SafeAssignment, the program aimed at helping students learn to properly cite information in papers, is still being tested, and minor kinks are still being worked out.
There have been a few small problems with the program, such as a slow server, said Ruvi Wijesuriya, ASU's director of learning technologies.
The program, which is being used by ASU professors, takes students' essays and compares them to essays on the Internet, published electronic databases, newspapers, magazines, electronic books and other papers submitted by ASU students.
ASU's purpose in having the program is to help students learn how to correctly cite essays as opposed to punishing for plagiarizing.
About 150 professors are using the program in their classrooms, which is a rise from the 40 who were using it at the beginning of the year.
"There have been a few performance issues and slow response times," he said. "ASU connects to [SafeAssignment's] servers, so it is a problem with them we are having."
Another problem that has been found only affects people using Macs, he said.
"The browser, Safari, is not working with SafeAssignment," Wijesuriya said. "We are encouraging people with Macs to use another browser ,such as Firefox."
He said all problems are being investigated and will eventually be worked out.
Pamela Brooks, an adjunct faculty communications professor at the Polytechnic campus, has been using the program since the start of the semester.
She said she uses the program especially when she is having her students turn in an extended paper or speech.
"I'm out to teach my students, and the program has been wonderful," Brooks said.
Students have been learning by seeing what pieces of the text they have not cited correctly, she added.
Also, Brooks said the program might discourage students from turning in a friend's essay because it compares papers to others that are already in the system.
"We encourage teachers to use it as a tool," Wijesuriya said. "Instructors seem to want to use it for its intended purpose. They want to teach."
Reach the reporter at: heather.cutler@asu.edu.
