safe assignment

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 Plagiarism Checker Review

When it comes to academic plagiarism, teachers and students alike need to have versatile tools on their side not just to find instances of plagiarism but also to prevent it before ever turning the paper in. that’s where the safeassign plagiarism checker comes in. but does it really do the job we take a closer.

When it comes to academic plagiarism, teachers and students alike need to have versatile tools on their side not just to find instances of plagiarism but also to prevent it before ever turning the paper in. That’s where the SafeAssign plagiarism checker comes in. But does it really do the job? We take a closer look with our in-depth SafeAssign plagiarism checker review.

SafeAssign is a plagiarism detection tool owned by Blackboard, a popular LMS ( learning management system ) in many colleges and universities. Although it is an integral part of Blackboard, SafeAssign also works with the Canvas LMS and is used extensively by instructors as a part of the evaluation process.

How Does SafeAssign Plagiarism Checker Work?

When a student submits a document to SafeAssign, the plagiarism checker goes to work, analyzing other academic and online sources to determine if there is a match. Not only can it alert professors of any possible instances of plagiarism, but it can also help students properly cite and reference their sources when writing their papers.

Why Use SafeAssign’s Plagiarism Checker?

Many instructors use SafeAssign because it is tightly and conveniently integrated into their school’s LMS. This, in turn, promotes a culture of academic integrity in the classroom. In addition, students can rely on SafeAssign to help them properly cite their sources as well as improve the quality of their writing by formulating their own ideas rather than taking them from elsewhere.

Its objective feedback helps students avoid inadvertent (or purposeful) plagiarism while giving them the tools they need to write with greater confidence.

What are Some SafeAssign Features?

As with many online plagiarism checkers, SafeAssign leverages a wide range of academic journals and websites to check for a variety of forms of plagiarism. In addition, schools can create an institutional database of student-submitted papers to help instructors dissuade students from writing essays or reports for each other.

By identifying patterns in writing styles and tones, instructors can help uncover plagiarism at the source, helping to preserve academic integrity within the institution.

SafeAssign also features DirectSubmit, a method wherein instructors can check papers outside of the school’s chosen LMS. Rather than submitting papers through the LMS, which are then checked with SafeAssign, students can upload their papers directly to SafeAssign.

Instructors can also use SafeAssign beyond its plagiarism-checking features and use it for rubrics, grading, and commenting on each student’s work individually.

How Does SafeAssign’s Algorithm Work?

SafeAssign’s algorithm works by comparing the work you’ve submitted to its database of academic journals and online sources . It first extracts text and removes all formatting including headers, footers, and citations to get only the main part of the paper.

It then creates a digital fingerprint of your text using a “hash” or a type of mathematical algorithm . This is unique to your paper and is used to compare it to different sources. It then compares this digital fingerprint to content submitted by other users as well as its own database of journals and websites, looking for matching or similar text.

Finally, when the process is complete, SafeAssign creates an originality report that highlights any areas of potential plagiarism along with a percentage of similarity. It also includes a list of sources. From there, the instructor can look at the report to determine if a reference was improperly cited or if plagiarism has occurred.

How to Use SafeAssign Step-by-Step

• Log in to your school’s learning management system (Blackboard or Canvas)
• Create an assignment for the course that you want to use SafeAssign on.
• Give the assignment a title, instructions, and relevant details like how many points it’s worth and when it’s due
• Click on the “Enable SafeAssign” option which will enable plagiarism checking for that assignment
• Choose whether or not you want students to be able to view their originality reports. If you do, they’ll see the report after they submit the document which can help them improve.
• Select any other assignment settings, then save and post the assignment

Students will then submit assignments through the LMS as normal and SafeAssign will check them for plagiarism.

How to Get the Most Out of SafeAssign Plagiarism Checker

In order to get the most out of SafeAssign, it’s important to read its reports carefully. False positives are possible with any plagiarism tool, so it’s important to not only look at the percentage of matching text but also look at the highlighted text to determine if something has been plagiarized.

SafeAssist is an excellent teaching tool that can show students how to properly cite their work and improve their writing as a whole.

Troubleshooting Common Issues with SafeAssign Plagiarism Checker

As with any plagiarism checker, there is always the potential for false positives , however being that SafeAssign is a tool used primarily in academic settings there are also other common complaints with the system, namely that it gives a student a grade of 0 if an assignment is late. To help with this issue, ensure students are aware of the deadline and update SafeAssign settings to be sure that they are configured correctly.

