Downloading Dropbox Files

Downloading files from the D2L Dropbox

When downloading or saving student submissions, it is imperative to maintain the privacy of student records, which should be saved on campus-housed, password-protected network storage rather than on local hard drives or portable storage devices.

Questions about how long student records may be retained should be discussed with the UWM Records Officer.

1. From your Course Home page, click on [Dropbox] in the main navigation bar


2. Click on the name of the appropriate drop box folder.


3. To select all files in the folder, click the box at the top of the list of students –or– click the box beside the names of the student(s) whose files you wish to download.


4. Click on the [green circle] icon to initiate the download.


5. In the popup window, click on the blue hotlink; the link name will include:

• your folder name
• the word “Download”
• current date and time
• the file extension “.zip”

6. In the new popup window, click on [Save File].


7. Choose a location on your computer (e.g., desktop) where you will save the .zip file that contains your drop box files.


8. Click on [Save].


IMPORTANT NOTE: Additional benefit when following the above procedure!

• When any or all files in a D2L Dropbox are selected for download, they come out as a zip file. When the individual file (or files) are extracted, the filenames will begin with students' last, then first name.

• On the other hand, if you click on the file in the Dropbox, then just open it and save it to your desktop, the file retains the name given by the student. If many students have uploaded files called "Assignment 1" it will be impossible to determine which belongs to which student ... so we don't recommend doing this!

D2L 9.2.1 SP3 – October 2011

Exporting a D2L Course

How to Export a D2L Course Site

Instructors can now download a .zip file that contains their D2L course site components. The .zip file will not contain student data, but may be useful for future reference or to expedite setup of an identical course in another D2L server environment.

This operation is most reliably performed on a high-speed internet connection (DSL, cable, or campus network) and on a computer that has a direct connection to the internet port (not wireless).

1. From your D2L Course Home page, click [Edit Course]
2. Click [Import / Export / Copy Components]
3. Select [Export Components] and choose [Include course files in the export package]
4. Select the components to be included in the export and click [Next]
5. Click [Next]
6. *** WAIT *** while the animated "Exporting..." symbol is displayed
7. When green checkmarks appear for all selected components, click [Done]
8. On the Export Summary screen, you should see a message "The course export was successful." Click on the link [Click here to download the export Zip package.]
9. Save the .zip file to your local drive or portable storage device

IMPORTANT NOTE: If your export does not complete as expected, please consider:

• Are you on a high-speed internet connection? (DSL, cable, or campus internet are recommended)
• Is your computer hard-wired, not wireless? (wireless is NOT recommended)
• Is your course very large? If so, try exporting it in smaller "chunks." For example, do one export selecting only Content and Course Files. Then do a second export of other components. If the export times out again, break down the export even further.

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Why aren't my changes showing up!?!?!

If you're making changes to a file in D2L using the HTML editor, but you're not seeing the changes reflected in the file after saving the file, you might need to change a browser setting in Firefox.

The setting is called: browser.cache.check_doc_frequency in Firefox

The default setting is 0, which corresponds to "Check for a new version of a page once per session (a session starts when the first application window opens and ends when the last application window closes)."

We recommend you change the setting to 1, which corresponds to "Check for a new version every time a page is loaded."

To change this:

• type about:config in the address line,
• agree that you'll be careful, then
• scroll down the list of variables to browser.cache.check_doc_frequency, and
• change it to 1.

Many thanks to Dan Semi at UW-River Falls and Brook Soltvedt at the Wisconsin Learn@UW utility for this question and solution!

Making the course "Active"

At UW-Milwaukee, prior to each semester, we create D2L sites for all the courses we believe *might* use D2L ... but the instructor is the ultimate decision-maker about whether to actually make D2L part of the class.

By default, then, a new UWM D2L site is "Inactive" so it will not be visible to students unless the instructor chooses to use it.

Many instructors leave their sites "inactive" until they have their content, discussions, quizzes, etc. ready for students to see.

When you are ready to make your site visible to students, here's what you do:

• Click on [Edit Course] on the main navigation bar, then
  
• click on [Course Offering Information]
  
• check the box beside "Is Active?"
  
• [Save]

Reminder: At UWM, the "Start" and "End" dates have no effect on whether students can see your course site.

D2L 9.2.1 SP3 – September 2011

Quiz: Special Access -- SAVE!

Question:

Why can't I see that I've given a student "special access" to a quiz? I did it 3 times, and it keeps disappearing!

Answer:

It's easy to miss the last step. Remember to click Save Quiz!

Here's a screen shot: