Overview

This document details the usability of Inspera Originality within Blackboard, providing a comprehensive how-to guide into the key features of the tool. The document explains the functionalities of each user, outlining their permissions and capabilities. 

Please note that this document does not contain information pertaining to the process of integrating the tool within the learning management system. A detailed step-by-step guide on this process can be found here. 

Content

• 1. Administrator
  • 1.1 Adding a course
  • 1.2 Adding participants
  • 1.3 Inspera Originality dashboard: Administrator
    • 1.3.1 Analytics
    • 1.3.2 Academic units
    • 1.3.3 Subjects
    • 1.3.4 Submissions
• 2. Professor
  • 2.1 Accessing the course and creating an assignment
  • 2.2 Inspera Originality dashboard: Instructor
    • 2.2.1 Overview
    • 2.2.2 Academic units
    • 2.2.3 Administration
    • 2.2.4 Submissions
  • 2.3 Understanding the Originality Report
    • 2.3.1 Report navigation 
    • 2.3.2 Submission information
    • 2.3.3 Similarity section
      • 2.3.3.1 Original language
      • 2.3.3.2 Translated language
    • 2.3.4 Sources
    • 2.3.5 AI authorship 
    • 2.3.6 Legend highlights
    • 2.3.7 Canvas information
    • 2.3.8 Sentence information
      • 2.3.8.1 Sentence information: Change source button
      • 2.3.8.2 Sentence information: Exclude sentence button
    • 2.3.9 Settings
    • 2.3.10 Downloads
• 3. Student
  • 3.1 Logging in as a student and launching Inspera Originality
  • 3.2 Submitting a document
  • 3.3 Inspera Originality dashboard: Student
    • 3.3.1 Upload button
    • 3.3.2 Overview 
    • 3.3.3 Academic units
    • 3.3.4 Submissions

1. Administrator

The administrator can complete a multitude of different functions such as adding courses, external tools, and participants. 

Proceed by logging into Blackboard as an administrator.

 

The first step entails adding Inspera Originality to Blackboard. Please note that this process succeeds in the setup process pertaining to registration and configuration.  

1.1 Adding a course

Inspera Originality serves the purpose of examining student assignments for originality and similarity. As such, the tool must be integrated within a course environment, which is where student assignments are stored. Upon submission, assignments are thoroughly assessed for originality and similarity. 

It is important to note that there is no need to create the same course in both the LMS and Inspera Originality. Creating a course in the LMS automatically results in the creation of the same course in Inspera Originality.  

Proceed by adding a course as outlined below: 

Click Admin 

Click Courses

Click Create Course > New

 

Navigate to the newly created course.

Adding Inspera Originality to the course is straightforward. 

Click Content > Tools > More Tools 

Lastly, select the Inspera Originality LTI tool. 

Once the tool is added to the course, the content section of the course should appear as in the image below: 

Clicking on the tool name will launch the tool within Blackboard. The appearing dashboard resonates with the currently logged-in user. 

Once the course is created, it will automatically set the default values (name, start date, and end date) for all subsequent assignments. It’s important to note that assignments can only be created by a professor. The creation of an assignment in Blackboard will automatically result in the creation of an identical assignment in Inspera Originality. 

1.2 Adding participants

Upon creating a course, the administrator can add participants such as professors and students. Adding participants is straightforward. Navigate to the Course, click on the Users and Groups section and select Users from the drop-down menu. 

Afterward, click on Enroll User and select Create User from the drop-down menu. This will redirect you to the course user management page. 

1.3 Inspera Originality dashboard: Administrator

The Inspera Originality dashboard is composed of four sections with each providing a specific functionality. 

1.3.1 Side Panel 

Administrators can utilize the buttons from the side panel to complete specific actions:

• Upload (Important)
• Analytics 
• Users (Important) 
• Account

1.3.1.1 Add Units 

This is where administrators can register subjects, educators, and students.

Subjects

To register a subject, administrators must specify the following information. Please note that multiple subjects can be registered simultaneously. 

Educators

To register an educator, administrators must specify the following information. 

Students

To register students, administrators must specify the following information. 

1.3.1.2 Users 

This is where administrators have a complete view of all registered educators and students. Filtering capabilities have been included to perform specific searches for easier navigation. 