In some cases, there may be technical issues such as incorrect grades or other technical hiccups. If these happen, it’s important to contact your school’s vendor promptly to resolve any issues that might be affecting the program’s performance .

How Does SafeAssign Compare To Originality.ai?

Both SafeAssign and Originality.ai are plagiarism detection tools, however, SafeAssign is primarily used for academia and Originality.ai is geared toward content publishers, writers, and website owners. In addition, SafeAssign only works to detect plagiarism and cannot detect AI-written content, whereas Originality.ai can detect content that has been written by ChatGPT and other AI writing programs.

How Does Originality.ai’s Algorithm Work?

With the newly released Lite model, the Originality.ai AI Checker can detect AI-written content with 98% accuracy and an under 1% false positive rate. It also allows for light AI editing (such as with Grammarly spelling or grammar suggestions). Learn more about AI detection accuracy in our guide.

Should You Use SafeAssign’s Plagiarism Checker?

Comparing SafeAssign and Originality.ai is like apples and oranges. Although both incorporate plagiarism checkers, the audience is markedly different. Although academia now has a stronger need than ever to fight back against AI-written and plagiarized content, SafeAssign can only help in one area of the multi-pronged problem.

Originality.ai checks documents for plagiarism and AI-written content. You can opt to scan for AI-generated content, plagiarism, and readability together using the Originality.ai Content Scanner . Alternatively, you can select to simply scan for plagiarism with the Plagiarism Checker .

Learn more about the exceptional performance of the Originality.ai Plagiarism Checker in our Grammarly Plagiarism Checker Review , and Copyscape Plagiarism Checker Review .

In either case, scanning content for AI, plagiarism, or both presents an excellent opportunity to promote academic integrity.

‍ Note : False positives can occur with AI detection, always review content that is flagged as AI carefully in academic settings.

Sherice Jacob

More from the blog, is the citation machine (cite machine) plagiarism checker any good.

Read our review of the Citation Machine Plagiarism Checker. Find out how effective it is at identifying instances of plagiarism from published content.

8 Popular Citation Checkers to Prevent Plagiarism

The best citation checkers and plagiarism scanners ranked, plus review the pros and cons of popular citation and plagiarism tools.

Check My Paper for Plagiarism — Tips for Identifying Plagiarism in Papers

Learn how to spot potential instances of plagiarism by reviewing content and using tools like Originality.ai for accuracy and convenience.

AI Content Detector & Plagiarism Checker for Marketers and Writers

Use our leading tools to ensure you can hit publish with integrity.

AI & Plagiarism Detector for Serious Content Publishers

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• Teaching and Learning with Blackboard
• Assessment Tools

SafeAssign is a plagiarism prevention tool that detects unoriginal content in students' papers by identifying areas of overlap between submitted assignments and existing works. SafeAssign can also be used to help students identify how to properly attribute sources rather than paraphrase without giving credit to the original source. The SafeAssign feature is effective as both a deterrent and an educational tool.

Note: Delays in SafeAssign occur throughout the semester based on high demand. Please DO NOT have students resubmit papers as this pushes them to the back of the queue. Blackboard currently reports as much as 24-36 hours or more may elapse before report results are returned.

How SafeAssign Works

Enabling safeassign.

• SafeAssign Assessment Reports

Interpreting SafeAssign Scores

The SafeAssign feature is based on a unique text matching algorithm capable of detecting both exact and inexact matches between a submitted paper and a particular source material. Assignments submitted to the SafeAssign database are compared with several different databases, including the following:

• Internet: Comprehensive index of documents available for public access on the Internet
• ProQuest ABI/Inform database: More than 1,100 publication titles and about 2.6 million articles from 1990's to present time, updated weekly (exclusive access)
• Institutional document archives: Contains all papers submitted to SafeAssign by users in their respective institutions
• Global Reference Database: Contains papers that were volunteered by students from Blackboard client institutions to help prevent cross-institutional plagiarism

Assignments accept every possible file type as an attachment to a submission. SafeAssign will only process and create Originality Reports for attachments with compatible file types. SafeAssign is only able to support file types that are convertible to plain text including the following file types: .docx; .doc; .pdf; .txt; .odt; .rtf; .html; .htm; and .zip (processing files that match any of these file types within the .zip). However, Learn Assignment's Inline Grading feature only supports the following subset of file types: .pptx; .ppt; .xlsx; .xls; .docx; .doc; and .pdf. SafeAssign will only process and create Originality Reports for attachments that match the above file types. For unsupported file types, the SafeAssign Originality Report will omit a matching score. This information is visible in the right-hand navigation bar of the new Originality Report.

