The Dropbox tool enables you to submit assignments in Learning Environment, eliminating the need to mail, fax, or email your work to instructors. Simply upload your 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 rubrics and competencies, 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.
Any rubrics which submissions are evaluated with are listed on the submission page so you can see how submissions are evaluated.
If users have access to the Competencies tool, any learning objectives associated with the dropbox folder can be viewed there if competencies are set to display to users and they also have permission to see them.
Any user in your group can submit files to the dropbox folder. The Submissions column indicates how many files your group has submitted.
NoteIf you have permission to add video notes, you can click the Insert Stuff icon in the HTML Editor and click Video Note to do your recording.
A list of submitted files displays on the Submission History page. You can view each file’s size, submission date, whether comments were included with it, and who has retrieved it. For group dropbox folders, you can check who submitted each file.
Feedback (including grades) associated with group dropbox folders applies to the entire group.
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.
NoteYour new category appears on the Dropbox Folders page only if there are dropbox folders associated with it.
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.
NoteGroup submission areas are marked on the Dropbox Folders page with the Group Submissions icon. Any group member can submit and view files for a group dropbox folder.
TipIf you associate the folder with a grade item, maintain consistency for your students by matching the value of the Out Of field to the grade item's Max. Points value.
NoteDropbox folder availability dates appear by default in Calendar. If you delete the dropbox folder, it's availability dates disappear from the course calendar. If you restore the dropbox folder, it's availability dates reappear in the course calendar.
Release conditions allow you to associate a dropbox folder with other items in Learning Environment. 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.
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.
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.
Note Selecting the Display in Calendar check box adds Submissions After and Submissions Before dates to users' calendars.
On the Dropbox Folders page, click the Delete icon beside the name of the category you want to delete.
NoteDropbox folders in the deleted category will appear in the No Category area on the Dropbox Folders page.
NoteIf your dropbox folder has availability dates associated with it, when you restore the folder, you also restore its dates in the Calendar.
The Dropbox event log enables you to view information on specific activity for individual dropbox folders. The event log tracks when users create, delete, and restore dropbox folders. Once an action is taken, the event log records the name and ID of the dropbox folder, the action, the user who made the change, and the date it was performed.
NoteDropbox event log only tracks folder items you create, delete, and restore since Learning Environment 10.2. Dropbox folders you import from any previous Learning Environment are not tracked in event log until you act on them (e.g. delete a folder).
NoteYou can change the sort order of results by clicking on the Item, Action, and Date column headers.
Go to the Objectives tab to associate a dropbox folder with a learning objective. By associating a dropbox folder with a learning objective, you can tie the folder to a competency you want users to master. This association can be a basic association or an association with a rubric-based assessment.
See Competencies' Creating activities [34] for information on the levels of association.
If you have permissions to edit a dropbox folder's associated learning objectives and assessments, click Edit Learning Objective or Edit Assessment from the context menu of the learning objective or assessment you want to modify.
The preview option enables you to navigate the steps that users go through to submit files, review their submissions, and view submission history.
You can make a preview submission visible on the Submissions page, but you cannot give feedback, grades, or rubric scores to it because it is not tied to an actual user.
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:
On the Folder Submissions page, click the Evaluate link beside the name of the user you want to leave feedback for.
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:
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.
In the submission list on the Evaluate Submission page, click View Document from a file submission's context menu.
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.
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.
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.
Note Information about grade items tied to the dropbox folder appears beside the score value.
You can edit .html, .htm, and .txt files directly from the Evaluate Submission page. Your feedback will include the annotated file as an attachment.
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.
NoteIf you select users who already received published feedback, bulk publishing will update their feedback to the latest feedback.
NoteYou cannot revert bulk publishing, but you can retract feedback for users individually on the Evaluate Submission page. See Retracting published feedback [26] for more information.
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). See Uploading and attaching feedback from downloaded submission files [25] for more information.
ImportantIf you want to leave feedback directly in a downloaded submission and attach it to a user's dropbox submission evaluation, do not rename the file name when you save your changes. This ensures easier upload and distribution back to students.
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.
NoteInternet Explorer 9 and older currently do not support dragging and dropping files from your desktop into Learning Environment.
NoteIf you are uploading a compressed zip file that contains dropbox folder submissions you previously downloaded to add feedback (see Downloading dropbox folder submission files [24]), 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.
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.
NoteIf any member of a group submits work to a group dropbox folder, no one in that group receives an email when Email Groups Without Submissions is selected.
On the Folder Submissions page, do one of the following:
NoteWhen you open or download a file, the Dropbox tool marks it as "Read".
On the Folder Submissions page, click the Flagged or Not Flagged icon beside an item's name.
NoteYou can use the Files tab to search for flagged submissions.
If OriginalityCheck is enabled, you can use the GradeMark functionality to add comments, insert inline text, and highlight sections in file submissions, directly from the Dropbox tool.
Note OriginalityCheck and GradeMark features are enabled through integration with Turnitin from iParadigms, LLC. To use these features, first obtain a valid Turnitin account, and then login to your account to enable and configure the Desire2Learn integration and obtain your shared key. Visit http://www.turnitin.com [37] for more information about obtaining a Turnitin account.
By default, GradeMark is turned off for your organization. To activate GradeMark, you must first activate OriginalityCheck, and then enable the following config variable for your org unit:
Config Variable | Value |
---|---|
d2l.3rdParty.Turnitin.HasGradeMark | On |
If GradeMark is activated for your org unit, when you enable OriginalityCheck and choose to "Generate Originality Reports", the GradeMark functionality is automatically enabled.
