Excerpts from the Handbook

Accessibility and Usability (versions 3.0 to 3.6):

The tool itself is fairly accessible and usable for students with disabilities. However, the materials that the students upload may be completely inaccessible to some students. Therefore, the responsibility for creating accessible projects will fall to the students.

The tool itself does not exclude students from participating fully in a group exercise or project. For those students using assistive technology, the various interfaces associated with this tool may require additional training. Many instructors have some fear of technology; students are no different.

Suggestions and Tips:

• Give students adequate instructions when using this tool. This chapter contains instructions you can give to your students.
• Make sure you add the private discussion topics for each group and include yourself (the instructor) as a member of the group. The private discussion topic along with the group folder provide the students flexibility when doing group work.
• Warn the students about how easy it is to overwrite files. Give them the suggestions we put in the student section of this chapter on how to avoid doing so.
• If each student is given a private group and a private topic area, then the students can use these two tools for journaling exercises as well as an alternative to the Assignments Tool's Dropbox.
• In versions 3.x, using the Student Presentation Tool instead of the Assignments Tool allows the instructor to zip all the submissions into one file and download all the presentations at one time. In the Assignments Tool Dropbox, each assignment must be downloaded one at a time. If the Assignments Tool is used a column is automatically generated in Manage Students for the grade. When using Student Presentations, the instructor would have to manually add a column for grades.
• Every student can have his/her own private group and still be in a group with others for group work. This requires a little more preplanning and is not an idea the authors would recommend for a first experience with this tool.
• Some instructors have created Content Modules titled "Student Projects" or something similar, and then attached the students' final projects from each group to that module. This allows the instructor to track all the activity and make sure that all students have viewed each project. This also allows the instructor to hyperlink the presentations to the course Glossary. The instructor can add the Discussions link to the Action Menu for this module and then have a very orderly discussion about the projects without having to create special topics for them.
• The instructor can use the files in the student_pres folders just as they would their own files. For example, the students cannot make a .ppt file available to the class, but the instructor can. The students would have to convert their PowerPoint presentation to HTML format.
• Create a topic in Discussions where students can share HTML tips. Remind the students when sharing code in order for it to be visible in a Discussions posting, you need to corrupt the code. There are a couple of ways to do this:
  1. Place a space after the < and before > brackets.
  2. Substitute a symbol such as an asterisk in place of the brackets
• Since the students have an area to store files in the course's file manager, they can share images with their peers such a placing a photo in a Discussions posting. The HTML code for this is: [<img src=/_COURSEID_/student_pres/sharks/johndoe.jpg> filename group name student_pres folder in Manage Files Course ID]
• Students can exchange files with members of their group by uploading and downloading from their group folder.
• A group can only have one "index.html" file in their group folder. If you require the groups to make multiple presentations during a semester and you want to save the earlier presentations you will need to rename the index.html files and move them out of the student_pres folders.
• If you want to share them with the rest of the class, you would create links to the presentations using the Content Module, Single Page or URL tools. The authors recommend the Content Module Tool for this application because it opens up a many possibilities for the instructor as well as the class.

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