SafeAssign is a feature built into Blackboard that compares a student-submitted work to a database of journal articles, previous submissions by students at Detroit Mercy, submissions volunteered by students at other Blackboard institutions, and the internet in general. SafeAssign then generates an originality report, which highlights any sentences or phrases that appear in any of these sources, along with a key indicating the source.
Please be aware that while SafeAssign does an excellent job of identifying text in a student submission that matches text in its reference database, it cannot distinguish an appropriately used and properly cited match from plagiarism. A review of the originality report will still be necessary to determine if a match actually qualifies as plagiarism.
Availability
SafeAssign is available in both classic-style and ultra-style course sites. SafeAssign must be enabled by instructors -- students do not have direct access to SafeAssign.
SafeAssign Direct Submit, which allows an instructor to submit an individual work to SafeAssign for review outside of an assignment, is only available in classic-style course sites.
How It Works
SafeAssign is best used as an automated part of the Blackboard assignment submission process. When the SafeAssign assignment option is enabled, all student submissions are compared to SafeAssign's database automatically.
If an instructor is concerned about a particular student submission that was not checked during submission, a Direct Submit option is available.