Using SafeAssign in Blackboard

SafeAssign is an online anti-plagiarism tool offered as part of the Blackboard Academic Suite. If you are familiar with the product Turnitin, SafeAssign will offer you the same functionality that Turnitin does. Your students will submit a text file and SafeAssign will check their work against a database containing other student papers, archived websites, periodicals, and scholarly journals. The end result will be an SA Report, which will allow you to compare the submitted paper with the potential sources for plagiarism.

Creating a SafeAssign Assignment in Blackboard

  1. Login to Blackboard and proceed to your course site
  2. Click the Control Panel link
  3. Click Assignments under the Course Documents heading
  4. Select  SafeAssignment from the Select: drop-down menu


  5. Click the Go button
  6. Fill in the appropriate information in the Assignment Title and point value fields
  7. Use the drop-down menus to select the appropriate Dates of Availability (you must do this, otherwise the assignment will not appear to your students)
  8. Enter any specific instructions for the assignment in the text field
  9. Click the Submit button
  10. A confirmation screen will appear. Click the OK button

 

Viewing Submitted Papers

To view the results of your students' submitted papers, do the following:

  1. Login to Blackboard and proceed to your course site
  2. Click the Control Panel link
  3. Click the SafeAssign link located under the Course Tools heading


  1. Click the View link located under the appropriate submitted paper to bring up the screen shown below

  2. Under the Matching column you will see the student's originality score. To view the detailed report, click the SafeAssign icon under the SA Report column. To view a paper, click on the paper icon underneath the Text tab
  3. To save a copy of a student paper to your computer hard drive, floppy disk, network drive, etc., click the paper clip icon under the File column
  4. To clear a student's submission, click the Clear Attempt button. This will allow them to submit another paper for this assignment

 

Submitting a SafeAssign Assignment as a Student

Your students will use the following steps to submit their papers:

  1. Login to Blackboard and navigate to the appropriate course
  2. Click the Assignments button
  3. Click the View/Complete link located under your SafeAssign assignment
  4. Click the Submit icon
  5. Enter the appropriate information in the Submission Title field
  6. Click the Browse... button and navigate to the location of the saved file. (SafeAssign can accept .zip, .doc, .docx, .odt, .txt. .pdf, .rtf and .html files)
  7. Select the document and click the Open button
  8. Click the Submit button
  9. You will see a preview of the paper appear. Choose to submit it or go back and select another document
  10. A digital receipt will appear, indicating the paper has been submitted

Submitting a SafeAssign Assignment as Faculty

You use the following steps to submit papers on your own:

  1. Login to Blackboard and proceed to your course site
  2. Click the Assignments button
  3. Click the View/Complete link located under your SafeAssign assignment
  4. Click the Direct Submit tab
  5. Click the Submit Papers button
  6. Under the Submission Options you can select Submit as draft.  This means that the paper you submit will not be added to the database for others to check against.  Skip Plagiarism Checking means that you will not receive a report on the originality, and the paper will simply be submitted to the database
  7. Click the Browse... button and navigate to the location of the saved file (SafeAssign will accept .zip, .doc, .docx, .odt, .txt. .pdf, .rtf and .html files)
  8. Select the document and click the Open button
  9. You can also upload a file via the Copy/Paste Document option, which will allow you to type or paste text into the Paper text field
  10. Click the Submit button
  11. You will see a preview of the paper appear. You may submit that paper or go back and select another document
  12. A digital receipt will appear, indicating the paper has been submitted

 

Viewing SafeAssign Reports

SA Reports will reveal the originality of your students' paper submissions based on the information within the extensive SafeAssign database, assisting you in determining the validity of submitted assignments. To view a SafeAssign Report, do the following:

  1. Login to Blackboard and proceed to your course site
  2. Click the Control Panel link
  3. Click the SafeAssign link located under the Course Tools heading


  4. Click the View link located under the appropriate submitted paper
  5. Under the Matching column you will see each student's originality score. To view the detailed report, click the student's SA Report

Print Report

The SA Report displays as a side-by-side version, which makes comparing a student's paper and the original source(s) easy. To print a report, click the Print Version link at the top of the window.

Viewing Sources

To view a source, click on the source link in the Suspected Sources: section. If the source is a) an Internet source or b) a paper that is part of your class, the source will open in a separate window. Other types of sources may require additional permissions before you view them.