These two lists of compatible file types mean that there are only certain file types that can be displayed in the Inline Grading workflow and processed by SafeAssign. Below is a Venn diagram outlining which file types support both features:

• Original Course View
• Ultra Course View
• Tutorials and Guides

Enabling SafeAssign in Original Course View

Enable the SafeAssign tool during Assignment creation and editing, under the Submission Details section.

Faculty have the option to Exclude Submissions when creating an Assignment. This option will allow faculty to create Assignments that do not include any student submissions in the Institutional or Global Reference Databases, enabling students to "check their work" against SafeAssign sources prior to submitting a final version without subsequently revised drafts being flagged as matching the previous "draft" submissions. Like other options on Assignments, this option will be point-in-time and editable after assignment creation. If the option were changed at a later date, new submissions would honor the new state of the setting.

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 .
• When you enable SafeAssign for the assessment, you can also allow students to view the Originality Report. If you allow multiple attempts, an Originality Report is generated for each attempt a student submits.
• Choose whether to exclude submissions from the institutional and Global Reference Databases.
• Close the layer. Your changes are saved!

You can enable the SafeAssign Originality Report at any time, even after students have started their submissions, but submissions are only checked when SafeAssign is enabled. Submissions received before you enable the setting aren't checked with SafeAssign.

SafeAssign Doesn't Generate a Report when Filename Has Special Characters

Please note that assignment submissions with special characters (i.e., #,:,*,space, etc.) are not evaluated by SafeAssign and will not generate a report.

It is recommended that users only include numbers, letters, hyphens, and underscores in their filenames. In cases where student users have already made a submission, change the assignment setting to allow multiple submissions and then ask them to resubmit the document after making the appropriate filename change.

• SafeAssign Originality Reports

After a paper has been processed, an Originality Report will be available that will show the percentage of text in the submitted paper that matches existing sources. It also shows the suspected sources of each section of the submitted paper that returns a match. The faculty can then delete matching sources from the report and process it again. This procedure is useful to ascertain if the paper is a continuation of a previously submitted work by the same student.

Because the SafeAssign feature identifies all matching blocks of text, it is important that the faculty reads the report carefully and determines whether or not the block of text in question is properly attributed.

Click here for more details about the Originality Report

The sentence matching scores represent the percentage probability that two phrases have the same meaning. This number can also be interpreted as the reciprocal to the probability that these two phrases are similar by chance. For example, a score of 90 percent means that there is a 90 percent probability that these two phrases are the same and a 10 percent probability that they are similar by chance and not because the submitted paper includes content from the existing source (whether or not it is appropriately attributed).

The overall score is an indicator of what percentage of the submitted paper matches existing sources. Please note that this score is a warning indicator only and it is the faculty’s responsibility to review the papers carefully to see if the matches are properly attributed.

• Scores below 15 percent: These papers typically include some quotes and few common phrases or blocks of text that match other documents. These papers typically 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: These papers include extensive quoted or paraphrased material or they may include plagiarism. These papers should be reviewed to determine if the matching content is properly attributed.
• Scores over 40 percent: There is a very high probability that text in this paper was copied from other sources. These papers include quoted or paraphrased text in excess and should be reviewed for plagiarism.

Frequently Asked Questions

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.
• How to Use SafeAssign in Assignments Original
• How to Use SafeAssign in Assignments Ultra

Quick Guides

• Using SafeAssign in Assignments
• SafeAssign Originality Report
• Using DirectSubmit Original
• Grading with SafeAssign

See Also...

