loop Tests and Surveys Watch Videos Ultra Experience Assignments and SafeAssign You are viewing Original Course View content Go to Ultra Course View page. Instructors can use the SafeAssign service to check submitted assignments for originality.
SafeAssign is a plagiarism prevention tool that compares submitted assignments against a set of academic papers to identify areas of overlap. Learn more today!
SafeAssign is effective as both a deterrent and an educational tool. SafeAssign compares submitted assignments against a set of sources to identify areas of overlap between the submitted assignment and existing works. Available for Blackboard Learn Get help with SafeAssign
SafeAssign doesn't check the contents of the current attempt against content from previous submissions. You can view each Originality Report next to the corresponding attempt. If a student includes more than one attachment with a test, they are listed in the Originality Report section of the SafeAssign panel.
Access the assignment. On the Upload Assignment page, review the instructions, due date, points possible, and download any files provided by your instructor. A message appears to let you know that your submission will be processed by SafeAssign. Select Write Submission to expand the area where you can type your submission.
Administrator Assignments and SafeAssign You are viewing Original Course View content Go to Ultra Course View page. Instructors can use the SafeAssign service to check submitted assignments for originality.
Enabling SafeAssign in Ultra Course View. Enable SafeAssign in the settings panel while creating an Assignment or a Test. Open Assignment Settings or Test Settings in a new or existing assessment.; Under SafeAssign, select Enable Originality Report.; Select Check submissions for plagiarism with SafeAssign.. When you enable SafeAssign for the assessment, you can also allow students to view the ...
Use SafeAssign in the Ultra Course View (Retired - Unlisted) SafeAssign SafeAssign compares submitted assignments against a set of academic papers to identify areas of overlap between the submitted assignment and existing works.
You can use SafeAssign to check for potential plagiarism in student submissions in both tests and assignments. Learn more: https://help.blackboard.com/SafeAs...
SafeAssign is a tool used in Blackboard that detects plagiarism on submitted assignments. SafeAssign produces a report and score from 0% to 100% based on amount of material plagiarized in the submission. The report shows the source of the plagiarized information and previews a comparison between the source and the submitted work.
SafeAssign is integrated into Blackboard Assignments. Navigate to any Content Area (i.e., a course menu item like Assignments, Tests, etc). Click Assessments and choose Assignment. On the Create Assignment page, expand Submission Details. Select Check submissions for plagiarism using SafeAssign. Optionally, select one or both options:
Interpreting a SafeAssign Score. Download this instructor guide to interpreting the scores. Download.
Make the Assignment Available: Check this box to make the assignment visible to students. Limit Availability: Check the boxes and use the date and time selectors to limit the availability of the dropbox. Track Number of Views: Check this box to enable statistics tracking on the item. When finished, click the Submit button to create the assignment.
Answer. Log in to Blackboard. Navigate to the course and locate the assignment. Click next to the assignment link. Click Edit from the menu. Scroll down and click Submission Details . Choose Check submissions for plagiarism using SafeAssign. Optional settings: Choose Allow students to view SafeAssign originality report for their attempts if you ...
Blackboard ® Learn's most recent updates are brimming with exciting new features and enhancements, designed to provide instructors with an even more streamlined and enriching teaching experience. Read on to learn more! 1) SafeAssign Direct Submit . Instructors have the ability to utilize Direct Submit for submitting materials to SafeAssign outside of the assessment context.
How does SafeAssign work? SafeAssign compares submitted assignments against a set of academic papers to identify areas of overlap between the submitted assignment and existing works.
Administrator Enable the Ultra Experience Web Folders and Shared Locations Use SafeAssign in Assignments You are viewing Original Course View content Go to Ultra Course View page. Get started with SafeAssign in Blackboard Learn If you've used SafeAssign before, jump right in with these instructions.
Administrator Get Started with SafeAssign Instructors can use the SafeAssign service to check submitted assignments for originality. SafeAssign compares your submitted assignments against a set of academic papers to identify areas of overlap between the submitted assignment and existing works. The SafeAssign process
Search: How does the tool work? What information does SafeAssign provide in its reports? Can students view reports? What databases does SafeAssign currently use for plagiarism checking? What is the Institutional Database? Can SafeAssign process papers written in languages other than English?
SafeAssign. SafeAssign compares submitted assignments against a set of academic papers to identify areas of overlap between the submitted assignment and existing works. SafeAssign originality reports provide detailed information about the matches found between a student's submitted paper and existing sources. Both instructors and students can ...