Campus Learning & Writing Centers

SafeAssign: What is SafeAssign?

In spring 2009, Virginia Commonwealth University acquired SafeAssign, a tool that is integrated with Blackboard to help faculty and students negotiate the challenges of writing and research in electronic media. SafeAssign electronically tracks source origins and measures the amount of outside material contained in a student’s paper. When students submit papers to a “SafeAssignment” on Blackboard, the tool compares the students’ work to the material stored in its databases, checking the student text for both exact matches and strong resemblances. SafeAssign then generates an “Originality Report” that notes the percentage of matching material in the student work. The database includes a variety of electronic resources, including public access websites and documents, materials included in the ProQuest ABI/Inform databases, and other student papers submitted to and stored in the SafeAssign database.

A video tutorial showing you how to use SafeAssign is available here.

Download instructions for creating and managing your SafeAssign assignment

« Back to SafeAssign Homepage

Also in this section:

• What is SafeAssign?
• Interpreting SafeAssign scores
  • For students
  • For instructors