Combatting Plagiarism: SafeAssignment Pilot Test

November 2005
Suzy Ascher

At Northeastern, as at academic institutions everywhere, cyber-plagiarism is a growing problem. Students' access to vast amounts of free and inexpensive online source material has resulted in rampant plagiarism. According to John Barrie, founder of Turnitin.com, a company that distributes plagiarism detection software, 'Thirty-percent of papers tested turn out to contain some content that is not original; of those, 75% contain content plagiarized from the Internet.' In addition to resource sites, the number of online 'paper mills', sites at which students can purchase either 'ready-made' or custom-written papers is 250 and growing.

To identify ways to curb cyber-plagiarism, the EdTech Center has conducted interviews and focus groups with faculty and students. Potential solutions include promoting academic honesty, educating students, redesigning assignments and implementing plagiarism detection software for detection as well as for deterrent purposes.

Faculty have expressed a high degree of interest in plagiarism detection software. The process of conducting Google searches to catch plagiarists is time-consuming and often inconclusive. By contrast, plagiarism detection software scans a paper automatically when a student submits it electronically, either through Blackboard, or, depending on the software, directly to the service.

EdTech instructional designer Suzy Ascher is directing a pilot program involving 20 faculty members from English, Engineering, Computer Science, Business, General Studies, Health Sciences, and History to evaluate plagiarism detection software products. The first product under review is SafeAssignment, which matches student papers with every document on the Internet and with a number of electronic document databases to ensure originality of student writing.

Each pilot participant received a short training session, and students from classes involved in the pilot were informed that their papers may be subject to an anti-plagiarism review. Papers in these classes are being submitted electronically through Blackboard as 'SafeAssignments,' and instructors are receiving reports generated by the software, indicating both the degree and source of plagiarized material.

To help determine whether using plagiarism detection software is a viable option, participating faculty will evaluate SafeAssignment using a set of survey questions. Specific questions will address accuracy, usefulness, ease of use, ease of interpretation, and clarity, as well as student reaction to the use of SafeAssignment.

SafeAssignment is designed specifically to work within Blackboard. After the pilot participants have reviewed SafeAssignment, the group may assess Turnitin, another plagiarism detection software module that can be integrated into Blackboard.