What is SafeAssign?

SafeAssign is a free plagiarism detection tool that integrates with your Blackboard Learn course. It allows you and students to check work against a comprehensive index of documents available through the Internet, a publication archive of approximately 2.6 million journal articles, documents submitted by other users at your institution, and the voluntary Global Reference database that compares it against student work at other participating institutions. After checking the submitted document against these databases, a report is generated that displays how much of the work is original. Instructors: Please be aware that SafeAssign currently searches the ProQuest/ABI database of journal articles. This database primarily includes publications for business disciplines. Test the service before you commit to using it in your class.

SafeAssign at ISU

Currently a number of departments on campus are piloting SafeAssign in their courses. Before adding the SafeAssign tool to your course, please review the policies and information provided by the Office of Judicial Affairs and the ISU Library Plagiarism Policy. SafeAssign reports are acceptable forms of supporting evidence for allegations of academic misconduct, but you still need to follow the proper steps when you suspect academic misconduct has occured. For more information on what to do if you suspect academic misconduct and what type of documentation is accepted, visit the Office Judicial Affairs website.

SafeAssign Syllabus Statement

If you use SafeAssign in your course, you are welcome to use the following statement in your course syllabus to inform students of what is involved with using SafeAssign:

“By taking this course, you agree that your papers and other written assignments may be subject to evaluation for originality and intellectual integrity (i.e. plagiarism) by use of Blackboard SafeAssign. All papers submitted for review will be included as source documents in Iowa State University’s Institutional SafeAssign database so that future student work can be compared to it too.”

Here is a Word (.doc) format file with the syllabus statement for you to download and copy and paste into your own syllabus.

SafeAssign Resources

• Video: Adding and Using SafeAssign within Your Blackboard Learn Course
• About SafeAssign at help.blackboard.com
• SafeAssign Update RSS Feed provides updates for service outages and prolonged access periods due to increased activity. You can add this feed to your favorite reader.
• Instructor Manual (PDF) (for Blackboard Learn) provides detailed information about using SafeAssign in your Bb Learn course.

Adding and Using SafeAssign within Your Blackboard Learn Course

Video: Using SafeAssign