SafeAssign is Blackboard's plagiarism detection tool. The tool allows student work to be checked next to various databases, including Blackboard and the Internet. SafeAssign can be used by instructors in two ways:
- SafeAssignments: Setting up SafeAssignments using the assignments feature, which the students directly submit their work to. The work is analyzed by the tool, and the results for each submission are sent to the SafeAssignments page.
- DirectSubmit: Submitting students' work directly to the tool, with no student involvement. With this option, the instructor can upload or copy and paste a student document to SafeAssign. In a few moments after submission, a report will be generated for the instructor to view.
Please note that SafeAssign, like any software tool, is not 100% foolproof. Testing has revealed that there are cases where obviously plagiarized text were not caught. We receommend that SafeAssign be used as a supplemntal tool to detect plagiarism along with other methods on our
plagiarism page.
Analyzing a SafeAssign Report
Whenever you submit anything to SafeAssign, the tool generates a report for the item. The report will go over what percentage of the paper matched sources in the databases and which sources they were. The SA Report can often be confusing, so here is a breakdown of an example report:
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The first thing you will see is the Paper Information:
- Shows the file name, along with the owner (instructor) when using DirectSubmit, or the author (student/submitter) when uploading to a SafeAssignment. The Matching section will tell you what percentage of the paper matched with excerpts from sources in the database.
- Shows the folder and ID number of the paper, as well as when it was submitted.
- Shows sharing options- Print Version will redirect the user to a more printer-friendly version of the report. Direct Link will generate a link to the report, for sharing purposes.
The next section is Suspected Sources. This section shows all of the sources that matched sections of the submitted paper. If you would like to go to the source itself, click on the name or url of the source. If you would like to see where in the paper the source matched, click on the magnifying glass to the right of the source.
The last section of the report is Paper Text. This section will show you the original text that has been submitted. However, this version will highlight and number the sections of the paper believed to be plagiarized. Any section of the paper without highlighting is believed to be the student's original work.