Note Instructors can enter grades via GradeMark one day after the dropbox folder due date has passed. You must create due dates in a dropbox folder's Restrictions tab to make GradeMark grades available to students.
Add comments, highlight text, save, and print your GradeMark report using the available tools in the menu bar. You can view a summary of the submission at the top of the page, including word count, submission date, and Originality Report rating.
Tip For more detailed help with GradeMark functionality, click the Help menu item on the report.
The following file types are compatible with GradeMark:
Note If your file type is incompatible with GradeMark, Information icon displays instead of the GradeMark icon.
OriginalityCheck enables you to monitor dropbox submissions and identify potential cases of plagiarism by automatically comparing submissions to an online database of original content. You can then view Originality Reports which highlight key areas, show a breakdown of matching sources, and provide direct links to the matching content.
You can also take advantage of the integrated GradeMark which enables you to add comments, inline text, and highlight sections in file submissions, directly from the Dropbox tool.
Note OriginalityCheck and GradeMark features are enabled through integration with Turnitin from iParadigms, LLC. To use these features, first obtain a valid Turnitin account, and then login to your account to enable and configure the Desire2Learn integration and obtain your shared key. Visit http://www.turnitin.com [37] for more information about obtaining a Turnitin account.
By default, OriginalityCheck is turned off for your organization. To activate OriginalityCheck, the following config variables must be enabled and properly updated for your org unit.
Config Variable | Value |
---|---|
d2l.3rdParty.Turnitin.AccountID | Your Turnitin account ID number |
d2l.3rdParty.Turnitin.SharedKey | Your Turnitin shared key |
d2l.3rdParty.Turnitin.URL | The API URL provided by Turnitin for your account (typically https://www.turnitin.com/api.asp [38]) |
d2l.3rdParty.Turnitin.HasPlagiarismPrevention | On |
Contact your site administrator to update these config variables and obtain the appropriate account id, shared key, and URL from Turnitin for your organization.
If OriginalityCheck is activated for your org unit, a check box appears in the properties tab of the New/Edit Dropbox page.
ImportantOnce a dropbox folder is created with OriginalityCheck enabled, assignments are created in Turnitin. If you disable OriginalityCheck, the assignment in Turnitin continues to exist unless you go to Turnitin to delete it, or you delete the assignment after its availability dates have passed.
Once you enable OriginalityCheck, an options area appears at the bottom of the New/Edit Dropbox page. Here you can enable detailed Originality Reports for dropbox submissions, control end user visibility, set the Originality Reports frequency, select which sources to check the submission against, and decide whether the current submission you are running the report against is added to the file index for new submissions to be checked against.
Select the Generate Originality Reports check box in the Originality Checking Options section of the Properties tab.
If your dropbox folder has Identify individual submissions for originality checking enabled, you will need to manually submit file submissions for originality checking. This is useful if you don’t want to check every file submission for plagiarism, but still want the ability to do so on a case-by-case basis.
View Originality Reports from the Folder Submissions page. When a report is available, the status changes from In-Progress to a percentage rating, which indicates the level of matching content.
A lower percentage rating indicates that the content is likely original and has not been copied; a higher percentage rating indicates the content is likely not original and has been copied from another source.
The percentage ranges are associated with colors:
Click the colored section beside the percentage rating to view the associated Originality Report.
The Originality Report is comprised of two panes. The right pane lists all of the matching sources, including the percentage of text that matches and a link to the online content. The left pane displays the submission text using colored highlights to draw attention to the matching content.
Tip For more detailed help with Originality Reports, click the help link in the top-right corner of the report page.
The following file types are compatible with OriginalityCheck:
Note If a file type is incompatible with OriginalityCheck, the Information icon displays instead of the percentage rating.
Links:
[1] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/accessing-dropbox
[2] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/submitting-to-a-dropbox-folder
[3] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/submitting-group-work-dropbox-folder
[4] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/reviewing-dropbox-folder-submission-history
[5] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/viewing-feedback-dropbox-folder
[6] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/creating-dropbox-categories
[7] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/creating-dropbox-folders
[8] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/managing-dropbox-folder-submission-handling
[9] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/setting-dropbox-folder-availability-due-dates
[10] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/setting-release-conditions-dropbox-folder
[11] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/adding-special-access-permissions-dropbox-folder
[12] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/editing-dropbox-categories-folders
[13] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/reordering-dropbox-categories-folders
[14] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/deleting-dropbox-categories-folders
[15] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/restoring-deleted-dropbox-folders
[16] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/viewing-dropbox-event-log
[17] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/associating-dropbox-folders-with-learning-objectives
[18] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/previewing-dropbox-folders-submissions
[19] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/viewing-dropbox-folder-file-submissions
[20] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/accessing-evaluate-submission-page
[21] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/leaving-feedback-grading-dropbox-submissions
[22] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/evaluating-non-submissions-external-submissions
[23] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/bulk-publishing-dropbox-feedback-evaluations
[24] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/downloading-dropbox-folder-submission-files
[25] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/uploading-attaching-feedback-from-downloaded-submission-files
[26] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/retracting-published-feedback
[27] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/emailing-users-from-dropbox-folder
[28] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/marking-dropbox-folder-submissions-read-unread
[29] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/flagging-dropbox-folder-submissions
[30] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/node/7057
[31] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/using-dropbox-grademark
[32] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/taxonomy/term/3
[33] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/taxonomy/term/2
[34] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/creating-activities
[35] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/creating-holistic-rubrics
[36] http://staging.docs.d2l/en/creating-analytic-rubrics
[37] http://www.turnitin.com
[38] https://www.turnitin.com/api.asp