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Laulima Drop Box Tutorials

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The Dropbox tool is a basic tool, offerring a shared space between an instructor/maintainer and student/participant. It is not in a Laulima site by default, so you will need to add it (Site Info -> Edit Tools). Each student/participant has a seperate private space (drop box folder) that they and the instructor/maintainer can access. Files can be uploaded or downloaded to and from this space for comment, grading, and/or collaboration.

How do I access the Drop Box tool?
After the Drop Box tool has been added to a course you can click on the tool on the menu of tools on the left.

Participants with the roles of student, access, and Teaching Assistant should automatically get a Drop Box folder. If your status is of the previous type, you will see your folder when you click on the tool.

Laulima Drop Box Tool, Student/Access View

To the right of your folder you can see clickable popup menus that allow you to perform certain functions (eg. uploading files).

 

Participants with the Instructor or Maintainer role will see all participants' Drop Box folders and have additional options.

Laulima Drop Box Tool, Instructor/Maintain View

Like the student/access role, there are also popups to the right of each participant's folder.

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How do I upload a file to the Drop Box tool?
To upload a file or a few files to the Drop Box, you can use the "Add" popup menu in your Drop Box area, then choose "Upload Files". If you want to organize your files into subfolders, you can choose "Create Folder" first.

 

Laulima Drop Box Add popup Upload Files

Selecting the "Upload Files" link will bring you to the next screen where you can choose a file. Click the "Browse…" button to make your selection. Note that you can only upload 100MB cumulative at a time.

Laulima Drop Box Browse for File

A new window will open showing you the contents of your computer. Navigate to the location the file is in and choose the file you want to upload , then click to okay the selection.

Laulima Drop Box select file to upload

Once you have selected the file you want to upload, you can proceed to do perform the upload. Click the "Upload Files Now" button. Also note you can click the "Add Another File" link to go through this process of selecting another file before uploading.

Laulima Drop Box Upload Files Now

After the file is uploaded you will see it listed along with the other files you have uploaded into the Drop Box area.

Laulima Drop Box File Uploaded

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How do I view a file in my Drop Box?
How you view files in Drop Box is variable. Clicking on the link or icon of the file in the Drop Box will try to open that file. If it is something easily read by a web browser (eg. html or text file), the file will open in a new tab or window (depending on how your web browser is configured).

Other types of files (such as pdfs or certain multimedia files) may require an additional plug-in to view. Some files cannot be viewed on the internet, and in those cases you will be prompted to download the file to open on your computer if possible.

It is suggested that you consult with the person you will be exchanging files with to be sure they can view your files (or have preset rules for this). Another suggestion is to name your file in an "internet safe" way. That is, with only alphabet and number characters in the filename (dashes and underscores are okay, but ampersands, spaces, and parentheses may be problematic).

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How do I grade items in the Drop Box?
The Drop Box tool does not have any built in grading component. You can keep grades for items offline (eg. in a spreadsheet) or use the Gradebook Tool and add items to it for corresponding Drop Box entries.

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For More Information on the Laulima Drop BoxTool
There are other options for transferring files via WebDAV, organizing items, etc. For those more advanced options, you may refer to the "Drop Box and Assignments Tool" (pdf) reference guide at the following:
http://www.hawaii.edu/talent/downloads/Laulima_Assign_DropBx-sp09.pdf

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