1.3.2 Analytics

The analytics section provides institutions with a comprehensive overview of numerically displayed usage rates. The section outlines the number of subjects, assignments, students, educators, and submissions. This information can be found under the Overview subsection

Additionally, this section also provides detailed information on Institution Ratios, enabling access to useful insights concerning Student-to-Educator ratios and more. 

Lastly, the Analytics section contains a graph that depicts the trajectory of academic integrity issues within an institution. The graph is utilized to emphasize the months with the highest and lowest numbers of documents containing issues related to academic integrity. 

Further detailed information, such as the educators with the highest volume of assignment submissions, is available below the graph.

1.3.3 Academic units

This section provides comprehensive insights into institutional data, emphasizing two primary subsections: total subjects and total assignments. In the total subjects subsection, users can access detailed information on all subjects, with options to filter subjects by educators or search by name or student. Similarly, the total assignments subsection offers a detailed overview of all assignments, allowing users to filter by educator or search by name or student.  Additionally, each unit includes an expand button, facilitating access to more detailed information specific to that unit.

1.3.4 Subjects

The subjects section provides comprehensive information on all institution-wide subjects. The following information is provided for each subject: 

• Name - The name of the subject
• Educators - Professors teaching the subject
• Number of Enrolled Students
• Academic Year - The year the subject was or is being taught in
• Mandatory Status - Whether the subject is mandatory or not
• Availability Status - Whether the subject is active or not

The section also provides filtering capabilities, allowing for a more detailed view of specific information. 

1.3.5 Submissions

The Submissions section contains institution-wide assignment submissions. Each row in this section represents a specific assignment submission and contains the following information: 

• Title - The title of the submission
• Full Name - The name of the student responsible for the submission
• Submission Date: The date on which the submission was made 
• Document Language Similarity: The similarity score in terms of original language analysis
• Translated Language Similarity: The similarity score in terms of translated language analysis
• AI Index: The AI Authorship score in terms of AI-text prediction
• Report: This is a button that redirects the user to the originality report

1.3.6 Export data & download Originality Reports

To export data users can click on the Export Data button and select one of the supported file types. This results in an immediate download of data in the specified format, providing greater flexibility for data sharing and storing in addition to it being accessible from the platform. 

The supported file types include: 

1. CVS 
2. Excel
3. PDF

Administrators can also download Originality Reports and document files with the ability only to download specific parts or as a bundle. 

Administrators can export data from:

1. Analytics - Exporting analytics data includes information about total subjects, assignments, students, educators, submissions, institution ratios, and more. 

2. Academic Units - Exporting data from the academic units includes information about total subjects and assignments. Users can export data from both total Subjects and Assignments. Additionally, users can download offline Originality Reports for total assignments. 

3. Subjects - Exporting data from Subjects includes information about all listed subjects, including the subject name, educators, number of students, academic year, and type. 

4. Submissions - Exporting data from Submissions includes information about all listed submissions, including the title, full name, submission date, document language, translated language, and AI index. Furthermore, users can download offline Originality Reports for submissions. 

2. Professor

The initial step entails logging into the Learning Management System as a professor. Upon doing so, the user will be presented with a personalized dashboard containing the courses assigned to them. 

2.1 Accessing the course and creating an assignment

Accessing a course page is achieved by clicking on a specific course. To launch Inspera Originality, simply navigate into a course’s Content section and click on the name of the available external tool as shown in the image below: 

Keep in mind that the assignment created in Blackboard will also be created in Inspera Originality. Upon launching the tool, a modal containing a set of prefilled data will appear. 

While the first few fields of the modal are self-explanatory, explaining the Original and Translated language options, as well as the AI detection functionality, is imperative. 

1. Original Language 

The selected language for this option indicates the language in which the assignments must be submitted. Additionally, the similarity checking will also be conducted in the same language. 

2. Translated Language

The selected language for this option indicates the language in which the similarity test must be conducted. E.g if the language has been set to Spanish, the detector will look for translation similarities and determine whether the text has been translated from Spanish.  

3. Enable AI Detection

While the tool can identify similarities between documents from both same-language and translated language sources, it also provides enhanced AI Detection. Enabling AI Detection allows Inspera Originality to check a document for content potentially generated by artificial intelligence. Note that this capability is disabled by default and only becomes available if enabled by a professor or administrator. 

