SafeAssign & Plagiarism Prevention Elizabeth Kimbell Communication Instructor [email protected] Ghanashyam (Sam) Sharma Ph.D. Fellow in Rhetoric

SafeAssign & Plagiarism Prevention

Elizabeth KimbellCommunication [email protected]

Ghanashyam (Sam) SharmaPh.D. Fellow in Rhetoric &

[email protected]


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

• Multiple Submission: using the same work to receive multiple instance of credit

• Complicity in 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:

1. A student continues to use ideas from a source after proper citations

2. A student turns in a recycled paper written for another class (with minor changes)

3. A student has rephrased words from a source such that SafeAssign doesn’t show lengthy blocks of matched text

4. 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 your expectations 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)



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



• Enter Information - Draft mode example



• Optional Announcement - Draft mode example

• Click Submit at bottom of page



• 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



• From SafeAssign in Control Panel




• Choose View

If you make a Course Copy, you’ll need to synch once before use.






• 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



• Suspected Sources



• Paper Text



• 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?


Elizabeth KimbellCommunication [email protected]

Ghanashyam (Sam) SharmaPh.D. Fellow in Rhetoric &

[email protected]


Catalog Statement

• From current Undergraduate 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


SOURCES

• Plagiarism.org: www.plagiarism.org • Robert Harris: “Anti-Plagiarism Strategies for Research

Papers,” http://www.virtualsalt.com/antiplag.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/academic-policies-and-procedures.html

• U of Carnegie Mellon: “Plagiarism and the Web”: http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/solveproblem/strat-cheating/plagiarism.html

• Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academic_dishonesty

Documents

SafeAssign & Plagiarism Prevention Elizabeth Kimbell Communication Instructor [email protected] Ghanashyam (Sam) Sharma Ph.D. Fellow in Rhetoric