[Using Sakai] Drop Box in Sakai - how to add instructions

[Steve Lonn]

Fawei,

One option not mentioned in this thread is the idea of combining tools  
on a single page.
Since the student only sees their drop box folder, there is a lot of  
screen real estate available. You could make the Sakai page into a  
dual column page with the drop box tool on one side and a web content  
tool on the other and then use the web content tool to point to an  
HTML document in Resources or other public space containing the  
instructions for the drop box.

If this is a one time, site-specific setup, you can easily accomplish  
this in the Admin Sites tool. If you want this setup for all course  
sites, then you should think about making a template and making sure  
the instructions page is in a public space (e.g., Admin Resources).

Remember, you can also rename tools on the left-hand menu bar. As soon  
as students see "portfolios" instead of "assignments", their approach  
and opinion of the tool changes, even though the tool itself remains  
the same.

Cheers, Steve
__________________________________
Steven Lonn
Doctoral Candidate, Learning Technologies
School of Education

CTools / Sakai Staff
Graduate Student Research Assistant
Usability, Support, and Evaluation (USE) Lab
Digital Media Commons, Duderstadt Center
University of Michigan
__________________________________



On Apr 28, 2009, at 10:28 AM, Fawei Geng wrote:

> Hi Jimmy and Steve,
>
> Thanks very much for your advice.
>
> Maybe it's as far as we can go at this stage.  In fact, this was a  
> question raised by one of the academics at Oxford.
>
> I've no preference for which tool we should use in Sakai.  I am more  
> concern about the different ways of how Sakai can best support  
> activities of teaching, learning or research.  Here are two possible  
> scenarios:
> * "Assignments" allows a teacher to create, distribute, collect, and  
> grade online assignments.  Students normally see it as some sort of  
> "assessment".
> * "Drop Box" is normally a one-to-one sharing area for a teacher and  
> a student. For example, it may be used as a shared area to support a  
> student with his/her reflective online journal or problem-based  
> learning project.  Although each individual student may need  
> personalised support, the instructions or requests of the journal or  
> PBL project may be same for all students.  In this case, having a  
> field where general instructions for "Drop Box" might be needed.  
> It'd be even better if notifications can be sent to all students via  
> email when instructions are added.
>
> If more people are interested in this feature, hopefully the  
> developers in the Sakai community will consider to add a function as  
> such, which is the beauty of OS like Sakai.
>
> Anyway, thanks very much again for offering advice.
>
> Best wishes
>
> Fawei
>
> -- 
> Fawei Geng
> Learning Technology Support Officer
>
> Learning Technologies Group
> Oxford University Computing Services
> 7-19 Banbury Road
> Oxford
> OX2 6NN
>
> Telephone: +44 (0)1865 273219 / 73219(internal)
>
> Rico, Jimmy wrote:
>>
>> Fawei
>>
>> There is no way to do what you are describing to my knowledge in  
>> the Dropbox.
>> My understanding is that the dropbox is a mechanism for the  
>> instructor and student to share/exchange files privately to one  
>> another.
>>
>> The closest thing I can propose is to create the assignment in  
>> either Resources (as an HTML page) or as an Announcement and tell  
>> the student to submit the assignment in the Dropbox.
>> You could get fancy and copy and paste the URL of the Dropbox as a  
>> hyperlink in either Resources or the Announcement using the FCK  
>> Editor, that way they are taken straight to the dropbox upon  
>> clicking the link.
>>
>> In my opinion it’s best to use the Assignments tool unless you have  
>> some strong reason against using it.
>>
>> Good Luck!
>> Jimmy
>>
>>
>> On 4/27/09 11:39 AM, "Fawei Geng" <fawei.geng at oucs.ox.ac.uk> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Steve,
>>
>> Thanks for your reply.
>>
>> For the Assignment tool, teacher can put instructions in the  
>> "Assignment
>> Instructions" box. When a student undertakes an assignment, s/he  
>> will be
>> able to read the instructions before starting the assignment. I  was
>> thinking how to allow a student to be able to see the instructions  
>> put
>> by an instructor (or teacher) when using the Drop Box.   As a  
>> teacher, I
>> put instructions using the "Description" box which I hope will be  
>> seen
>> by a student. However, when I logged in as a student, I could not see
>> the instructions I put in.
>>
>> Thanks again.
>>
>> Fawei
>>
>> Steve Swinsburg wrote:
>> > Hi,
>> >
>> > You can get help regarding usage of the Drop Box tool (and most  
>> tools)
>> > by clicking on Help, and navigating within Help to the Drop Box
>> > section. This allows you to view the Help in one window whilst  
>> using
>> > the tools in the main window. Is that what you were after?
>> >
>> > cheers,
>> > Steve
>> >
>> > ---
>> > Steve Swinsburg
>> > Portal Systems Developer
>> > Centre for e-Science
>> > Lancaster University
>> > Lancaster
>> > LA1 4YT
>> >
>> > email: s.swinsburg at lancaster.ac.uk
>> > phone: +44 (0) 1524 594870
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > On 27 Apr 2009, at 17:02, Fawei Geng wrote:
>> >
>> >> Hi there,
>> >>
>> >> Not sure if this question has been answered.
>> >>
>> >> Is it possible to add instructions on how to use the Drop Box so  
>> that
>> >> students can see the instructions when clicking on "Drop Box"? I  
>> know
>> >> that a teacher can add description to the top-level folder in  
>> the Drop
>> >> Box area. However when logging in as a student, I could not see  
>> the
>> >> description added by the teacher but my own folder.
>> >>
>> >> Thanks very much in advance.
>> >>
>> >> Fawei
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