Discussion Board, Dropbox, and Group, Email, and Calendar Tools
Discussion Board, Dropbox, and Group, Email, and
Calendar Tools
Description
Participants will learn to create discussion boards and dropboxes and set them up for student evaluation using rubrics
and TurnItIn. The Group Tool will be used to create group dropboxes and restrict access to discussion boards, quizzes,
and other tools and content to specific groups of students. These restrictions can be used to create spaces for students
to communicate and hand in assignments for group projects. Rubrics will be created to guide students in assignment
completion and instructors in assignment creation and evaluation.
Using Rubrics to Aid in Assignment Creation, Completion, and Evaluation
Scenario for Rubric Use
Scenario #1 – Assignment completion and Peer Evaluation
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-Students use rubric as a guide in completing assignment
-Students upload assignment to drop box
­Students work in groups to evaluate each other’s work.
-Students upload peer evaluation rubrics to drop box
-Faculty member grades initial student assignments with rubric
-Faculty member compares peer evaluation rubrics to instructor rubric and gives students points for grading
accuracy.
-Students modify assignments and resubmit to same or separate drop box.
-Faculty member grades final submission with rubric.
Scenario #2 – Guide in Completing Complex Tasks
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Detailed assignment instructions written in document in content area.
Instructor creates rubric to use as a checklist for completing each step in the process.
Downloadable rubric linked in document area. (Word doc made from rubric preview)
Students
o Use rubric as a guide as they complete the assignment.
o Evaluate themselves using the Word rubric – upload to drop box
Instructor uses rubric to grade assignment and provide feedback.
Scenario #3 – Using Multiple Rubrics per assignment
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Research paper assignment
Custom points rubric
o Set as the rubric that provides the points sent to gradebook.
o Includes a grammar criteria row and levels
Grammar rubric
o Provides feedback on grammar usage
o Points don’t apply to grade.
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Discussion Board, Dropbox, and Group, Email, and Calendar Tools
Attaching Rubrics to Dropboxes and Discussion Boards
Rubrics are visible to students in the Dropbox they are attached to but are not visible to students when attached to a
discussion board. The rubric should be attached to the corresponding grade column when using a rubric to evaluate
student work in a discussion board.
Two Types of Rubrics
Holistic Rubric – one criteria with several levels. Scoring method – text or percentages
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Discussion Board, Dropbox, and Group, Email, and Calendar Tools
Analytic rubric – multiple criteria and levels. Criteria can be grouped into sections each section having its own levels.
Scoring method – points (all criteria levels receive same points), custom points (Each criterial can have its own set of
points for its corresponding levels) or text.
Criteria
Superior
Average
Poor
Content
8 points - The message uses historical
sources, including outside as well as
required readings. In addition, it
demonstrates that the student has
gained new understanding of the topic.
4 points - Some messages do analysis or
interpretation well, but a significant number
do not. This might either be because the
analysis was not done well, or because it was
not attempted (that is, was simply opinion or
hearsay).
1 point - Messages generally
show little evidence of
historical analysis consisting
instead of opinion, feelings,
and impressions.
Mechanics
2 points - No misspellings or
punctuation misuse.
1 point - Some misspellings and/or
punctuation misuse.
0 points - Consistent
misspellings and punctuation
misuse.
Original
Posting
2 points - Original posting was posted
as a new thread in the discussion
board.
0 points
0 points - No original posting
was posted.
Replies to
other
students
2 points - Student replied to 3 or more
student discussion postings.
1 point - Student replied to 1 or 2 student
discussion postings.
0 points - Student did not
reply to other student's
discussion postings.
Read Other
Student
Postings
1 point - Student has read 90-100% of
discussion board postings
0.5 points - Student has read at least 50% of
discussion board postings.
0 points - Student has read
less than 50% of discussion
board postings.
Level 3 - 13.5 or more
Level 2 - 6.5 or more
Overall
Score
Level 1 - 0 or more
Analytic Rubric
There are two types of Analytic rubrics; 1) the points analytic rubric all criteria levels earn the same number of points, 2)
the custom points analytic rubric each criterion level can have it's own point values. Criterion can also be divided into
groups.
Points Rubric: All Levels Earn Same Points
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Discussion Board, Dropbox, and Group, Email, and Calendar Tools
Custom Points Analytic Rubric with Grouped Criteria: Criterion Levels Have Different Point Ranges
Rubric Status
While editing a rubric it must remain in draft mode. When attaching a rubric to a dropbox or other D2L tool it must be in
published mode in order for that tool to see the rubric. You cannot change a published rubric. Copy the published rubric
and then change the copy instead.
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Grading Using Rubrics with Dropboxes
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When grading using Rubrics the instructor clicks on the rubric level that the student has earned for each
criterion. The instructor can also add specific comments by clicking on a pencil tool next to each criterion.
Multiple rubrics can be attached to a dropbox but only one rubric’s points will be sent to the student grade field.
