D2L Dropbox The Dropbox tool enables you to submit assignments in D2L, eliminating the need for students to hand in paper copies or email work to instructors. Students simply upload submission to the appropriate dropbox folder and submit. The Dropbox tool allows you to see users submission times, download dropbox folders to your computer, view submissions with the document viewer on the Evaluate Submission page, associate dropbox folders to grades, and return submissions with grades and feedback. You can view users' submissions and submission dates in the Folder Submissions area. This eliminates the need to collect assignments and helps you track when files were submitted. Create categories to group and organize your dropbox folders. You can also restrict access to dropbox folders by date and time, group membership, or special access permissions. Each folder's Folder Submissions area has search and filter options that enable you to find users' submitted files by username, submission history, and amount of feedback they have received. Creating and Managing Dropboxes (Evaluating Dropbox folder submissions starts on page 4) Create a dropbox category Organize your dropbox folders into categories to make it easier for users to navigate to the appropriate folder. For example, you can create separate categories for course units, summative projects, bonus assignments, and individual submissions. 1. On the Dropbox Folders page, click New Folder. 2. Click the New Category link beside the Category field. 3. Enter a Name for the new category. 4. Click Save. Create a dropbox folder Users submit their work to a dropbox folder. Information you create in the dropbox folder about evaluation methodology, details about rubric assessments, associations with learning objectives, instructions, and clarifications on work expectations appear to users in the "Folder Information" area on the Submit Files page. 1. On the Dropbox Folders page, click New Folder. 2. Enter a Name.
3. Select a Folder Type: Individual submission folder Select this option if you want each user to have their own submission. Group submission folder Select this option if you want one submission per group. You must associate the folder with a Group Category. Managing dropbox folder submission handling Restrict the number of files allowed per submission 1. On the New Folder or Edit Folder page, go to the Submission Options section in the Properties tab to select one of the following Files allowed per submission options: 2. Click Save. Unlimited One file per submission Change how subsequent file submissions are handled 1. On the New Folder or Edit Folder page, go to the Submission Options section in the Properties tab to select one of the following Submissions options: 2. Click Save. Keep all submissions Overwrite submissions Only one submission allowed Setting dropbox folder availability and due dates Set availability dates for a dropbox folder 1. On the Dropbox Folders page, click Edit from the context menu of the folder you want to set an availability. 2. Click the Restrictions tab. 3. In the Availability section, set the dropbox folder's Start Date and End Date. 4. Click Save & Close. Set dropbox folder due date 1. On the Dropbox Folders page, click Edit from the context menu of the folder you want to set a due date. 2. Click the Restrictions tab.
3. In the Availability section, set the dropbox folder's Due Date. 4. Click Save & Close. Setting release conditions for a dropbox folder Release conditions allow you to associate a dropbox folder with other items in D2L. For example, you can require that users meet some criteria, such as reading a set of lecture notes in the Content tool, before they can submit their work to a dropbox folder. Or, you can make submission to the dropbox folder a criteria for accessing another item, such as a quiz. 1. On the Dropbox Folders page, click Edit from the context menu of the folder you want to set restrictions for. 2. Click the Restrictions tab. 3. In the Release Conditions section, click either Attach Existing or Create and Attach. 4. Select from the drop-down list if All conditions must be met or Any condition must be met to access the dropbox folder. Add special access permissions to a dropbox folder Special access permissions allow you to set different availability dates and times for specific users. For example, you could extend the deadline for users who require remedial help or who are submitting work beyond the original scope of the dropbox folder. You can also add special access after a dropbox folder s end date has past for users who have a legitimate excuse for missing the deadline or for users you want to submit additional material, such as planning notes or a bibliography. 1. On the Dropbox Folders page, click Edit from the context menu of the folder you want to add special access permissions. 2. In the Restrictions tab, select one of the following: 3. Allow users with special access to submit files outside the normal availability dates for this folder. 4. Allow only users with special access to see this folder. 5. Click Add Users to Special Access. 6. On the Special Access page, select the Date Availability you want special access users to have. 7. Use the View By option and Search For field to locate the users you want to give special access to. 8. Select the check box beside each appropriate user s name. 9. Click Save. Once you have added special access permissions for users they are listed in the Special Access section. You can edit or delete users special access by clicking the Edit or Remove special access icons beside their names.