4. Excluded Source Criteria

The percentage specified in this field serves as a threshold. For example, if the percentage is set to 5%, every source lower than 5% will be excluded from the Originality Report. This narrows the focus only to sources displaying high percentages. 

5. Anonymous Submission

Enabling this option ensures that user submission information remains undisclosed, thereby keeping the document author anonymous. This establishes privacy among student submissions. 

6. Exclude Citations

Enabling this option turns off citations for assignment submissions. This means that the citations and quotations within the Originality Report will be ignored, allowing the evaluator to focus only on the academic integrity issues.

7. Submission Word Limit

The number entered in this field represents the maximum amount of words allowed per submission. Specifying the word count ensures that students do not exceed assignment requirements.

 

2.2 Inspera Originality dashboard: Instructor

2.2.1 Sidepanel

Educators can also utilize the buttons from the side panel to complete specific actions. Users can also access the side panel from other sections. 

2.2.1.1 Add Units

This is where Educators can add subjects and students, create assignments, and upload documents. 

Add Subjects

To add a subject, educators must complete the following details: 

Add Students

To add students, educators must complete the following details: 

Create Assignment

To create an assignment, educators must complete the following details:

Upload

To upload a document, users must select a file or multiple files and complete the following details: 

 

Additionally, Educators can opt to archive document uploads and choose between third-party libraries to include in the Originality check.

2.2.1.2 Your Submissions

This is where Educators can access all of their personal document submissions. Documents in this section are categorized between low, medium, and high similarity for convenient navigation. Submissions are displayed in rows with each row including the following information: 

 

Educators can also export their own submissions data as well as download the Originality Reports for them. 

2.2.1.3 Students

This is where educators can view students enrolled in their subject and students with pending enrollment invites. 

2.2.1.4 Requests 

This is where educators can manage student requests about late submissions and resubmissions. 

2.2.2 Overview

The overview section of the tool provides easy access to essential information. In this section, users can view the number of subjects they’ve been assigned, the number of assignments for those subjects, as well as the total number of assignment submissions. Furthermore, this section also provides information on the number of documents with low, medium, and high similarity percentages. 

Under this section, you will find a graph that showcases the months with the highest and lowest numbers of documents containing issues related to academic integrity.  The graph can aid in determining whether the academic integrity of student submissions has improved or declined from month to month.

Underneath the graph is another informative subsection that serves the purpose of displaying the latest student submissions. 

2.2.3 Academic units

This section of the dashboard is divided into two main subsections, Subjects, and Assignments,  aiming to provide essential information related to both. 

The Subjects subsection is where a professor can locate all of their subjects. Moreover, detailed information is provided for each subject, including the subject name, corresponding school/department, number of assignments, number of submissions, and number of enrolled students. Additionally, users are also provided with data on the average percentage of original language similarity issues and the average percentage of translated language similarity issues across all submissions.

The Assignments subsection is where a professor can locate all of the assignments they have created. Furthermore, each assignment is accompanied by detailed information, including the assignment name, corresponding subject, beginning and end dates, the number of submissions, and the number of students assigned to it.  

Further information, such as the number of submissions with high, medium, and low similarity issues, is displayed upon clicking on the expand button.

2.2.4 Administration

The Administration section is where created assignments can be edited. This section displays all assignments in a listed manner and provides information on assignment names, corresponding subjects, beginning and end dates, assignment types, and the number of submissions for each assignment.  

Additionally, there’s an Edit button available for each assignment. Clicking the Edit button will trigger a modal. This is where you can change an assignment’s name, subject, start and end dates, original and translated language selections, enable or disable AI detection, change the assignment type, set late submission or resubmission permissions, and update the description. 

To save the changes, you must click on the Update Assignment button. 

2.2.5 Submissions

The Submission section displays all student submissions in a listed manner. Furthermore, this section provides valuable insight into student submissions, including the submission name, the corresponding subject and assignment, submission date, total word count, access information, document language percentage, translated language percentage, and AI authorship percentage. 

Moreover, a Report button is available for each submission. Clicking this button will redirect the user to the Originality Report where the submission can be evaluated and checked for originality and academic integrity. 