• Accommodations
• Achievements
• Assignments
• Performance Dashboard
• Progress Tracking
• Retention Center
• Self and Peer Assessment
• Tests and Quizzes

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Technical Support and Student Help

815-753-8100 [email protected]

Teaching Support and Faculty Help

815-753-0595 [email protected]

eLearning & Academic Partnerships

• Blackboard Support

Blackboard SafeAssign Tool

SafeAssign (SA) is the plagiarism detection software that is built into Blackboard Learn. It can be used as a deterrent to discourage plagiarism, and as an educational tool to teach students good citation practices. SafeAssign compares submitted assignments against a set of sources to identify unoriginal content in papers, and produces an Originality Report. These sources include:

• ProQuest ABI/Inform database
• Institutional database
• Global Reference Database

The SA Originality Report identifies how much of the work has been copied from other sources. This is not an exact science. Therefore, faculty and students should use SafeAssign as a guide or a tool to make informed decisions by investigating each match to ensure that text is properly attributed.

Instructor Tutorial

A SafeAssign assignment looks like a regular assignment in Blackboard with a few exceptions. There is a section for Plagiarism Tools, which allows the instructor to setup the assignment as a SafeAssign assignment, and a report on the originality of the content is produced. One of the many benefits of SafeAssign is that it is integrated into the Assignment Tool, so that instructors do not go to another location in Blackboard to create a Safe assignment.

Instructors can use SafeAssign in the following ways:

• Allow a class to submit assignments for which SafeAssign generates an Originality Report.
• Allow students to submit work, view the Originality Report, and then edit their work before submitting the final copy to be graded.
• Direct submit by the instructor without student involvement.
• Check for plagiarism on papers.

SafeAssign DirectSubmit

DirectSubmit is the part of SafeAssign (SA) that is used for assignments submitted outside of a SafeAssignment (e.g. if you did not create a SafeAssignment, or you do not have a file, or for questionable papers that you'd like to review on a case by case basis). Note: DirectSubmit is not integrated with the Grade Center, and as such, no column is created.

Student Tutorial  

From a student perspective, a SafeAssign assignment looks like a regular assignment in Blackboard with a few exceptions. There is a release statement in the assignment, and students are given the option to check their papers without submitting to the Global Reference Database (if enabled by their instructor). In addition, students can be given the option to view their SA Originality Report so that they can edit their work before submitting for a final grade.

Interpreting the SafeAssign Originality Report  

The SafeAssign (SA) Originality Report compares submitted assignments against a set of sources to identify content that is not original in papers/manuscripts. It produces a percent score that indicates the probability percentage of text copied from another source. The report can also be made available to students. However, instructors will need to enable this option for students when setting up the assignment to make the SA Originality Report viewable.

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Checking for Plagiarism

How to check your work for plagiarism.

Your assignments must reflect your original thoughts and ideas, and you must properly cite information from sources. When you do not properly cite sources, that’s plagiarism.

Your assignment submissions will automatically be checked for plagiarism by SafeAssign, a feature in your online classroom. SafeAssign compares your submission to a database of student work and the internet and then generates an Originality Report that you and your instructor can review. This is to help you identify any information included in your assignment that you may not have properly cited.

Note: Remember that assignments based on worksheets or templates will often lead to high risk scores and text matching percentages even when the student has submitted original work. Please reach out to your instructor if you have any questions or concerns regarding this.

If you need help with citations, we’ve got your back! Check out the Understand Citations page in the University Library.

• You are required to submit only your own original work with proper citations for external sources quoted in that work.
• Your instructor will see a report for every submission.
• Copied or purchased assignments are likely to be caught, and this can result in a Code of Conduct violation, which can lead to a failing course grade, suspension, or even expulsion from the University.

Complete the following steps to check your work for plagiarism:

• Submit your assignment and then close out of the assignment.
• Open your assignment again and view the Details & Information panel.
• If the report is not ready, you will see Originality Report in progress.
• If the report is ready, select View Originality Report to view the summary, which shows how much of your work matches the work of others.

• Select Additional content under the Originality Reports section for the detailed report.

• Review the information in the detailed report, which includes sources and highlights the sections of your assignment that match content found in other sources. Use the report to make any changes necessary to ensure you have properly cited all work that is not your own. You may resubmit your assignment as many times as the setting in the online classroom allows.

