Hey guys, today I am going to talk to you about Dropbox and all of its aesthetic changes.

With that said, I know you guys are rolling your eyes at my title; but coming up with  a clever title is hard some days, guys! I did originally want to title this “Boxing with Dropbox”, but I didn’t want you guys to think that Dropbox had any kind of fight left in it. In reality Dropbox is just there to help.

The first thing that might have caused you to panic is the little icon next to Dropbox in your course navigation bar.  It has a slightly different little picture now; which is terrifying; don’t get me wrong. The rest of Dropbox is far less scary.

The first column that you will notice upon clicking the link in the course navigation bar is the Folder column. This holds all of the assignments that need to be turned in. There are different types of symbols that can be found next to the assignment folders.

This particular symbol means that this assignment is “Originality Check Enabled” so that professors can check and verify that the student’s submitted work is 100% there own.

The second symbol means that the folder contains a group assignment. In a group Dropbox assignment, any one person could submit something to it, but the score and the feedback for that submission will be given to everyone within the group.

The Score column is pretty self explanatory but I will cover it anyways. This is where the professor enters in your grade in the form of a numeric fraction. If nothing has yet been submitted, or if the professor has yet to enter in your grade, then it will show a dash instead of a number. In the case displayed above; a perfect score would be 10/10.

Now submitting something to D2L can be tricky from time to time; so I will go through it step by step.

First you click on the Folder column that you would like to make a submission to. Then click on the “Add a File” button and then upload if you would like to grab a file from your computer or flash drive. that you would like to Submit.

If you would like to add something that you have saved to your locker or ePortfolio; you may do that as well.  When you are finished choosing, click the blue “Done” button.

You are free to write additional details about the submission or the assignment in the white box below. When you click on it, basic writing and editing tools appear.  After you are finished with your message, or if you do not want to write one, click the blue “Submit” button below.

Back on the main Dropbox page there are two more columns that I haven’t covered yet. One you are probably familiar with but the other one, Due Date is the new addition to the Dropbox family.

Feedback  is what your professors give you in response to what you have submitted. This might be just your grade or a rubric sheet of the professor’s own creation. It could even be a response to your work; explaining in detail why you got the grade that you did.

Finally, last but certainly not least, is the Due Date column.  It is what you all have been waiting for! You just didn’t know it yet!  Instead of laying awake in bed those lonely nights and wondering whether or not the Dropbox will still be open tomorrow; you will sleep soundly with the knowledge that it will not close until 11:59 PM the next day.

If you want to hear me rant more about the Dropbox, check out the video we recorded!

Now that you know a little more, I hope you aren’t Boxing with your Dropbox and instead decide to drop in to D2L and stay a while.  Thanks for your time!

Elaina

Hey guys!

Now I don’t know about you, but this semester with all the class cancellations and bone chilling weather; I have had one heck of a time getting back to work. I have thirteen hours of work on three days of the week, which I am sure most of you can relate to. I know that I barely have time to eat, let alone time to figure out how this new D2L update works.

If you are one of the few people out there saying “Updates? What?” then not only are you behind but you probably already have the wrong impression. You may have heard the professors talking about it.

So I have decided that I am gonna put your fears to rest and start to individually address each change. This week I wanna talk about one of those most obvious visual changes; the content section of D2L.

The first thing that I want to point out is the measurement bar at the top of the screen. You will notice that this has a percentage on it.

This percentage will fill as you look at the content that has been posted to D2L by your professor. In this way you can keep track of how much you have looked at and what you have yet to get through.

Another way to keep track of this would be to look at the side bar.

Now this is the fabulously new and improved side bar.  It displays how many unread content items that there are within the sections on the side bar.  It allows you to quickly click through and see what you may or may not have missed.

Each section could contain links to outside sources or PDFs that the professor has provided, word documents, or notes that they have provided such as homework or project assignments. The ‘Table of Contents’ Section, when clicked (which means that it is highlighted blue); shows every document and link that is contained in all of the sections.