Evaluating Dropbox folder submissions Viewing dropbox folder file submissions The Dropbox Folders page provides a summary of the Total Files, Unread Files, Flagged Files, and Due Date for each dropbox folder. Click on a folder to navigate to its Folder Submissions page to view submitted files. You can also access users' folder submission history from the Evaluate Submission page if they have submitted at least one file to the folder. A submission history enables you to quickly view a list of all files a student has submitted including: deleted files re-submitted files every submission's date and time an indication that the student has read the comments and feedback for a submission comments left by the student View files using the Folder Submissions page 1. Do one of the following: On the Dropbox Folders page, click on the folder you want to view submissions for. On a folder's Edit Folder page, click Folder Submissions from the context menu beside the page heading. 2. Use the Users tab or Files tab to view and search submissions by user or file name. Searching by User enables you to search by first name, last name, submissions, and feedback. Searching by Files enables you to search by file name, submission date, read status, and flagged status. 3. Enter criteria in the Search For field to narrow the list of submissions in your search. View folder submission history 1. On the Folder Submissions page, click the Evaluate link beside the name of the user you want to view a history of. 2. On the Evaluate Submission page, click Folder Submission History. 3. You can select a different folder from the Folder drop-down list if a user submitted files to other dropbox folders within the course. Leaving feedback and grading dropbox submissions The Evaluate Submission page enables you to evaluate and leave feedback for user submissions, but you can also download submissions from the Folder Submissions page to work on files offline. The Evaluate Submission page contains two main sections: the Submissions List panel and the Evaluation panel. From the Submissions List panel you can download submissions to work with offline or view them
inline with the document viewer. The Submissions List panel also displays a user's or a group's file submissions. Use the Evaluation panel to grade and provide comments. The following file formats are compatible with Dropbox's document viewer: MS Word (DOC, DOCX) MS PowerPoint (PPT, PPTX, PPS) Adobe Acrobat (PDF, PDFS) Web (HTM, HTML) Plain text (TXT) Images (BMP, GIF, JPG, JPEG, PNG) If you grade directly on the Evaluate Submission page, you can choose to publish feedback immediately or save your feedback as a draft and release it at a later time. This enables you to revise and review evaluations, and publish your feedback to multiple users at the same time. You also have the option to retract published feedback if you want to provide an update to past evaluations but only want students to access your most recent feedback. You can also annotate users' web and plain text file submissions with the HTML Editor and attach those annotations as part of feedback. If you use rubrics to assess Dropbox submissions, you can append the overall rubric feedback to the submission Feedback field. If the rubric uses points, you can also scale and transfer the overall rubric score to the submission Score field. Both of these fields transfer to Grades if the dropbox folder is associated with a grade item. View a file submission in the document viewer In the submission list on the Evaluate Submission page, click context menu. View Document from a file submission's Evaluating and grading submissions Transfer feedback from an associated rubric You can assess a user submission with a rubric associated with the dropbox folder. For each associated rubric, you can grade a user based on set criteria, and you can also provide additional feedback in the HTML Editor. 1. Click on the associated rubric in the Evaluation panel. 2. In the rubric, click on a criterion's Edit feedback icon and enter feedback in the text field. Click Save. 3. Select Transfer rubric feedback to general feedback for the assignment. NOTE If you transfer rubric feedback to general feedback, it will appear beneath your manually entered feedback. You can edit transferred rubric feedback in the general feedback HTML Editor, but the rubric will not reflect changes you save here.
