SafeAssign Integration with Regular Assignments

On June 5th and 6th, 2015, we are upgrading to a new version of Blackboard. The biggest change in this new version is that SafeAssignments will be integrated into regular assignments.

SafeAssignments are Blackboard assignments that are checked for plagiarism. Currently, to add an assignment to a content area you hover over the Assessments button and have to choose between an Assignment or a SafeAssignment.

The new integration between SafeAssignments and regular Assignments means there will be only one type of Assignment to choose.

The advantage of this integration is that almost all the features of a regular Assignment are now available for assignments checked for plagiarism. This includes the ability to attach a file, inline grading, and rubrics.

SafeAssignments that already exist in containers prior to this upgrade will still work without any problems at all. You will still access them through Course Tools > SafeAssign. They will not be automatically converted to these new integrated assignments. 

This is not a problem, however, you may prefer to use the new integrated assignments to take advantage of the advanced features. There are a couple of different ways to get your old SafeAssignments converted to the new integrated assignments once the upgrade is complete.

1. Recreate the SafeAssignments by hand.
   
   To do this, go into a content area, hover over Assessments, and choose Assignment from the drop-down as seen in the image above. Fill out the fields as usual and in the Submission Details section, put check marks next to "Check submissions for plagiarism using SafeAssign" and "Allow students to view SafeAssign originality report for their attempts".
    
2. Wait until after the upgrade to do a Course Copy.
   
   If you wait to copy your course until after the upgrade is complete, your assignments will be automatically converted. If you are not teaching a course this summer, and haven't already copied courses for fall, I'd really recommend you choose this option and wait to copy your courses until after the upgrade is complete on June 7th.
    
3. Just wait until the next time you copy your course.
   
   The next time you copy the course after the upgrade, SafeAssignments will automatically be converted to the new integrated assignments. There is no problem leaving SafeAssignments as they are. You just won't have the advanced features available to regular assignments. Even if you've already copied courses for the summer and/or fall, there's no harm in leaving SafeAssignments as they are until the next time you copy your course.

To find out more about SafeAssign and the new integrated assignments, watch the video at https://youtu.be/QId2Xza_95k.

Additional information and step-by-step tutorial: https://help.blackboard.com/en-us/Learn/9.1_2014_04/Instructor/100_Assignments/025_Use_SafeAssign

Synchronize SafeAssign

If you're using Blackboard SafeAssignments, it's a good idea to synchronize SafeAssign each semester before assignments are due just to make sure students won't have any problems submitting their assignments.

You can do this by going to:
Control Panel > Course Tools > SafeAssign > SafeAssignments.

In the upper right you'll see the button for "Synchronize this course." Just click that button and your course will be fully synchronized with the Blackboard SafeAssign server.

Flex Week Workshops

You might be interested in attending some of the workshops listed below during Flex Week. All workshops shown here are in room E-206.

There are two workshops of particular interest to online teachers on Tuesday -- "Are you a Distance Educator or Correspondence Educator?" and  "Great Practices in Online Teaching and Lunch Discussion."

You can learn how to capture video recordings of what's on your computer monitor (such as a PowerPoint or even input from a tablet) along with your voice as you lecture in the classroom so that students can review the material after class. This workshop is on Wednesday at 3pm.

Find out more about these workshops at http://www.cuyamaca.edu/professionaldev/schedule.asp.

	Monday
		6:00 pm to 7:30pm	What’s New in Blackboard?
	Tuesday
		10:00 am to 11:00 am	Are you a Distance Educator or Correspondence Educator?
		11:00 am to 1:00 pm	Great Practices in Online Teaching and Lunch Discussion
		2:30 pm to 4:00 pm	Accessibility
		5:30 pm to 7:00 pm	Blackboard I: Getting Started
		7:00 pm to 8:00 pm	Blackboard II: Course Menu and Adding Items
	Wednesday
		1:00 pm to 2:30 pm	What’s New in Blackboard?
		3:00 pm to 4:30 pm	Capture It Live!
		5:30 pm to 7:00 pm	Blackboard III: Grade Center
		7:00 pm to 8:00 pm	Blackboard IV: Tests and Quizzes
		8:00 pm to 8:30 pm	Use Blackboard to Assess SLOs
	Thursday
		4:00 pm to 5:00 pm	Blackboard V: Assignments and SafeAssignments
	Friday
		11:30 am to 12:30 pm	Open Lab

SafeAssign is Fixed

Blackboard notified us today that they have fixed the problem with SafeAssign that began last month. However, it is important that you synchronize your course with SafeAssign to make sure it will all work. Here are the steps to do that.

1. In the Control Panel, click Course Tools to expand that section
2. Click on SafeAssign
3. Click Synchronize this course

Students who previously submitted SafeAssignments will probably still see an error message when they try to view them. However, as the instructor, you will be able to grade these from within the Grade Center, which is great news. SafeAssignments submitted after you synchronize your course should not show an error when students try to access the assignment after submitting it.

SafeAssignments Not Showing Up In Grade Center

We are currently experiencing problems with SafeAssign. From both the student and instructor point of view, SafeAssign is very slow. Students can submit assignments, but once they're submitted, if they click on the link for that assignment again, they get an error that says, "The specified object was not found." The assignment has submitted successfully, but the student can't get that confirmation.

Instructors can view these assignments by going to the Control Panel > Course Tools > SafeAssign > SafeAssignments. However, these assignments are not showing up in the Grade Center at all since March 10th.

This problem has been reported to Blackboard and we hope for a fix soon. In the meantime, the only way to grade these assignments is to view them via the Control Panel, write the grade down (yes, I really do mean use pen and paper... argh!) then once they've all been graded, go to the Grade Center and enter the grades.