Technology Manual for Law Faculty and Staff

Creating and Grading Assignments:

Creating assignments can be done from the course content page. On the main content page, click the circled plus icon wherever you would like to add the assignment. Then click "Create". A menu will pop up on the right hand side and from there you can select either "Test" or "Assignment" under the "Assessment" drop down. 

You should be taken to a new page where you can add content to the assignment. On the right side of the page you will see a menu called "Assignment Settings" where you can change things like the due date and they type of assignment. 

Once all assignments are submitted you can grade them from within the assignment content page, or you can go to Grades and work there. Click here for a video tutorial on grading.

For more information on creating and grading assignments, please view the instructions provided by the Center for Advancement of Learning (CAL), under "Assessing Learners", here.

To Create a Test:

• To create a test, click the circled plus button, and "Create", wherever you would like the test to show up on your content page.
• Under the "Assessment" section, click "Test".
• Add a name your test in the upper left and then begin adding content to your test by clicking the plus sign and the type of question you wish to use. Continue creating questions in this manner until the test is complete.
• To edit things like due dates, randomizing question order, and grading options, navigate over to the gear icon left of "Test Settings" and click. This will bring up a new window where you can edit the test settings.
• In the upper right corner, you can decide if you want the test to be visible to students yet or not. This can be changed later.

To view a comprehensive video on creating tests in Blackboard, click here.

Plagiarism Checking with SafeAssign

SafeAssign compares submitted assignments against a collection of academic papers to identify areas of overlap between the submitted assignment and existing works. 

Use SafeAssign to review assignment submissions for plagiarism potential and create opportunities to help students identify how to properly attribute sources rather than paraphrase. SafeAssign is effective as both a deterrent and an educational tool.

SafeAssign is based on a unique text matching algorithm capable of detecting exact and inexact matching between a paper and source material. Submissions are compared against several databases:

• Internet: Comprehensive index of documents available for public access on the internet.
• ProQuest ABI/Inform database: More than 1,100 publication titles and about 2.6 million articles from 1990 to present time, updated weekly (exclusive access).
• Institutional document archives: Contains all papers submitted to SafeAssign by users in their respective institutions.
• Global Reference Database: Contains papers that were volunteered by students from Blackboard client institutions to help prevent cross-institution plagiarism.

To enable SafeAssign plagiarism checking for any of your assignments in Blackboard, follow these steps BEFORE opening the assignment to submissions.

1. While in the assignment, navigate to the right side where you will see "Assignment Settings".
2. Scroll down to the "Originality Report" and click the link "Enable SafeAssign".
3. This will bring up a new page. There click the slider next to "Enable SafeAssign" so that it is on.
4. You then have the option of allowing students to view the SafeAssign Originality Report and/or excluding submissions from the database.
5. Lastly, click "Save".

To view a video demonstration on SafeAssign, click here.

For more information please visit the Center for the Advancement of Learning's Guide on Blackboard Ultra.