2.2.6 Export data & download Originality Reports

To export data users can click on the Export Data button and select one of the supported file types. This results in an immediate download of data in the specified format, providing greater flexibility for data sharing and storing in addition to it being accessible from the platform. 

The supported file types include: 

1. CVS 
2. Excel
3. PDF

Educators can also download offline Originality Reports with the ability to only download specific parts.  

Educators can export data from: 

1. Overview - Exporting data from the overview section includes information about the number of subjects, assignments, submissions, documents with low, medium, and high similarity, and the latest student submissions.

2. Academic Units - Exporting data from the academic units includes information about total subjects and assignments. Users can export data from both total Subjects and Assignments. Additionally, users can download offline Originality Reports for total assignments.

3. Administration - Exporting data from the administration section includes information about the configuration of both subjects and assignments. Exporting data from subjects includes information such as the subject name, ID, password, enrolled students, pending invitations, academic year, type, and status. Exporting data from assignments includes information such as the assignment name, corresponding subject, start date, end date, and the number of submissions.

4. Submissions - Exporting data from submissions includes information about submitting students, submission names, corresponding subjects, and assignments, student access, status, document language, translated language, and AI authorship. Moreover, users can also download an offline version of the Originality Report for all listed submissions. 

2.3 Understanding the Originality Report

To access an Originality Report for a specific submission, simply click on the report button for that particular submission. 

2.3.1 Report navigation 

The report navigation bar is conveniently located above the content, with each tab representing a page. Depending on the document issues, tabs are color-coded with red indicating that a specific page requires particular attention. 

2.3.2 Submission information

Each submitted document contains a set of data that illustrates details about the submitted document. Such details include the student's name, submission title, and the submission date.  

2.3.3 Similarity section

The similarity section displays key information about a submitted document focusing on similarity detection and providing a comprehensive view of matching sources. 

The section includes similarity analysis as part of the originality check by comparing sentences against existing sources. The tool supports 30 languages and cross-language similarity detection, adding another layer of functionality. 

2.3.3.1 Original language

The original language similarity check is straightforward. A document is checked against other documents in the same language. 

2.3.3.2 Translated language

A document is checked against other documents in multiple other languages to determine if its contents have been translated. Inspera Originality provides over 100 language pairs, allowing users to compare languages interchangeably E.g. French to Spanish and Spanish to French. Additionally, the tool provides matching sources and sentence-specific information regarding similarities. Once the document is processed, users can access the originality report and analyze the similarity issues.  The translated language analysis provides sources in the language set for comparison. E.g. If the language is set to Spanish the tool fetches back matching sources in Spanish. 

2.3.4 Sources

Inspera Originality provides users with a list of matching sources, highlighting areas of a document that display similarities to these sources. Sources are listed on the right-hand side of the screen and conveniently listed for easy access. 

Each source includes the following components:

1. Index Number: Index numbers are assigned to matching sources for easier identification within the originality report. 
2. Similarity Percentage: This number shows the percentage of similarity to matching sources. 
3. Source URL: Each source contains a URL that redirects the user to a specific source.
4. Interaction Buttons: Each source row includes a set of buttons to enhance functionality such as the exclude button, reinclude button, and filtering buttons. 

Inspera Originality enables excluding sources from the originality report. This facilitates enhanced control over the document. Users can remove/exclude by navigating to the index panel and clicking the unlink button. Doing so will exclude and place a source in the Excluded Sources section. 

2.3.5 AI authorship 

The AI Authorship Index is located on the right-hand side of the screen and

presents information on the likelihood of content being written by artificial intelligence. Additionally, it provides essential information on text-related classifications. The authorship analysis offers sentence-specific insights about the uploaded document and divides this information into: 

1. Total Sentences: Refers to the total number of sentences in the document.
2. Number of AI-written Sentences: Refers to the number of sentences potentially written by artificial intelligence. 
3. Number of human-written sentences: Refers to the number of sentences potentially written by a human.

Sentences suspected to be written by AI are highlighted in purple. Note that this depends on the detected percentage. 

2.3.6 Text Manipulation

The text manipulation feature provides advanced text manipulation detection capabilities, covering multiple text manipulation techniques and offering character-level insights. 

