Dropbox + Submitting Assignments Electronically

How to register for a Dropbox account (mandatory) & install it on your personal computer/tablet/mobile device (optional)

For our course this semester, you will be submitting some of your writing (including projects) electronically, via Dropbox. To do this, you will be submitting files to our shared Dropbox folder.

Registering for a free Dropbox account and submitting your work (when required) to our class folder is mandatory. Whenever the Schedule or an Assignment indicates that writing must be submitted to Dropbox, that means you submit it to the appropriate folder (labeled with the assignment title and due date) within our shared class folder in Dropbox (do not post these assignments to our OpenLab course site; when something should be posted to our course site, it will be indicated on the schedule as “Blog”).

Please visit this link ASAP to accept my invite to register for a free Dropbox account.

Everyone should accept the invite and follow the steps to create a free online account no later than Tuesday night (9/9). The registration process is simple/straightforward. Make sure that you save your username (e-mail address that you sign up with) and password for future reference.

If you own a laptop or home computer, you may choose to install Dropbox on your computer (you can also install Dropbox on mobile devices, tablets, etc.). I highly recommend doing the install … it syncs all of your documents automatically between that device (or across devices if you install it on multiple devices) and is a great way to back up your work and have it with you at all times (e.g., you can access your documents from your home computer and at City Tech). If you choose not to install or don’t have a home computer, you can always access all of your files by signing into your account on the main Dropbox site (dropbox.com) whenever you have an Internet connection: this means that you can access your Dropbox files from any computer that is online at City Tech.

 

Joining our Shared Dropbox Class Folder

As soon as you request membership to our OpenLab site and create a Dropbox account, I will invite you to our ENG 3773 class folder. Please make sure to accept that invite ASAP.

Please note that I will be sending the invite to your City Tech e-mail address, so you must check this account for the invite (check your spam folder in case it goes there by accident). If you signed up for a Dropbox account with a different account e-mail address (personal e-mail) or you already have a Dropbox account (from before this class), you should still be able to accept the invite/share the folder. Just log into your Dropbox account with your correct username/password (whatever you used to register the account) after you click the shared folder link in your e-mail.

 

Submitting Assignments to Dropbox

As the semester progresses and assignments are due, you will find within this class folder other folders for each assignment. Make sure you submit each assignment to the appropriate folder (clearly labeled with the assignment name, draft, and due date).

Make sure you submit your essays as a Word file (.doc or .docx). If you do not submit your file as a Word document, you will not receive credit for your work (I may not be able to open the file).

Do not submit .pdf, .odt, .wps files, etc. If you are using another program such as Open Office or Microsoft Works, you can easily save the file as a Word document. Otherwise, you can access Microsoft Word on City Tech computers.

In order to receive credit for your work, each file must be labeled with your full name, the assignment, and draft (when applicable): e.g., Jill Belli, Essay 1, First Draft


Things to note:

1. Remember to ALWAYS keep a copy of your submitted work/files elsewhere on your computer or your Dropbox account (not just in the shared class folder) for your own records. In the future (future semesters/years), I may un-share or delete our class folder and you want to make sure you still have access to your work.

2. I am just sharing one folder with you, which will only take up a little bit of space in your Dropbox account. However, the Dropbox account you sign up for is yours, it is free, and you can use it to sync/back-up your other documents (nobody will have access to those documents except for you unless you choose to share folders with other people). Do not post anything except the requirement assignments in the shared class folder.

With your Dropbox account, in addition to participating in our shared class folder, you can also create your own folders (for your private documents) to organize/archive your files. I encourage to take the quick Dropbox tour under “Get Started” so you get a sense for how the service works.

If you upload a file to Dropbox, you can access it via the web (by logging into your online account at dropbox.com) at City Tech in order to print, revise your documents, etc.

3. Since we have a shared class folder, this means that all students in the class have access to all materials in it. Therefore, all students have access to everyone’s submitted assignments (just as on our blogging on our course OpenLab site, everyone has access to everyone’s writing/work). While discussion, sharing ideas, and collaboration is encouraged in this course, everyone is responsible for producing his/her own original work on all assignments (unless otherwise indicated).

4. I will not submit grades/feedback to you through this shared class folder (since this is private information). Similarly, you may not want to put personal/private information (such as your home address, phone number, etc.) in this shared folder.

5. Your writing may be submitted to SafeAssign, which is a software that checks writing for plagiarism (instructors regularly do this when you submit assignments to Blackboard). Any assignment that plagiarizes, in any form, will automatically fail (and this assignment may also cause you to fail the entire course).

For more information on what plagiarism is and how to avoid it, refer to the City Tech Academic Integrity Policy and the resources on our syllabus/course site, and please don’t hesitate to be in touch if you have any questions about academic integrity in this course or beyond.

6. In the unlikely event that your computer gets infected by a virus, please notify me immediately (as this may corrupt the files in our shared folder, and I will probably be able to reverse the effects if I know soon enough).