Q. What is the difference between SafeAssign and Turnitin?

Both are plagiarism prevention software currently available for use by faculty, students and staff at the Petroleum Institute. Any student paper submitted is check against: Internet websites, library online databases, eBooks, newspapers, magazine, online journals, online reference sites and past student paper submitted. The main difference is that SafeAssign is integrated with Blackboard and Turnitin is accessed thought the Turnitin web site (registration needed). Turnitin has a larger repository of past student papers, larger scope of online periodical databases and most importantly can be used by students who are not registered in a Blackboard class.  Another difference is the submission method -- file upload and cut and paste (Turnitin) or file upload only (SafeAssign). From the instructors point there are more options for generating originality reports in Turnitin. They can restrict comparison check to specific databases, exclude references and quoted materials and view report in three different formats (one source at the time, classic view and highest match first).

As a student, SafeAssign allows you to submit assignment only ONCE unless the instructor has two placeholders: "Final Assignment" and "Drafts." In Turnitin it's up to the instructor to restrict students to submit only once or multiple times. The originality report can be final after first submission, or it will keep overwriting until due date, or report will only be generated on due date.