Using the manipulation detection feature, users can address potential manipulation issues such as character replacement, hidden text, and images in place of text. Each manipulation test provides detailed information which is displayed in their respective container for easier navigation.

1. Character Replacement

Indicates character substitution with characters from other alphabets. The manipulation feature detects these alterations and highlights all substituted characters in the Originality Report, providing an exact number of encountered substitutions.  E.g., (a) is replaced with (α).

2. Hidden Text 

Indicates additional characters concealed within whitespaces. The manipulation feature detects and highlights sentences containing additional text and symbols in whitespaces, revealing the exact location of inserted characters. This manipulation technique is usually employed to increase the word count. 

3. Images in place of text 

Indicates images of text included in the document and camouflaged as regular text. The manipulation feature detects such images and highlights them in red to indicate high-priority issues.

2.3.7 Legend highlights

Upon the conclusion of the originality check, document sentences are highlighted in one of four specified colors. Colors help users understand which sentences require close attention. 

1. Red: Sentences highlighted in red are noted as exact matches. Such sentences are nearly identical to those in the respective matching source. 
2. Blue: Sentences highlighted in blue are noted as potentially altered text and resemble those in the respective matching source moderately.  
3. Green: Sentences highlighted in green are noted as sentences that resemble those of a matching source but properly cite the source. 
4. Grey: Sentences highlighted in gray are excluded sentences that have been absolved for plagiarism. 

2.3.8 Canvas information

The submitted document is placed in the center of the canvas. Each problematic sentence is highlighted using the aforementioned color coding. 

If a submitted document contains media, the platform will also render them. 

2.3.9 Sentence information

Inspera Originality enables understanding originality at the sentence level. This is achieved by providing detailed information related to a specific sentence within the uploaded document. 

Users can access sentence information simply by clicking on a sentence. This will trigger a dialog window containing information on the sentence source followed by the Exclude Sentence, Change Source, and Include Sentence buttons.

Additionally, the sentence information dialog window shows the sentence in the matching source that exhibits similarities to the highlighted sentence in the document. Moreover, matching words are highlighted to allow for a better understanding of the similarity level. The dialog window displays the linked source where the similarities were found, allowing users to view the source directly.   

2.3.9.1 Sentence information: Change source button

Inspera Originality also enables changing sources. This is achieved by clicking on a sentence and clicking on the Change Source button. This will present a list of available sources the user can choose from.  

2.3.9.2 Sentence information: Exclude sentence button

Sentence exclusion is another capability of Inspera Originality that permits the exclusion of flagged sentences. This is achieved by clicking on the Exclude Sentence button. There’s an additional comment box, where users can provide a reason as to why they want to exclude the sentence. Note that excluding a sentence will decrease the similarity analysis percentage.

2.3.10 Settings

The settings section enables managing document permissions. The settings button is located on the left-hand side of the originality report menu. Clicking the Settings button will trigger a model that presents the following options: 

• Give student permission to delete document sources
• Give student permission to delete everything about this document

The above options enable students to delete a document from the Inspera archives. Consequently, no new submissions would be checked against this document due to its absence in the Inspera archives. Subsequently, students can delete the matching sources or choose to delete everything permanently. 

2.3.11 Downloads

The “Download” button is located on the left-hand side of the document canvas. 

Users can download three documents: 

• Original Language Report
• Translated Language Report
• Document File

The “Original Language report” provides a PDF version of the originality report for the original language (i.e. English-English), containing all essential details from the online version. This includes the document's author, title, similarity index (before and after evaluation), sources of similarity, and a canvas highlighting the sentences in question. The highlighted sentences in the report are interactive and clicking on them will direct you to the links where the similarities were detected.

The “Translated Language report” provides a PDF version of the originality report for the translated language (i.e. Spanish-English), containing all essential details from the online version. This includes all the fields and functionalities mentioned in the original language above.

The “Document File” will simply offer the choice to download the submission into a PDF file for further use.

The “Document File” offers the option to download the submission into a PDF file

3. Student

3.1 Logging in as a student and launching Inspera Originality

First, log into Blackboard as a student. Afterwards, navigate to the courses tab. Launching Inpsera Originality requires opening a course, navigating to the Content section, and clicking on the activity name. Note that Inspera Originality will open on the same page. 

