SafeAssign (access within Learn@Seneca)* | Educational Technology Advisory Committee (ETAC) | Seneca College

About

Learn@Seneca includes a plagiarism checker called SafeAssign, which can be used to check the originality of student work submitted online. In addition, SafeAssign can be used to help educate students about plagiarism and the importance of proper citation and attribution.

Licence

* - Items with a college-wide license have an asterisk

Seneca has a licence for this tool.

Tips for using the tool

The most common way to check the originality of student work is by setting up SafeAssign assignments in Learn@Seneca. Assignments submitted online through SafeAssign are checked against a global reference database and originality reports are issued that both faculty and students (when enabled) can view. Allowing students to view their originality reports provides an opportunity for them to learn about proper citation and attribution, and what constitutes plagiarism.

For more information, see the Learn@Seneca SafeAssign Tool online module from the Teaching & Learning Centre.

Keeping Student Information Safe When Using Online Tools

The Quick guide to secure handling of confidential student information for faculty using online learning tools (.PDF) (developed by the Teaching & Learning Centre and ITS) helps faculty choose secure online tools for teaching. The guide provides guidelines and examples to help faculty consider the information students might be giving up when using a new tool. It is intended for quick use of free or low-cost online tools and not for larger, more costly tools that require more rigorous data privacy vetting.

Examples

Using SafeAssign for students to double check they have cited properly, or to deter them from copying and pasting large amounts of text from a published source unless truly relevant to the assignment.

Additional resources

Submitting Safe Assignment (instructions for students)

Contact us

The Teaching & Learning Centre
✉ teaching@senecacollege.ca