All written assignments should include a cover sheet (available from appropriate assignment submission locations, or from; https://intranet.secure.griffith.edu.au/student/exams-assessment/submitting-assignments.) with the title of the assignment, student name, identification number, course code, tutor's name, and day and time of the student's usual tutorial class. Assignment submission information will be recorded in a database.

The course convenor will advise you about where to submit your assignment.

Some courses may enable you to submit your assignment electronically. When courses allow you to submit your assignment electronically then you can choose between submitting a hard copy or an electronic copy. For submission instructions, check out the ‘Assignment’ section of the specific course on Learning@Griffith – along with information about the assignment, there will also be a link for submitting your assignment. HOWEVER, please don’t get confused between submitting an electronic copy and submitting your assignment to Safe Assign – these are two separate things. Please don’t wait until the last hour to submit your assignment electronically just in case everyone else waits until the last hour and the system gets flooded with submissions.

The following information is taken from Information Services handout on SafeAssign.

Turnitin and SafeAssign are tools within Learning@Griffith that enable you to submit electronic versions of your assignments via the internet, and generate a text-matching report. Griffith University is introducing text-matching software into the assignment submission process in order to achieve the following:
Allowing students to check their assignments to ensure correct referencing of quotes and ideas, and thus develop skills in correct academic writing;

Allowing academic staff to better identify students who may need further assistance with their academic writing skills and in developing their own ideas in written assignments.

Turnitin and SafeAssign take the assignments you submit, and checks for text matches against the following sources: Internet

• ProQuest ABI/Inform database


• Institutional document archives containing all papers submitted to SafeAssign by staff and students at Griffith University


• Global Reference Database, a database shared across all the institutions that use SafeAssign who have chosen to give their students this option. Each student decides whether they wish to submit each assignment to the Global Reference Database – a check box is available at final submission time. Choosing to submit a file to the Global Reference Database means your assignment is stored by SafeAssign and used to check for text matches in other assignments submitted by students at other universities and institutions around the world.

After you submit your file, SafeAssign will return a report showing which, if any, text in the submitted document matches text from other documents. Please note that SafeAssign cannot tell you if text that you have quoted in your assignment is correctly cited, or if your reference list is correct. It will simply highlight those sections of text that have been found in other sources, and assign an overall percentage score. The average score will vary depending on the topic of the assignment. For example, in one course the average range might be 10%-30%, and in another course, 20%-40%. (You do not need to aim for a score of 0%.) You can learn about interpreting this report by referring to the tipsheet “Accessing and Interpreting SafeAssign Reports For Students”, which is available online from:  https://intranet.secure.griffith.edu.au/computing/blended-learning-support/using-learning-at-griffith/assessment-tools/safeassign/safeassign-submission-help 

A link for each assignment will be set up in your Learning@Griffith course site. To submit your assignment, click this link, and follow the prompts to attach the file and submit. Tips on preventing technical issues are at the end of this tipsheet – please refer to this information before you submit. You will also have access to a draft submission point: this allows you to submit your assignment as a draft. Please note that draft submissions are stored in Learning@Griffith (but not in SafeAssign), and can be viewed by your course convenor.

Please note that if you are submitting your file whilst on campus, or connected using Griffith@Home or VLink VPN, you must be logged into NetCheck to submit your assignment.

Your file will need to be one of the following file types:

• Microsoft Word document: .doc*


• Rich Text Format: .rtf


• HTML: .htm or .html


• Text: .txt


• PDF: .pdf

Please note that if you are using Microsoft Office 2007, documents saved in .docx format cannot be submitted via SafeAssign. You need to open the document in Microsoft Word, choose 'Save As', then select Word 97-2003 Document in the' Save as type' dropdown list to save your file in a format that you can submit.

If you are using Endnote to manage citations in your assignments, it is important to note that SafeAssign does not support Endnote. When you view or print a document in Word, the field codes for the Endnote citation are properly converted into the expected formatting because you have the Endnote plug-in installed. However, SafeAssign cannot interpret the field codes for the Endnote citation. So when the submitted Word paper is converted into text for processing by SafeAssign the Endnote citation field codes cannot be interpreted - they are treated as plain text. In plain text, the field codes look like {ADDIN EN.CITE ... } with all the citation information inside the curly brackets. Students using Endnote should save the final version of their assignment for submission without the field codes. To do this, go to the Tools menu and select Endnote X1-> Remove field codes. We recommend that you keep a backup copy of your file with the field codes included, as once you have removed the field codes, you cannot reconnect them.

• Log into Learning@Griffith using your student ID (s-number) and password.


• Navigate to the course where you need to submit your assignment (e.g., the 1008PSY section).


• Your course convenor or tutor will advise you where in the course, the link to submit your assignments is located, but typically it is under the “Assignment” section. Navigate to this location. If you cannot find the link, please contact your course convenor.


• Click the View Assignment link which appears under the name of the assignment that you are submitting. Links to both draft (if available) and final submission points will be available.

• Click on ‘Submit’

• The submission type will be ‘file upload’.


• Provide a title for your submission.


• Click ‘choose file’ to browse for the file


• Click Submit.

You can then return to the submissions inbox screen, and verify that your assignment was attached successfully. We recommend you open the file and look it over, and if you notice any problems, contact your course convenor.

If you are working on campus or using Griffith@Home or logged into Griffith via VPN (VLink), please ensure that you are logged into NetCheck. It is best to do this before you begin. If you encounter an error during submission that is related to the internet connection, open a new browser window and visit: http://www.griffith.edu.au/netcheck

If the screen indicates that you are not logged in to NetCheck, login now. A file in the process of being submitted in another window should then be processed successfully.

To minimise the risk of problems with your file submission
Ensure that your file/s work correctly before you attempt to submit. Open your files and check everything looks OK before you begin.

Make sure your computer is attaching the file extension to the filename, and that the file extension is correct (.doc, .pdf). SafeAssign does not support .docx files. If you are using Word 2007 make sure you save your file in .doc format. Turnitin does support .docx files.

If you are using Endnote, save your file without the field codes.

Consider whether your home internet connection is fast enough to submit the assignment for you. For example, if you have dial-up Internet at home, and an assignment file larger than 1MB, you should try to use a computer with a faster Internet connection, to minimise issues with timeouts.

Make sure you are using a supported browser. Internet Explorer, Firefox and Safari are best. (If you are using a non-standard browser, we cannot guarantee that the assignment submission tool will function correctly).

If you experience any technical difficulties:Notify your course convenor. Even if they are unable to assist they should be made aware of any issues that may affect the submission of your assignment.For urgent queries, you can contact InfoServices by phone: Brisbane (07) 373 55 555, Gold Coast (07) 5552 5555. Please let the staff on the phone know that you are having trouble with assignment submission via SafeAssign in Learning@Griffith. Info Services can escalate your query to appropriate higher level support if necessary.