3.2 Submitting a document

The main interaction of students and Inspera Originality stands in assignment submissions. To submit an assignment, students must complete the following steps: 

Navigate to the Course section in Blackboard

Enter a desired course

Enter the Content tab within the course

Click on the External Learning Tool

Upon clicking the activity name, you will be redirected to Inspera Originality. 

Click on Select File to upload an assignment document. 

Upon selecting a file, you will be presented with the Upload Form where you must specify a name for the document before submitting it. 

Moreover, a view of the uploaded file can be seen beside the Upload Form. 

Click the Submit button to submit the document to Inspera Originality for originality checking conclusively. Upon doing so, you will be redirected to the submission section of the student dashboard. 

3.3 Inspera Originality dashboard: Student

3.3.1 Side Panel

Students can also utilize the buttons from the side panel to complete specific actions. Users can also access the side panel from other sections. 

 

3.3.1.1 Add Units

Subject

This is where students can enroll in subjects by entering subject enrollment keys. Additionally, students can deregister subjects they no longer need. Each subject row includes the following information: 

Upload

This is where students can upload assignments. Note that clicking the submit button redirects users to the assignment upload page. Assignments are displayed in rows, with each row containing the following:  

Request

This is where students can make late submission and resubmission requests. Students can request by selecting an assignment and specifying a message in the text box. This capability enables users to submit assignments late or resubmit them upon approval from their educator. 

3.3.1.2 Your Submissions

This is where students can view all of their assignment submissions displayed in rows. Each submission row contains the following: 

 

 

Note that access to the Originality report is granted by administrators and educators. Once access is granted, students will be redirected to the Originality upon clicking the Report button. 

3.3.1.3 Administration

This is where students can manage their late submission and resubmission requests and view their status (Approved, Disapproved, Unchecked). Additionally, students can make requests from this section as well. 

3.3.1.4 Calendar

This is where students can view upcoming assignments in calendar format. Clicking on an assignment in the calendar redirects users to the assignment upload page.  

3.3.2 Overview 

The overview section grants students a general view of their subjects, assignments, and latest submissions. In this section, students can view the subject enrollment, the number of assignments delegated for each subject, and the number of assignments they have submitted. Additionally, students can view the total count of submissions containing low, medium, and high similarity classifications. The section includes a graph highlighting the months with the highest and lowest instances of documents with similarity classifications.

3.3.3 Academic units

The Academic Units section contains two primary subsections: Subjects and Assignments. 

In the Subjects subsection, each subject row displays essential information, including details about the subject educator, assignment count, submission count, late submission count, and the scores for both original and translated language similarity classifications.

In the Assignments subsection, each assignment row displays essential information, including details about the corresponding subject, educator, end date, submission count, late submission count, description, and the scores for both original and translated language similarity classifications.

Additionally, both subsections include an expand button in each row that shows the exact count of documents with low, medium, and high similarity classifications. 

3.3.4 Submissions

The submission section grants students a complete view of their submissions sorted by subject/assignment. Each submission row displays essential information, including details such as the submission name, the corresponding subject, and the total submission count. 

Moreover, an expand button is available for each row, displaying supplementary information on the submission status, word count, percentage of original language similarity score, percentage of translated language similarity score, and percentage of AI Authorship prediction. 

Each row includes a Report button, which enables the student (if the educator has provided access) to view the Originality Report of their submission. It is important to note that Students can only access the report if permitted by an administrator or educator. 

3.3.5 Exporting data & downloading Originality Reports

To export data users can click on the Export Data button and select one of the supported file types. This results in an immediate download of data in the specified format, providing greater flexibility for data sharing and storing in addition to it being accessible from the platform. 

The supported file types include: 

1. CVS 
2. Excel
3. PDF

Students can also download offline Originality Reports with the ability to only download specific parts.  

Students can export data from: 

1. Overview - Exporting data from the overview section includes information about the number of subjects, assignments, submissions, and documents with low, medium, and high similarity. 

2. Academic Units - Exporting data from academic units includes information about total subjects and assignments. Users can export data from both total Subjects and Assignments. Additionally, users can download offline Originality Reports for total assignments.

3. Submissions - Exporting data from submissions includes information about submission names, dates, document language, translated language, and AI authorship.