SafeAssign

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SafeAssign Plagiarism Prevention
Elizabeth Kimbell Communication
Instructor ejkimb01_at_louisville.edu
Ghanashyam (Sam) Sharma Ph.D. Fellow in Rhetoric
Compositiong0shar01_at_louisville.edu
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Introduction

• Elizabeth Kimbell
• Communication Instructor at UofL since 1999
• Online instructor since 2004
• Piloted and used SafeAssign since Summer 08
• Shyam Sharma
• Faculty in English at Tribhuvan University of
  Nepal 2001-2006
• Consultant, UofL Writing Center-2006 Assistant
  Director-2007

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Agenda

• Overview of SafeAssign
• Preventing Plagiarism through Pedagogy
• Why SafeAssign is not sufficient in itself
• Integrating Pedagogy and SafeAssign
• Using SafeAssign
• Conclusions and Questions
• Hands-On Lab

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Overview of SafeAssign
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Plagiarism Statistics

• From plagiarism.org
• In U.S. News and World Report surveys
• 80 of "high-achieving" high school students
  admit to cheating
• 75 of college students admitted cheating, and
  90 of college students didn't believe cheaters
  would be caught
• Almost 85 of college students said cheating was
  necessary to get ahead
• In a sample of 1,800 students at nine state
  universities
• 84 admitted to cheating on written assignments
• 52 had copied a few sentences from a website w/o
  citing the source

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Plagiarism Prevention Timeline

• 2004 initial efforts
• 2005-2006 negotiations with TurnItIn (failed)
• 2007 Blackboard acquires SafeAssignment
• 2008
• Spring Provost agrees to terms for deployment
• Summer training delivered to pilot group
• Fall Formal SafeAssign trainings conducted
• Where are we now? (some controversy)

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What is

• SafeAssign is a plagiarism prevention service
  integrated with the Blackboard Learning System
• It is delivered by Blackboard at no additional
  cost to the institution
• It uses an originality detection algorithm to run
  a comparison of submitted papers across a large
  collection of databases

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What does check?

• SafeAssign compares submitted papers to
• Internet
• Index of billions of documents available to
  public
• ProQuest ABI/Inform database
• Millions of articles, updated weekly, many in
  full-text
• Institutional Database
• Papers submitted by users from UofL
• Global Reference Database
• Papers that were volunteered by students at other
  institutions (on Blackboards central database)

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Integrating SafeAssign with Pedagogy
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SafeAssign is not Enough

• SafeAssign cannot replace faculty judgment
• SA report does not prove that student plagiarized
  work
• SA wont detect all forms of plagiarism
• SafeAssign can be used for creating teaching
  opportunities
• It must be used as a pedagogical tool

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What is Plagiarism?

• UofL defines plagiarism as "representing the
  words or ideas of someone else as ones own in
  any academic exercise Undergraduate Catalog
• Plagiarism should be discussed as a negative
  standard for learning essential skills
• Plagiarism is not the only form of academic
  dishonesty

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Plagiarism as a Formof Academic Dishonesty

• Acts of academic dishonest include
• Plagiarism "representing the words or ideas of
  someone else as one's own"
• Cheating getting credit by deceptive means
• Fabrication making up information
• Falsification altering information/records
• Multiple Submission using the same work to
  receive multiple instance of credit
• Complicity in any of the forms of academic
  dishonesty above
• Undergraduate Catalog

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Intentional and Unintentional Plagiarism

• INTENTIONAL
• Potluck paper
• Forgotten footnote
• Source mismatch
• Perfect crime
• Consumerism
• Ghost writing
• Self-stealing
• Labor of laziness

• UNINTENTIONAL
• Mixing up notes sources
• Common knowledge
• Incorrect citation or style
• Improper paraphrasing
• Cultural background
• Professional differences
• Misunderstood expectation

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Activity 1

• Discuss and share how you would deal with the
• following cases of (possible) plagiarism
• A student continues to use ideas from a source
  after proper citations
• A student turns in a recycled paper written for
  another class (with minor changes)
• A student has rephrased words from a source such
  that SafeAssign doesnt show lengthy blocks of
  matched text
• A student has used lecture notes without citing
  source

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Preventing Plagiarism through Pedagogy

• Syllabus
• Assignment Design
• Teaching process-based view of writing
• Teaching research skills

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Syllabus The Plagiarism Section

• Communicate your expectations about intellectual
  honesty and rigor
• Highlight intrinsic motivation (the desire to
  learn research skills), besides giving the
  regular warning against plagiarism

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Syllabus A Critical View of Plagiarism

• Plagiarism should be avoided not only because it
  is seriously penalized but also because it
  shortchanges your opportunities for academic and
  professional development. Proper use of sources
  by using appropriate academic conventions is one
  of the important standards I expect you to
  maintain and further develop in this course. If
  you have any doubts about plagiarism, consult me.