University IT

• Blackboard Grading

Safe Assign (Plagiarism Checking)

Safe Assign is a plagiarism detection and prevention tool that is part of Blackboard. It compares submitted assignments to the following sources:

• Internet sources – public access sources
• ProQuest database
• Institutional document archives – any previously submitted documents from University of Rochester’s Blackboard system
• Global Reference database – any submissions made voluntarily to a global database of all Blackboard customers

Note: University of Rochester is currently not providing students the opportunity to submit to the Global Reference database.

About Safe Assign

Information for Students

Using Safe Assign in your Course

Setting up an Assignment with Safe Assign

Grading using Safe Assign

How To Create a SafeAssignment (Original, PDF)

How To Read Your Report (Original, PDF)

The University of Rochester highly recommends that instructors provide students with the option to view their reports before final submission and to exclude these initial submissions from being stored in the institutional database. Check with your Blackboard support to learn more about how to allow this.

The University of Rochester also discourages the use of the Direct Submit option. Students should be aware that their papers are being submitted to the system to be checked for plagiarism. Direct Submit bypasses this step.

Please note that once submitted, the Safe Assign Originality Report may take some time to process. Processing can take anywhere from minutes to days, depending on the volume of submissions to the central system. During busy times in the academic year (midterms and end of semester) the process is subject to take longer.

Note: Safe Assign is a Blackboard shared, hosted solution and is subject to its own maintenance periods and downtimes. University of Rochester has no control over these. When University of Rochester is made aware of any maintenance or downtimes, they will be posted in Announcements.

Note that you must first turn on the Safe Assign tools in your course before the options in the documentation become available. Tools can be turned on under Customization, Tool Availability.

About the Originality Report

The system generates an originality report that offers suggestions about possible sources of plagiarism. Please note that this is not definitive, nor comprehensive; the instructor still needs to review the submission.

Risks of False Positives:

• Does not always distinguish properly quoted material
• Cannot distinguish between common phrases and truly proprietary expressions

Risks of False Negatives:

• Limited search
• Cannot detect disguised plagiarism

Results returned in a SafeAssign Originality Report may not be identical to results returned by a consumer internet search service (e.g. Google, Bing, etc.) for any individual sentence or phrase. The results from the SafeAssign service are only meant to be a tool for use at the discretion of the teacher or instructor. Due to the size and scope of both academic subject matter and the number of resources searched by SafeAssign, the results are not meant to guarantee or otherwise indicate that plagiarism has or has not occurred. The assessment of potential plagiarism should reside in the hands of the instructor, and SafeAssign results should always be considered in the context of other resources and good judgment.

SafeAssign does not distinguish between direct quotations and text lifted from a source; students who are quoting correctly will likely have reports that indicate overlap with these sources. The reports are easy to read because these instances are easily noted.

Conversely, SafeAssign does not catch essays that include plagiarized ideas or concepts, nor can it detect uncited paraphrasing that dramatically changes the wording of an original source while maintaining that source’s organization and/or sentence structure.

The implications of originality reports are not always self-evident. Teachers need to discuss the interpretation of these reports with students and allow students an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the tool.

If you have questions about interpreting the originality report, please contact a librarian or your academic honesty office.

More on Originality Reports

FERPA and HIPAA Policy Information

FERPA considerations – According to FERPA, the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, education records that identify students without their consent may not be disclosed to third parties.

• Students should be advised to remove their name and any personal information (name, SSN, Student ID) from within the paper and title page, or the header or footer before submitting assignments to Safe Assign.
• If a student wants to voluntarily leave their name on their paper, they may do so.

Additionally, this “cloud” service is not HIPAA compliant, therefore assignments that contain patient information should not be created with Safe Assignment and students should not be asked to submit papers containing patient information.

Plagiarism Prevention Strategies

The following are tips on preventing plagiarism:

• Require multiple drafts of assignments before final submission
• Design original assignments that are hard to plagiarize
• Provide aids to comprehension of complex texts
• Provide multiple low-stakes assignments
• Provide clear guidance on preventing plagiarism

Guidelines for Use

Use SafeAssign as part of a balanced approach to encourage academic integrity and foster student success:

• by providing clear instructions and guidance for assignments
• by encouraging students to manage time and make progress prior to deadlines for submission of graded assignments
• by making other resources known to students (e.g., writing center)
• by using it as a deterrent, not as a “caught you” enforcement tool

Openly disclose the use of SafeAssign for this course on the syllabus and at the time assignments are announced, including clarifying the choices made about retention of student work (Local, or No-Retention).

