I have used this method of collecting work for a couple of years now from both my secondary students as well as college students. For the high school students it works very well if for no other reason than just keeping track of the assignments. When I receive them, I return a "got it" message and place a check in my electronic gradebook as received. I can grade it online, add comments and ask for a rewrite for resubmission and shoot it back to them. If it's a quiz, I can grade it online, post the grade and return it to them electronically. Works well for presentations as well.
However, for the college courses I teach it does not work as well. In these courses, the students are required to have a title page (cover page), reference page, in-text citations, etc. It has been a hair pulling experience trying to get students to do all this on one document correctly. They either do not send a piece of the essay (cover page, references, etc.) or it transfers so messed up that I can't grade it.
I really like to idea of uploading files because you can access them from anywhere at anytime, and it is also time saving because you don't have to spend that additional time collecting papers at the beginning of each class. It reduces the build up of paper which can become overwhelming at times.
Marietta Carter-Narcisse
Chris,
The time stamp is a valuable feature when meeting a deadline is question, good point. Do you use Turn it In when checking for plagiarism? The company recently released a free grading rubric that assesses and grades the quality of internet sources used by students.
Here is a link if you are interested in checking it out:
http://pages.turnitin.com/seer_rubric.html
Theresa Schmitt
I think being able to check theri work for plagiarism is a big advantage to having students upload their files, rather than simply submitting a paper copy. Also, if they reference a website in their work, you should be able to simply click on the reference to check the validity of their work.
I think over the next two years, cloud computing will grow rapidly. One advatage to utilizing a document management system for courses is that students can submit their work immediately, without having to use flash drives, and also without having to go through an email system. Also, this reserves hard-drive space on a person's personal computer. Once you have set up a well established system for storing files, having all your students' files in one place is a plus for the instructor. It saves time, and is more efficient. It also protects you from possibly getting viruses on your hard drive from stdents who may have viruses on their flash drive when they submit their work to you. This has been an issue in my classes in the past. Thankfully, our campus anit-virus software caught it before i actually transferred the files to my own flash drive, or the school's network drive.
However, I recently had my students create collaborative wikis using the website mywiki spaces.com. Just this week, I attempted to go to the site to check their wikis, and the computer on campus blocked me form going to the site stating that the site itself may have been compromised with a trojan virus. That was scary to me, and concerns me about viruses and worms being transferred to your hard drive even when you think the site is safe. Cloud computing has its advantages and disadvantages in that area. I think as more security measures are put into place, the more comfortable I will be with storing files and information in the clouds.
One advantage to having my students upload their homework is that I can check their document a lot easier for plagiarism. It is a lot easier for me to copy and paste sections of their paper into an internet search engine than typing everything in by hand form their hard copy.
One of the best benefits I have found is that students who are unable to make it to class are still able to submit the work required to me. Every document is time stamped so I know if a student submitted and when. In addition having a digital document means it is much easier to check for plagiarism because you can just send the documents up to the server to check. Rather than having to scan in each document.
Keegan,
You bring up an excellent point. Because you can manage documents, spreadsheets, and more from anywhere with an internet connection, you can review and grade student work when it is convenient for you. It is also a valuable resource when organizing and storing lecture materials in the event you misplace a memory stick or other media storage device typically relied upon when transporting class materials.
Wishing you continued success in the classroom.
Theresa Schmitt
Alexandra,
Sounds like you have your hands full! Teaching as many classes as you do, Google Docs or DropBox becomes an invaluable asset when managing and sharing course content. Thank you for sharing your experience with these applications which are easy to use and best of all free.
Wishing you continued success in the classroom.
Theresa Schmitt
It is so much more organized to utilize a document management system and allows for the instructor to not have to carry around all those hard copy documents. Having 9 classes currently, It is a pain to keep everything organized and distinguish between the different classes without a proper management system. Now a days with all the emerging technologies such as google docs, it is so much easier to keep track of everyone's submissions and at what time they submitted them as well.
Using a doc management system allows for better organization and less physical paper to keep track of. It also allows an instructor to grade from where ever they may be at the time by logging on at home etc. I have personally run out of time that i can physically be at the school I teach. With a document managment system I can log in even when the school is closed to review / grade student work.
The instructor is able to keep track students posting times. It enables the instructor to critic student’s work and gives them feedback immediately.
Tina,
You bring up some great points, most notably the ability to store work as well as professor feedback for future reference. Gone are the days of sifting through spiral bound notebooks looking for notes on a lecture that was attended two years prior or searching through stacks and stacks of graded papers looking for research conducted in the past. As a lifelong learner myself, I find storing my files electronically then conducting simple word searches saves me a tremendous amount of time when referring back to papers I have written in the past.
Wishing you continued success in the classroom.
Theresa Schmitt
It really is of benefit to have the ability to upload presentations for in class use by students and instructors.
It is really very helpful to both students and teacher because it saves time and money
Electronic copy submission is a great way to reduce time of collecting documents but also decreases the need to keep track of stacks of papers. It is important to decrease waste when possible. In addition, grading via online tools has become much easier and can offer the student permanent feedback they can have stored electronically for future reference as well. It is a win-win situation for everybody.
Leigh,
PDF tutorials are very useful; a great tip for fellow educators. These are quick and easy to create as well. I simply take screen shots, paste them into Microsoft Word with a brief description of the step in the process, and save the document as a PDF. Of course you can get quite elaborate when creating these tutorials, but in a pinch, these can be created relatively quickly.
Thank you for sharing this best practice with the group!
Wishing you continued success in the classroom.
Theresa Schmitt
In an environment where students do not have printers or time to print their documnets it becomes an efficient way for the student to submit their assignments. It also date & time stamps the upload so a benefit for the instructor in when the assignment is uploaded. Once I started implementing this function on our portal for my classes it has eased stress relation to students who are frustrated of the cost of printing and access to printing. It just makes such sense. Some challenges is that not all students are at the same computer level so I have to make sure to give an uploading tutorial in the first week so all students are on the same page. I have also created pdf documents posted to our portal page so the students have a step by step in how to upload their assignments when I am not around.
I think this is a great idea, as it sounds like it will be a huge time saver! I am excited to use this technology to help with timely feedback to students and better class time management. I also have struggled in the past with having a good way to track student participation in group projects and I can see this as a great tool for that.
Kristin,
Yes, this is my experience as well posts are thoughtful and oftentimes more detailed than a written paper. Perhaps because students feel less stifled creatively.
Wishing you continued success in the classroom.
Theresa Schmitt