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Syllabus Integrating SafeAssign

• If you intend to use SafeAssign in your course,
  you must
• Include university language about plagiarism
  prevention from Undergraduate Catalog (section
  14)
• State how you intend to use SafeAssign,
  specifying whether you will accept alternative
  submission

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Assignment Design

• Specific
• Process-based
• Integrated
• Challenging
• Engaging

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Teaching Using Process-Based View of Research
and Writing

• Conducting preliminary research/reading
• Selecting a topic
• Preparing a working bibliography
• Drafting research questions
• Developing a working thesis (or hypothesis)
• Creating an outline
• Writing the first draft
• Revising, editing, and proofreading
• Producing the final draft
• Writing a reflection of the process

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Teaching Supporting Students with New Research
Skills

• If you are demanding more complex research
  skills than students already have,
• Either teach those new skills, or
• Encourage students to use available resources
• The Library
• Research librarians
• The Writing Center
• Tools that the University makes available
• Databases accessible through the library

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Using SafeAssign
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Modes of Use

• SafeAssign may be used in two primary ways
• Creating SafeAssignments
• Like a regular Assignment in Blackboard that
  routes student submissions through plagiarism
  service
• Direct Submit
• Faculty may directly upload papers

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Demonstration

• Easier to show in actual system

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Creating a SafeAssignment

• From Control Panel, enter a content area
  (typically Assignments)

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Creating a SafeAssignment

• Select SafeAssign from the drop-down menu in
  toolbar, then click Go

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Creating a SafeAssignment

• Enter Information - Draft mode example

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Creating a SafeAssignment

• Optional Announcement - Draft mode example
• Click Submit at bottom of page

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Creating a SafeAssignment

• Enter Information Normal mode example

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Student View of SafeAssignment

• From Assignments, choose View/Complete

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Student View of SafeAssignment

• Draft mode example

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Instructor View of SafeAssignments

• Instructors may view SafeAssignment matching
  reports in two ways
• From SafeAssign in Control Panel
• From Grade Center in Control panel

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Instructor View of SafeAssignments

• From SafeAssign in Control Panel

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Instructor View of SafeAssignments

• From SafeAssign in Control Panel
• Choose View

If you make a Course Copy, youll need to synch
once before use.
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Instructor View of SafeAssignments

• From SafeAssign in Control Panel

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Instructor View of SafeAssignments

• From Grade Center in Control Panel

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Instructor View of SafeAssignments

• From Grade Center in Control Panel

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Instructor View of SafeAssignments

• From Grade Center in Control Panel

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Using Direct Submit

• Instructors may use Direct Submit to directly
  upload papers
• Two modes
• Shared
• Shared folders are accessible to anyone that can
  access Direct Submit for a course (other
  instructors and teaching assistants, for example)
• Private
• Private folders are only accessible by the
  instructor and may be accessed from any course in
  Blackboard in which you are designated as an
  instructor

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Using Direct Submit

• Access Direct Submit from SafeAssign in Control
  Panel

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Using Matching Report

• Paper Information

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Using Matching Report

• Suspected Sources

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Using Matching Report

• Paper Text

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Using Matching Report

• Paper Text

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Conclusions

• Be sure to add explicit statement about use of
  SafeAssign to your syllabus
• Goal is to prevent plagiarism by using SafeAssign
  in tandem with effective pedagogy
• Syllabus
• Assignment Design
• Teaching Strategies
• Faculty must still use judgment to assess
• SafeAssign report does not prove that student
  plagiarized work

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Reflections and Questions

• Share any pedagogical strategies for preventing
  plagiarism that you use in your own classes.
• Describe how you might incorporate SafeAssign and
  teaching ideas covered today into your classes.
• Any Questions for us?

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SafeAssign Plagiarism Prevention
Elizabeth Kimbell Communication
Instructor ejkimb01_at_louisville.edu
Ghanashyam (Sam) Sharma Ph.D. Fellow in Rhetoric
Compositiong0shar01_at_louisville.edu
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Catalog Statement

• From current Undergraduate Catalog
• Plagiarism Prevention Instructors may use a
  range of strategies (including plagiarism-preventi
  on software at the university) to compare student
  works with private and public information
  resources in order to identify possible
  plagiarism and academic dishonesty. Comparisons
  of student works may require submitting a copy of
  the original work to the plagiarism-prevention
  service. The service may retain that copy in some
  circumstances.  Academic units or programs may
  establish a more rigorous standard of review or
  consent, which will be noted in the relevant
  guidelines.

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Resources

• Delphi is building resources for
  SafeAssignhttp//delphi.louisville.edu/help/safe
  assign/
• Includes
• Overview documents for students and faculty
• Step-by-Step directions for creating a
  SafeAssignment
• Step-by-Step directions for using Direct Submit
• Also, check out Blackboards site
  http//www.safeassign.com/
• Has manuals, how tos, FAQs, and more!

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SOURCES

• Alice Robison Designing Assignments to
  Discourage Plagiarism, http//mendota.english.wis
  c.edu/WAC/page.jsp?id141c_typecategoryc_id24
  
• Council of Writing Program Administrators
  Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism The WPA
  Statement on Best Practices http//www.wpacounci
  l.org/book/export/html/9
• James E. Porter Discourage Plagiarism by
  Promoting Academic Honesty A Proactive Approach
  for Teachers, http//kairos.wide.msu.edu/porter/t
  each_plagiarism)
• Karen McClaskey Prevent Plagiarism with
  Creative Assignments Ideas for Faculty
  http//www2.truman.edu/karenmc/preventplagiarism.
  htm

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SOURCES

• Plagiarism.org www.plagiarism.org
• Robert Harris Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for
  Research Papers, http//www.virtualsalt.com/anti
  plag.htm
• Tammy Kempfert Beating eCheating Strategies
  for Discouraging Internet Plagiarism,
  http//faculty.millikin.edu/mgeorge/plagiarism/
• UofL Undergraduate Catalog http//louisville.edu/
  undergraduatecatalog/currentcat/generalinfo/academ
  ic-policies-and-procedures.html
• U of Carnegie Mellon Plagiarism and the Web
  http//www.cmu.edu/teaching/solveproblem/strat-che
  ating/plagiarism.html
• Wikipedia http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_d
  ishonesty