The best part about this new sidebar, aside from its aesthetically pleasing visage; is the shiny new green check-mark that appears when you have clicked through every element contained in the section.

Another important thing to note on the sidebar is the Upcoming Events Calender.

It keeps you up to date on things that are due Today, Tomorrow, and within the Next 7 Days. If you are like me, you hope that those sections stay pretty empty…

You can select the Course Schedule at the top of this section and see main events within the course and their due dates. This could include Dropbox items and Quizzes.

The last thing that I want to talk about today is that Bookmarks section.

This section is customizable for you, the student, because it is literally whatever you find important within your content. Say you have not yet gotten the chance to finish reading for your class.

Just click the little bookmark icon in the upper right corner of the content you are viewing and this document is added to your Bookmarks list. This allows you to keep everything that you want to revisit together in one, easy-to-find, location.

You can also watch a video overview of the content area below:

That is all I have for you today and that is all you need to know about the Content on D2L!  Thanks for your time!

Elaina

Update (2/3): The original post had the number convention wrong.  It has been updated below.  Enjoy!

Hey guys, Elaina here again!

Now I know that all of you are just as bitter as I am about the fact that though we are in the middle of a polar vortex and yet school continues to march on. The good old UW-Whitewater has decided to prove its students are tougher than the rest and stick it out through the icy winds. There is no other disappointment that stings quite like having to go to class when your friends are all off playing.  Even worse would be to make the icy trek to class and find out that the professor (who has to commute forty minutes every day to class) canceled anyways.

Today I am going to tell you to keep the faith alive! Keep hoping that your classes may yet be canceled. There have been many of those glorious and overwhelmingly generous professors that sacrificed their vacation days for our safety. One of the ways to help you keep this faith alive would be to set yourselves up for notifications from the school directly to your phone.

Now you may already get email notifications from D2L one way, and that is probably email. This is because your school email is the notification default under your account settings. I realize that we all get busy sometimes or we just plain don’t like checking our school email.  Sometimes it would just plain be easier if we didn’t have to go to the trouble and just get a text send directly to our phone about updates.

Here’s how you enabled D2L notifications:

First click on your name and face in the top right corner of your D2L homepage. From there click on notifications.

Click on the mobile number link and select your country in the window (I assume most of you will be United States) and your mobile carrier. The last thing you have to do is fill the blank with your digits, which should not include the beginning 1. (ex. (262-123-4567) and click SAVE.

You are now all set up to get notifications directly to your phone. Now all you have to do is toggle the controls to show you anything you want to know about your D2L notifications.

When you are done with those, click ‘SAVE’ at the bottom.

There you have it, being an informed student is now just a text away. Now you can get real time updates about those class cancellation-! Er…news update; that is what you guys want to see, more news from D2L.

That’s all for now! Thanks for your time!

Elaina

I hope you all had a good break filled with nothing but catching up on your reading and appreciating being back at home! …no? Me neither.

Allow me to introduce myself; my name is Elaina and I work at the LTC and today I am here to talk to you about the new D2L changes.  At this moment I can already sense your distress at the word, ‘changes’. Cue the B-movie horror screams.

I can assure you that they are both new and scary to professors and students alike, but not to fear because we at the LTC have taken the time to make super cheesy videos for your entertainment and higher learning.

Here is a link to the first video in a playlist of different videos we have made, try not to be distracted by our overly excited introductions:

You might note than many of these changes that take the time to painstakingly list in the videos are neither scary nor all that surprising.

“We got a due date column now? Okay.” That’s generally the reaction were expecting from the students.  I might mention just for comparison’s sake that professors tend have a more emotional reaction.”Due date column?! YOU MONSTERS!! Why must you change everything I love?!”

That is all I have for you guys right now. Remember that if you have any questions or concerns, do not be afraid to contact UW-W D2L Support.

Thank you for your time!