Originality Detection

Software
Safe Assign
by Blackboard

M. M. Motshegwe
Instructional Designer
Educational Technology Unit
Centre for Academic Development

Office: 247/117
Tel: (267) 355 2922
motshegwem@mopipi.ub.bw
 CAD
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY UNIT
247
Objectives

• Be aware of a plagiarism
software used in UB and its
capabilities to promote
academic honesty

• Use the Safeassign software to

find out unoriginal content in
submitted assignments and
make corrections.
• Interpret Safeassign scores
M. M. Motshegwe
Instructional Designer Office No. 238/205
Tel: 355 2922
 CAD
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY UNIT
247
Introduction

 Plagiarism is a catastrophe
that has hit the education
world
 Internet – student copy and
paste material on to their
assignments or reports and
submit it as their original work
for grading. www.google.com

M. M. Motshegwe
Instructional Designer Office No. 238/205
Tel: 355 2922
 CAD
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY UNIT
247

Activity 1: Videos on Plagiarism

Let us watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNg94ebLGzY

M. M. Motshegwe
Instructional Designer Office No. 238/205
Tel: 355 2922
 CAD
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY UNIT
247

The following are considered

plagiarism
• Turning in someone else's work as your own
• Copying words or ideas from someone else without giving credit
• Failing to put a quotation in quotation marks
• Giving incorrect information about the source of a quotation
• Changing words but copying the sentence structure of a source
without giving credit
• Copying so many words or ideas from a source that it makes up the
majority of your work, whether you give credit or not

Source: http://www.plagiarism.org/plagiarism-101/what-is-plagiarism/

M. M. Motshegwe
Instructional Designer Office No. 238/205
Tel: 355 2922
 CAD
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY UNIT
247

What is SafeAssign?
• A plagiarism prevention service
offered by Blackboard to its
clients
• Compares submitted assignments
against a set of academic papers
to identify areas of overlap
between the submitted
assignment and existing works.
• It is effective as both a deterrent
and an educational tool.

M. M. Motshegwe
Instructional Designer Office No. 238/205
Tel: 355 2922
 CAD
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY UNIT
247
Activity: How to Submit a
SafeAssignment
1.Select the Content Area from the Course Menu that holds the Assignment. For
example, the Course Documents or Assignments area
2.Click the name of the Assignment. The Upload Assignment page appears
3.Complete the Submission field if necessary
4.Click Browse for Local File and select a file to attach
5.Enter a Name of link to file or leave the field blank and the name of the file becomes the
link
6.Click Attach File
7.Complete the Comments field if necessary
8.Click Submit when the page is complete
9.You will see a green line stating the assignment is complete and you can see your
submission history - always make sure you see that. If not, re-submit it, clear cache if
necessary or try another browser.

M. M. Motshegwe
Instructional Designer Office No. 238/205
Tel: 355 2922
 CAD
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY UNIT
247
Viewing a SafeAssignment
Report

There are 2 ways to view a

SafeAssign report:

o Go to your Grades for the

course and then select the
Assignment.
o Go to the content area in the
course where your instructor
posted the Assignment.

M. M. Motshegwe
Instructional Designer Office No. 238/205
Tel: 355 2922
 CAD
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY UNIT
247
Viewing a SafeAssignment
1.
Report
Click on the name of the Assignment.
2. Depending on the file format, your
submission should render on the
screen.
3. On the right side, you will see the
grading and feedback area. The
SafeAssign section is in blue. If you
do not see the button to view the
Originality Report, click on the
SafeAssign title to expand the
menu. Next click on the button that
says View Originality Report.

M. M. Motshegwe
Instructional Designer Office No. 238/205
Tel: 355 2922
 CAD
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY UNIT
247
Viewing a SafeAssignment
Report
4. A new window will open with your paper and any citations that match will
be highlighted

M. M. Motshegwe
Instructional Designer Office No. 238/205
Tel: 355 2922
 CAD
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY UNIT
247

Interpreting SafeAssign Scores

• Scores below 15 percent:
– quotes and few common phrases or
– blocks of text that match other documents.
– do not require further analysis, as there is no evidence of the possibility of
plagiarism in these papers.
• Scores between 15 percent and 40 percent:
– extensive quoted or paraphrased material
– plagiarism.
– should be reviewed to determine if the matching content is properly
attributed.
• Scores over 40 percent:
– Very high probability that text in this paper was copied from other sources.
– Quoted or paraphrased text in excess
– Should be reviewed for plagiarism.

M. M. Motshegwe
Instructional Designer Office No. 238/205
Tel: 355 2922
 CAD
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY UNIT
247

Conclusion
 Plagiarism is a criminal act, it’s just like
stealing someone’s property
 Learners need to be aware of consequences
of plagiarism (or academic dishonesty)
• Damages learners’ level of critical and analytical
thinking
• At student level, plagiarized content could be punished
in the form of failing in an assignment, getting a low
grade, loss of confidence from the teacher,
• Etc.
 Lecturers should employ different ways of
preventing plagiarism, e.g. use of Safe
Assign. howtonation.com

M. M. Motshegwe
Instructional Designer Office No. 238/205
Tel: 355 2922
 CAD
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY UNIT
247

Thank You Very much for

Listening

M. M. Motshegwe
Instructional Designer Office No. 238/205
Tel: 355 2922
 CAD
EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY UNIT
247

References
Blackboard SafeAssign PowerLinks Instructor Manual, Blackboard Inc. Proprietary and Confidential, July 2007
Long Island University website; http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citation.htm; Date access 27/03/09
"internet plagiarism is a serious problem" says... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jemg2dytNjE&feature=related ; Date accessed:
19/05/09
John Combest's Thoughts on Plagiarism : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rw9S2UiMWhk&feature=related Date accessed 19/05/09

Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edition, 2001

APA Style Guide to Electronic References, 2007; http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citapa.htm date accessed: 5/18/2009
AMA Citation Style
American Medical Association Manual of Style, 9th edition http://www.liu.edu/cwis/cwp/library/workshop/citama.htm date accessed:5/18/2009
Consequences of Plagiarism: http://www.a2zessays.com/articles/ConsequencesofPlagiarism.html date accessed: 22/04/2010
Tag Archive for 'plagiarism software' ; http://blog.ithenticate.com/tag/plagiarism-software/; 15/02/2011
Oetting, K. A. Edited by Dunn, R. L. (2013) Creating a SafeAssignment. Retrived September 18, 2013 from
https://experts.missouristate.edu/display/bb9/Creating+a+SafeAssignment

M. M. Motshegwe
Instructional Designer Office No. 238/205
Tel: 355 2922