Tuesday, April 13, 2010

[BB] Tip of the Week

Hello BB User,

 

SafeAssign Originality Reports provide detailed information about the matches found between a submitted paper and existing sources. The SafeAssign report identifies all matching blocks of text. It is the responsibility of the teacher and student to investigate whether the matching text is properly referenced or not. Detailing every match prevents detection errors due to differences in citing standards.

 

How SafeAssignments work:

SafeAssign is based on a unique text matching algorithm capable of detecting exact and inexact matching between a paper and source material. SafeAssignments are compared against several different databases, including:

Internet – comprehensive index 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 1990s 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.

 

If you have created a safeAssignment and students have submitted their paper, here is how to read the report:

 

1.       Go to the “Control Panel”

 

2.       Click on “SafeAssing”

 

3.       Locate the Safe Assignment from the list

 

4.       Click on View to access results

 

5.       You now have access the result page

 

 

6.       Text

By clicking the text icon, the instructor will see the text of the safe assignment submitted.

 

7.       File

By clicking on the file icon, the instructor will be able to download the original filed submitted.

 

8.       Matching

The Matching column will inform the instructor the percentage of the submitted assignment matching other sources.

Overall score is an indicator of what percentage of the submitted paper matches existing sources. This score is a warning indicator only and papers should be reviewed to see if the matches are properly attributed.

        Scores below 15 percent: These papers typical 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.

 

9.       SA Report

The SA Report will provide a complete report for the instructor to review.

 

10.   SA Report

 

a.       Paper information

 

This section lists data about the paper, such as the author, percent Matching, and when it was submitted. This section also includes options for downloading the report, emailing the report, or viewing a printable version.

 

b.       Suspected Sources

This section lists the sources that have text that matches the text of the submitted paper. Users may select sources, exclude them from the review, and process the paper again. This is useful if a source is a previous work from the same student for the same assignment, or if there is some reason that lengthy sections of a particular source appear in the paper. Processing the paper again will generate a new value for the percent matching without using the excluded sources.

 

c.       Paper Text

 

This section shows the submitted paper. All matching blocks of text are identified. Clicking a matching block of text will display information about the original source and the probability that the block or sentence was copied from the source.

 

 

You can always review other tips by clicking the help button on the top middle of your blackboard page, then click on “Setup your Course”, or click here: http://umblackboardhelp.helpdeskconnect.com/

 

If you have any question please feel free to contact us at 305-284-3949 or email us at blackboardhelp@miami.edu, we are here to assist you with any question.

 

Thank you,

 

Rick Ramos

Blackboard Help Desk Supervisor

305-284-3949

 

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