For Educators: How to Use Packback Sendback in Canvas

Packback Sendback allows instructors to leverage Packback’s advanced Originality Fingerprint directly within the Canvas workflow. This integration works seamlessly with the Canvas assignment set-up progress and Speedgrader, requiring no separate Packback community setup or external login.

If Packback Sendback is not yet configured for your institution, please have your campus LMS administrator follow these instructions. 

• Overview
• Setting Up a Sendback Assignment
• Reviewing Reports in SpeedGrader
• Frequently Asked Questions
• The Student Experience

Overview

With Sendback enabled, student file uploads are automatically analyzed for:

• Uniqueness (Potential Plagiarism): Checking against global databases and web sources. You can read more about the Uniqueness score here.
• AI Writing Detection: Identifying text likely generated by AI. You can read more about the AI Risk indicator here.

Setting Up a Sendback Assignment

You can enable Packback Sendback on any new or existing Canvas assignment that requires a file upload.

1. Create Assignment: In your Canvas course, click + Assignment.
2. Configure Submission Type: Set the Submission Type to Online and check File Uploads.
3. Enable Document Processing App: Click the Document Processing App button and select Packback Sendback in the pop-up modal.
4. Customize Settings: * AI Risk Detection: You may toggle this ON or OFF based on your pedagogical needs (Note: Some institutions may have this turned off globally).
5. Click “Enable”, which closes the pop-up modal.
6. Save and Publish: Finish your assignment setup as usual and click Save or Save & Publish.

Reviewing Reports in SpeedGrader

You do not need to log into Packback to see the Originality Fingerprint. Everything is housed within the Canvas SpeedGrader.

The Summary Sidebar

When you open a student's submission in SpeedGrader, a Packback summary will appear in the right-hand sidebar. This gives you an "at-a-glance" look at the Uniqueness and AI Risk scores.

The Full Originality Fingerprint

To dive deeper into the data:

1. Click the View Report link in the SpeedGrader sidebar.
2. A detailed Packback report will open in a new tab, showing specific highlighted passages, source matches, and detailed information.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Do I need to create a Packback account? No. Your access is handled automatically through Canvas LTI. You and your students will never need to navigate to the main Packback website to use this feature.
• Can I use Sendback and a Packback community at the same time? Yes! While Sendback is designed for instructors who prefer to stay entirely within Canvas, you can still use a full Packback community for your course discussions or other assignments while also using Sendback for certain assignments.
• Can I disable the AI Risk indicator? Yes! When you enable Packback Sendback for an assignment, you can uncheck the setting that includes the AI Risk indicator.
• What if the Sendback report fails to load? If the Originality Fingerprint fails to process for some reason, you should still be able to click into the report and attempt to regenerate the Originality Fingerprint. In rare cases, if Packback is unable to convert the uploaded file, a Packback Sendback report will not be available.
• Can I find the Sendback reports inside of Packback? No. These assignments exist only within your Canvas environment; they will not appear in the Packback platform if you are using it for other courses or assignments.

The Student Experience

When a student goes to submit their assignment, the process is nearly identical to a standard Canvas submission, with two differences:

• Terms of Service: Upon their first submission, students will be prompted to agree to Packback’s Terms of Service in order to process their document.
• Immediate Feedback: Students will be able to view their Packback Sendback report on the Canvas assignment Submission Details page after the Sendback report returns to the LMS. If you have enabled multiple attempts, students can use their SendBack report to self-correct and resubmit their work before the deadline.
  • Students will see a “Please review” alert on their Submission Details page after their Packback Sendback report is returned to Canvas if they have a Uniqueness score below 50% or a high AI Risk indicator. 

NOTE: The report may take several minutes to appear in Canvas. Students may need to refresh their page.