D2L Dropbox "Confirmation Email" - is it real?

It can be tricky when a student claims to have submitted a file to the Dropbox, and even produces a "confirmation email" to prove it -- yet User Progress shows no submissions.

Here are a few thoughts on troubleshooting:

Dropbox History

The LTC can check the student's view of the Dropbox, to see whether the student-view history shows any submissions for the Dropboxes in question. Even if the file was submitted and accidentally deleted, the History would show that it was deleted.

Confirmation Email

When a file is successfully submitted to the Dropbox in D2L, an email confirmation is generated and sent to the student's UWM email address.

One quick check to make is whether the submission date/time the email was sent is roughly the same time quoted for the successful submission of the file to the Dropbox, in the body of the email.

A second quick check would be to see whether the student's D2L login record (User Progress) shows the student was logged into D2L anytime close to the submission date/time.

The trickiest part of figuring out whether a confirmation email is genuine is this: the student would need to forward (to the instructor or to the LTC) the complete email, WITH original headers (which tell the real story of when and where it originated).

Procedure for the STUDENT to follow, in order to forward useful information to the LTC:

1. In PantherLink, click "Preferences"

2. Choose [Mail], then [Composing]

3. Under "Settings" choose [Reply/forward using format of the original message]

4. On the same screen, under "Forwarding" choose [include original message as an attachment]

5. [Save] the changes to the Preferences area

6. From the PantherLink "Inbox," right-click on the confirmation email

7. Choose the option to "forward"

8. In the "to" field, type LTC@uwm.edu

9. Include a message referencing the instructor's conversation with the LTC regarding the Dropbox

10. Hit "Send"

Once we get the forwarded confirmation email, the instructor or the LTC can right-click to see the information about where the message was sent from and where it was delivered to.

Sort Dropbox submissions

Click Dropbox
Click the Name of the folder you want to view submissions for
Click the Files tab to view and search submissions by file name
Click the Files to Submit header to sort files alphabetically
or
Click the Submission Date header to sort files by date
or
Click the First Name, Last Name header to sort files by user

Sorting Dropbox Submissions by Submission Date

quoting our friends at the Learn@UW hosting utility:

Sorting Dropbox Submissions by Submission Date

In the Dropbox tool, on the 'Users' tabbed page on the 'Folder Submissions' page, attempts to sort by Submission Date (either up or down) do not have the desired effect. In fact, the submissions are sorted by the user's First Name instead. However, on the 'Files' tabbed page, sorting by Submission Date works.

D2L has informed us that the sort functions on the 2 tabs (Users and Files) work slightly differently from one another. On the Users tab, the sort is set up based on user, then the files they have submitted. The date sort function would be used if a student had uploaded 2 files on 2 different dates, but the list will still be sorted by student. For the *Users* tabbed page, the Date Submitted is a SECONDARY key whereas the PRIMARY key is always the user name. The Files tab, as it suggests, is by the individual file and not by who submitted it.

Quizzes: time restricted quiz

Question: When a student clicks the start quiz link to a time-restricted quiz, does the time clock start and continue even if the student closes the D2L browser window before submitting the quiz?

Yes, if a quiz has a time limit once the student clicks the Start Quiz link the time starts regardless if the quiz is submitted.  Moreover if the quiz is set to allow for normal submission the student can submit the quiz even if the time limit and grace period have expired. Submissions after the grace period will be flagged as late. Please note: once a student starts a quiz saves his/her responses exits the quiz without submitting it the clock is still ticking.

Using "User Progress"

Instructor Question:

Is it possible to select a view where I click on an individual student and then get a list of all the surveys the student submitted?

Answer:

Yes! (Although my example talks about Quizzes, this also works for Surveys.)

Here's how:

• In the Classlist, click on the "students" tab.
• Then, click on the "track progress" icon for the student in question.

• In the "user progress" area, choose which D2L tool you would like to see for the particular user. Options include Content, Discussions, Dropbox, Grades, Quizzes and Surveys.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page to see more information.
  

• Click on the Quiz or Survey name for more information. Other tools will display similar lists with detail available by clicking on the name of an item.
  

"Student View"

Question:

How can I see what the students see in D2L?

When I use the Role Switch or "preview" function in the Dropbox and Quizzes, I don't see the submissions when I switch back to my role as an Instructor!

Answer:

Although the Role Switch and the "preview" links in various tools are both designed to show an instructor what an "average" student SEES ... it doesn't fully mimic what a student DOES.

Neither Role Switch nor "preview" is actually associated with a real USER in the D2L database -- so operations you perform in these "student view" roles do not have the same effect as when a real student performs them.

In other words, since there's no real user attached to the Role Switch or preview, there is no place for the instructor to *see* a quiz attempt or a file submitted to a Dropbox.

(The Role Switch student will also not see restricted Discussions!)

A special note about Grades:

Using the Role Switch, the instructor will be unable to see anything in Grades, since there is neither grade data nor an actual user associated with this view.

To see a *particular* student's view of their own Grades, click on the name of the student in the Enter Grades area, then click on Preview.

D2L 9.2.1 SP3 – September 2011

Group Dropbox

Instructor:

"How can I make my students' drop box submissions visible to all students?"

Answer:
(thank you, Alan!)

"If you identify the Dropbox as a 'group' folder instead of an 'individual' folder, you can use the entire class 'Group' identification to allow everyone to see everyone else's submissions."

Quiz Timing Options

We get a lot of questions about the choices available on timing and submission of quizzes. Here's a quick reference, with cautions.

Note:

We all know and remember that "Auto Submit" isn't really an automatic submission, and that answers the student hasn't saved by the end of the time limit + grace period will not be recorded.

What may be surprising is that the student is awarded ZERO POINTS if they submit their quiz late with the "Use Late Limit" option selected.

D2L 9.2.1 SP3 – September 2011