4. Click Save & Record to push your rubric assessment score and feedback into the submission's overall score and feedback area. Otherwise, click Save if you want to keep the rubric score separate from the overall score and prevent the transfer of rubric feedback into general feedback. NOTE You can attach multiple rubrics to a dropbox folder, but you can only push one rubric's assessment score to the submission's overall score. Evaluate a dropbox submission NOTES 1. If you created a grade item for the dropbox folder, enter a value in the Score field. NOTE Information about grade items tied to the dropbox folder appears beside the score value. 2. Provide comments and suggestions in the Feedback field. 3. You can Add a File, Record Audio, or Record Video as feedback. Feedback given as an annotated file also appears in your list of added files. 4. Click Save Draft to save feedback and continue grading submissions. Click Publish to release your feedback to user. As you grade each submission, you can click Next Student until you reach the final submission where you can clickfinish to return to the Folder Submissions page. If you want to publish feedback simultaneously for multiple users, you can bulk publish from the folder's Folder Submissions page. Provide feedback as an annotated file attachment You can edit.html,.htm, and.txt files directly from the Evaluate Submission page. Your feedback will include the annotated file as an attachment. 1. In the submission list on the Evaluate Submission page, click Edit a Copy from the context menu of the file you want to annotate. 2. A copy of the user submission appears in the HTML Editor. You can add feedback and highlight text directly on the copy submission. 3. Click Attach Change. Evaluating non-submissions and external submissions You can evaluate students from Dropbox even if no submissions were made to a dropbox folder. This enables instructors to assign comments and grades to students with no submissions. Also, this enables instructors to evaluate submissions that occur outside of Learning Environment while keeping track of evaluations within dropbox folders. 1. On the Dropbox Folders page, click on the folder you want to view submissions for.
2. On the Folder Submissions page, there are several filters you can use to search for users with no submissions. You can selectusers without submissions from the Submissions drop-down list to filter your search for empty submissions. Or, you can selectshow everyone from the Submissions drop-down list to filter your search for submissions and empty submissions. 3. Click the Search icon. 4. Click the Evaluate link beside the name of the user you want to evaluate. 5. You can evaluate the user through any associated rubrics, or if you created a grade item for the dropbox folder, enter a value in the Score field. 6. Provide comments and suggestions in the Feedback field. 7. You can Add a File, Record Audio, or Record Video as feedback. Feedback given as an annotated file also appears in your list of added files. 8. Click Save Draft to save feedback and continue grading submissions. Click Publish to release your feedback to user. Bulk publishing dropbox feedback evaluations If you want to publish feedback simultaneously for multiple users, you can bulk publish from the folder's Folder Submissions page. See Bulk publishing dropbox feedback evaluations for more information. 1. In the Users tab on the Folder Submissions page, select the check box beside the users you want to send feedback to. NOTE If you select users who already received published feedback, bulk publishing will update their feedback to the latest feedback. 2. Click Publish feedback for selected users. NOTE You cannot revert bulk publishing, but you can retract feedback for users individually on the Evaluate Submission page. Downloading dropbox folder submission files If you need to access submission files offline instead of viewing them directly from Dropbox's document viewer, you can download submissions to your computer. You can also leave feedback in downloaded submission files, and upload the files back to the dropbox folder in the form of attachments (files are attached to each user's submission evaluation). Download submission files 1. On the Folder Submissions page, do one of the following: In the Users tab, select the check box beside each user or group with dropbox files you want to download. In the Files tab, select the check box beside each file you want to download. 2. Click Download. 3. Click on the newly created zip folder. 4. Use your browser s "Save" dialog to save the files to your computer.
NOTES Dropbox renames each downloaded submission file to include a unique user ID, the user's name, or the group's name along with the submitting user's name, and the submission date and time. Dropbox marks downloaded submission files with a Read icon. Uploading and attaching feedback from downloaded submission files If you download user submissions and leave feedback within the files, you can upload them back to the appropriate dropbox folder so they appear as attachments to each user's submission evaluation. To ensure successful feedback upload and distribution back to students, do not rename the downloaded files' names after you enter feedback and save changes. NOTE Internet Explorer 9 and older currently do not support dragging and dropping files from your desktop into Learning Environment. Upload feedback files 1. Do one of the following: On the Dropbox Folders page, click on the folder you want to view submissions for. On a folder's Edit Folder page, click Folder Submissions from the context menu beside the page heading. 2. Click Upload Feedback Files. 3. You can drag and drop multiple files from your computer or you can click Upload to select them. NOTE If you are uploading a compressed zip file that contains dropbox folder submissions you previously downloaded to add feedback, your compressed zip file structure must be identical to the bulk submission download, and file names should remain unchanged. This ensures the automatic distribution process runs smoothly. 4. By default, the system overwrites duplicate upload files. Clear the Overwrite duplicate files check box if you want to keep duplicates. 5. Click Upload. 6. Feedback files that do not automatically distribute display in the Distribute Feedback dialog. Select a file, then click on the student you want to send the feedback to. Retracting published feedback If you want to remove published feedback, go to the user's submission on the Evaluate Submission page and click Retract and Clear Feedback in the Evaluation panel.