SafeAssign: Direct Submit
Center for Instructional Technology
http://cit.jmu.edu/
Direct Submit
The Direct Submit feature allows the faculty member to submit student papers and receive an
Originality Report without having students submit the paper through a SafeAssignment. All
student papers will be added to the Institutional Database only. The Direct Submit option does
not include an option to submit papers to the Global Reference Database, because students must
choose to opt-in on a paper-by-paper basis. In addition, there is no integration with the Grade
Center when using the Direct Submit option. Therefore, it is advisable to use the SafeAssignment
feature when possible to collect student paper submissions.
Individual or Bulk Submission Using Direct Submit
The Direct Submit feature allows faculty members to upload student papers one at a time or
multiple papers at once by including the papers in a .zip file. If uploading multiple papers using
the .zip file option, the .zip package should not contain more than 100 papers and it is advised
not to submit more than 300 papers in a session. In addition, a paper with over 5,000 sentences
or that exceeds 10 MB in size cannot be submitted using the Direct Submit feature. In addition, if
a paper includes images the images cannot exceed 2MB in size or the submission may fail.
Submitting Papers through Direct Submit
1. In the Blackboard course begin by selecting the Control Panel and then select
SafeAssign in the Course Tools menu.
2. Select the Direct Submit tab.
Center for Instructional Technology ♦ Carrier Library (87061) & East Campus Library (84836)
a Division of Libraries and Educational Technologies
*Note: A list of folders and previously submitted papers will appear on the next screen.
The list includes papers uploaded previously using the Direct Submit option. It is not
recommended to delete files from the Direct Submit feature, because they will then be
removed from the institutional database of existing papers.
3. Select the Private or Shared folders tab. Private folders are only available to the faculty
member submitting the paper(s). Shared Folders are available to all individuals enrolled
in the course as an Instructor or Teaching Assistant.
4. Click on the folder from the menu where you would like to upload the paper(s). If the
folder you want does not yet exist, enter the title of the new folder in the text entry box
and select Add to create a new folder.
5. Select Submit A Paper.
6. Select the desired Submission Options:
Submit as Draft: A SafeAssign Originality Report will be created but the paper(s) will
not be added to the institutional database and will not be used to check other papers.
Skip Plagiarism Checking: Adds the paper(s) to the institutional database, but does not
check for content copied from other sources. The Skip Plagiarism Checking option is
most helpful as a way for a faculty member to upload papers from a previously taught
course to ensure that current students are not reusing the work.
Center for Instructional Technology ♦ Carrier Library (87061) & East Campus Library (84836)
a Division of Libraries and Educational Technologies
7. In the File Upload menu, select Upload File and browse your computer for the file.
Individual papers (in .doc, .docx, .odt, .txt, .pdf, .rtf and .html file formats) as well as
multiple papers compiled together in a .zip package are accepted.
*Note: As an alternative for single paper submission, you can select the Copy/Paste
Document radio button and add the document title in the Paper Title field and the text of
the paper in the Paper Text field.
8. Select Submit
View SafeAssign Report Submitted Through Direct Submit
1. In the Blackboard course begin by selecting Control Panel and then select SafeAssign in
the Course Tools menu.
2. Select the Direct Submit tab.
3. Select the Private or Shared folders tab where you previously uploaded the paper(s).
4. Select the Folder where you previously uploaded the paper(s).
5. The submission and its corresponding results are available to view. The options include:
Text: Select this option to view the student’s paper and any comments from the student.
File: Select this option to download the student submission.
Matching: The percentage listed is the percentage of the paper that matches other
sources. Please read the full report to determine if the matching is properly attributed.
SA Report: Select this option to view the full SafeAssign Originality Report.
Center for Instructional Technology ♦ Carrier Library (87061) & East Campus Library (84836)
a Division of Libraries and Educational Technologies
Report Layout
SafeAssign reports are divided into three sections:
• Report Information: This section lists data about the paper such as the author, percent
Matching, and when it was submitted. This section also includes options for downloading the
report, emailing the report, or viewing a printable version. Note that the printable version may be
the most effective view of the report for those users that rely on assistive technologies to access
Blackboard Learn Course Delivery.
• Suspected Sources: This section lists the sources that have text that matches the text of the
submitted paper. Users may select sources, exclude them from the review, and process the paper
again. This is useful if a source is a previous work from the same student for the same
assignment, or if there is some reason that lengthy sections of a particular source appear in the
paper. Processing the paper again will generate a new value for the percent matching without
using the excluded sources.
• Manuscript Text: This section shows the submitted paper. All matching blocks of text are
identified. Clicking a matching block of text will display information about the original source
and the probability that the block or sentence was copied from the source.
Interpreting SafeAssign Scores
Sentence matching scores represent the percentage probability that two phrases have the same
meaning. This number can also be interpreted as the reciprocal to the probability that these two
phrases are similar by chance. For example, a score of 90 percent means that there is a 90 percent
probability that these two phrases are the same and a 10 percent probability that they are similar
by chance and not because the submitted paper includes content from the existing source
(whether or not it is appropriately attributed).
Overall score is an indicator of what percentage of the submitted paper matches existing sources.
This score is a warning indicator only and papers should be reviewed to see if the matches are
properly attributed.
• Scores below 15 percent: These papers typical include some quotes and few common phrases
or blocks of text that match other documents. These papers typically do not require further
analysis, as there is no evidence of the possibility of plagiarism in these papers.
• Scores between 15 percent and 40 percent: These papers include extensive quoted or
paraphrased material or they may include plagiarism. These papers should be reviewed to
determine if the matching content is properly attributed.
• Scores over 40 percent: There is a very high probability that text in this paper was copied
from other sources. These papers include quoted or paraphrased text in excess and should be
reviewed for plagiarism.
Center for Instructional Technology ♦ Carrier Library (87061) & East Campus Library (84836)
a Division of Libraries and Educational Technologies
Center for Instructional Technology ♦ Carrier Library (87061) & East Campus Library (84836)
a Division of Libraries and Educational Technologies