For any given assignment:

• use SafeAssign for all papers;
• not submit papers arbitrarily to SafeAssign, for the purpose of reviewing originality reports for papers deemed “suspicious;”
• or consider exceptions for specific students, who may object to the retention of their work by SafeAssign, working with the University Ombudsperson to resolve any conflict

Faculty should make the final determination of originality and integrity. The originality reports, and the machine judgment that generates them, provide a set of useful resources for comparison. However, there is no substitute for human judgment and assessment prior to generating feedback for students or making a determination about honesty and integrity.

To ensure privacy, please ask students to remove identification (e.g., names and student numbers) from submissions because:

• Blackboard will automatically show student’s names to assignments when instructors are viewing, or downloading.
• Removing the identifying information from the document allows it to be preserved in the repository without affecting the student’s educational privacy.

More Information on Plagiarism Software

It’s important to note that plagiarism software has a tendency to produce “False positives”, meaning that a paper is noted as potentially plagiarized when in fact it is not. The following articles provide more insight on this matter.

False Security, from Inside Higher Ed, 2015

A Comparative Analysis of SafeAssign and Turnitit, from Inquiry, The Journal of the Virginia Community Colleges, 2014

Gauging the effectiveness of anti-plagiarism software: An empirical study of second language graduate writers, from the Journal of English for Academic Purposes, 2012

Safe Assign is currently available to courses in School of Medicine and Dentistry, School of Nursing, Eastman Institute of Oral Health, Warner School of Education, and Simon Business School. Faculty in Arts, Sciences, and Engineering should contact the Academic Honesty liaison for more information or alternative approaches.

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Amid security concerns, Tucson police to assign extra 100 officers to work on Election Day

TUCSON, Ariz. (13 News) - The Tucson Police Department will deploy 100 additional police officers on Election Day in order to make voters and poll workers feel safe.

The officers will start their shift when the polls open at 6 a.m. and it will end when all the voters are gone and the poll workers have wrapped up their business for the day, even if it extends past midnight.

It’s the result of a planning effort that has been going on for several weeks among local, state, and federal agencies.

“We have a number of plans, but the plans are in place to scale up if need be,” said Pima County Sheriff Chris Nanos.

Those plans can quickly be scaled up if threats are discovered or if things get heated on election day.

It’s possible they will because tensions are running high in this election cycle.

“We allow intelligence to drive us, this is pretty much data-driven like anything else,” Nanos said. “If we start seeing some intelligence that is concerning, those plans will step up further.”

Some of that intelligence will come from social media which is being closely monitored right now for signs that plans may be being made which could disrupt the voting process.

But now, even with the focus on social media, things appear to be quiet.

“As of right now, I can tell you there’s no immediate threat in the Tucson area,” said Lt. Cindy Mechtel, an investigator with the Tucson Police Department. “So it is something, especially now, that we’re really focused on.”

Focused on now because there have already been threats and intimidation in other parts of the country. Social media is flowing with video and audio of ballots being burned and poll workers being threatened. At least one poll worker has been assaulted.

2024 is an especially tense election cycle so TPD has spent weeks putting together a multi-layered plan of different forces in every division which will be patrolling vote centers, directing traffic, and responding to calls.

It’s designed to make voters who may be standing in long lines or election workers working late feel comfortable doing so.

“We will have a couple of layers of those types of squads that are going to be addressing things as they happen across the city,” Mechtel said. “And then we will also have large contingencies staged throughout the city so we can quickly deploy those assets.”

Deploying those assets will depend a lot on the voters or poll workers who call 911 if they feel threatened or intimidated. According to Nanos, there is nothing too small because even the smallest slight can easily and quickly escalate.

“Don’t think a call is too small to bother us,” Nanos said. “That’s not the case at all.”

Especially people standing in long lines when tensions are already high, no fear should be tolerated.

“Cause that drive-by, the conversation, the yelling, it may be benign and he leaves and never comes back,” he said. “But what if he comes back, or she comes back, what if they are armed.”

Tucson Police also want people to know the additional officers are just that – additional. Other officers will be working a regular shift, so if there is an emergency, any 911 calls will be treated with a normal response.

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Copyright 2024 13 News. All rights reserved.

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