SafeAssign & Plagiarism Prevention

SafeAssign & Plagiarism Prevention Elizabeth Kimbell Communication Instructor ejkimb01@louisville.edu Ghanashyam (Sam) Sharma Ph.D. Fellow in Rhetoric & Compositiong0shar01@louisville.edu

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

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

Overview of SafeAssign

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

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)

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

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 Blackboard’s central database)

Integrating SafeAssign with Pedagogy

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

What is Plagiarism? • UofL defines plagiarism as "representing the words or ideas of someone else as one’s 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

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 • MultipleSubmission: using the same work to receive multiple instance of credit • Complicityin any of the forms of academic dishonesty above Undergraduate Catalog

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

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 doesn’t show lengthy blocks of matched text • A student has used lecture notes without citing source

Preventing Plagiarism through Pedagogy • Syllabus • Assignment Design • Teaching: process-based view of writing • Teaching: research skills

Syllabus: The Plagiarism Section • Communicate yourexpectations about intellectual honesty and rigor • Highlight intrinsic motivation (the desire to learn research skills), besides giving the regular warning against plagiarism

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.

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

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

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

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

Using SafeAssign

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

Demonstration • Easier to show in actual system

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

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

Creating a SafeAssignment • Enter Information - Draft mode example

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

Creating a SafeAssignment • Enter Information – Normal mode example

Student View of SafeAssignment • From Assignments, choose View/Complete

Student View of SafeAssignment • Draft mode example

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

Instructor View of SafeAssignments • From SafeAssign in Control Panel

Instructor View of SafeAssignments • From SafeAssign in Control Panel • Choose View If you make a Course Copy, you’ll need to synch once before use.

Instructor View of SafeAssignments • From SafeAssign in Control Panel

Instructor View of SafeAssignments • From Grade Center in Control Panel

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

Using Direct Submit • Access Direct Submit from SafeAssign in Control Panel

Using Matching Report • Paper Information

Using Matching Report • Suspected Sources

Using Matching Report • Paper Text

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

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?

SafeAssign & Plagiarism Prevention Elizabeth Kimbell Communication Instructor ejkimb01@louisville.edu Ghanashyam (Sam) Sharma Ph.D. Fellow in Rhetoric & Compositiong0shar01@louisville.edu

Catalog Statement • From currentUndergraduate Catalog • “Plagiarism Prevention: Instructors may use a range of strategies (including plagiarism-prevention 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.”

Resources • Delphi is building resources for SafeAssign:http://delphi.louisville.edu/help/safeassign/ • 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 Blackboard’s site:http://www.safeassign.com/ • Has manuals, how to’s, FAQs, and more!

SOURCES • Alice Robison: “Designing Assignments to Discourage Plagiarism,” http://mendota.english.wisc.edu/~WAC/page.jsp?id=141&c_type=category&c_id=24 • Council of Writing Program Administrators: “Defining and Avoiding Plagiarism: The WPA Statement on Best Practices”: http://www.wpacouncil.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/teach_plagiarism) • Karen McClaskey: “Prevent Plagiarism with Creative Assignments: Ideas for Faculty”: http://www2.truman.edu/~karenmc/preventplagiarism.htm

SafeAssign & Plagiarism Prevention