Dropboxes can be created for individual students or groups of students. Group drop boxes – all students receive
the same grade.
The dropbox rubric can also be tied to the Competencies tool in order to track whether a student has met
certain Competencies and Objectives. (Students can also view the Competencies evaluation if the instructor
allows this.)
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Discussion Board, Dropbox, and Group, Email, and Calendar Tools
Discussion Boards
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Discussion boards are the tool you will use the most to develop community in your course.
Individual discussion boards that are open to all course participants can be set up to allow students to introduce
themselves to one another, to post general course questions, and to post technical questions but of course,
their main value will be curricular.
Discussion boards can be restricted to groups of students for discussion purposes or to enable synchronous
private communication concerning group projects.
Discussion boards can also restricted to one person and the instructor allowing for easy access to journals and
private reflection.
Curricular examples of Discussion Board Use:
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Clarification of reading: Asking students to post a question about the current chapter reading — possibly their
muddiest moment. Students could be encouraged to respond to each other. You will respond when you see that
clarification needs to be made.
Respond to question or analyze scenario: Asking students to post their own unique answer or analysis of a
question or scenario that you present in the description area of the Topic (discussion board)
Student Responses: Asking students to respond to each other’s posts. Responses should be more than “I agree”
or “I disagree”.
Peer Review: Ask students to post and review each other’s work.
Private Discussion Boards/Journals: Not having students respond to each other’s posts but instead set up a
private, restricted discussion boards for each student and use this private discussion board to respond to each
student privately. Students could post original responses in the private discussion board first and then, after you
have interacted with each student, the revised responses could be posted to the general discussion board.
Creating Discussion Boards
Discussion boards are made up of two components, Forums and Topics. Forums function like categories. A course could
have as few as one forum. The name of that forum could be “Course Discussions”. Topics are the actual discussion
boards. Faculty sometimes confuse the two terms and create forums (categories) instead of Topics (discussion boards).
A new option in Discussions now allows instructors to force students to post their opinion first before reading others’
posts. This encourages original thought without influence from other student messages. With this option, students can
access a topic, but on first access will only be able to post a new message before being able to read and reply to other
messages posted to the topic by other students.
Grading Discussion Boards
Instructors can filter student responses by specific student either through the discussion tool or through the gradebook
tool. If the instructor is also using rubrics to evaluate student work he/she should grade discussions from the gradebook
column.
To Grade Student Discussion Postings from the Discussion Board
1. Click the dropdown arrow and choose Assess topic.
2. Choose the Assessments tab and click the student's name.
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3. Record the score and feedback you wish to give.
4. Save and Close.
Note: Before you chose Save and Close, you could have checked the box beside Publish to release this grade to
the individual student. However, in this new version of D2L, there are three new buttons on the discussion
board assessment page. After grading all Discussions for a particular topic, you can use the "Publish All Scores to
Grades" button to publish all student scores at once, the "Retract All Scores" button to remove all student
scores from the gradebook at once, or the "Manage Columns" button to add or remove columns that display on
the assessment page.
To Grade Student Discussion Postings from the Gradebook
1. Make sure the colored thought bubbles are displaying next to the student names in the discussion board grade
column you wish to grade. If you don’t see thought bubbles make sure that the grade column is connected to
the discussion board and also make sure that you have not set the discussion category to drop the lowest grade.
2. Grading using a rubric vs. not using a rubric
a. If you are not using a rubric to grade the discussion board you can click the thought bubble to read
discussion postings filtered by student.
b. If you ARE using a rubric choose GRADE ALL from the grade column dropdown menu to grade the
student. This will allow you to open the rubric and select student ratings on the rubric and then record
the grade in the grades point field.
Note: When using rubrics to grade discussion board postings tie the rubric to the gradebook tool. If you tied the rubric to
the discussion board students will not see your feedback.
Discussion Board Statistics
1. Go to the discussion board and display the statistics for that board to locate stats for recording student
participating points. You will be able to see:
a. The number of original postings (threads) authored by that student.
b. The number of times a student replied to another student’s postings.
c. The number of posts a student has read.
Grading Restricted Discussion Groups
When setting up your grade book to allow you to grade restricted groups without penalizing students for not being in all
groups you will need to do one of the following.
1. Set up a category to hold grade columns for all discussion boards in each forum separately – drop the lowest #
of grades that equals the number of columns students will not have a grade in. Note: Only drop the grades after
you have graded all student work.
2. You may use categories if you choose. I suggest using them because they help to keep your gradebook
organized. Instead of dropping the lowest # of grades in the category that equals the number of columns that
the students will not have a grade, go into your grade settings and set it to Drop ungraded items. Note: You will
need to make sure that you put zeros in columns for which students did not hand in work so that their zero will
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be counted. If you don’t the assignment will not count against them.
Tips for Planning Discussion Board Activities, Evaluating Postings, and Managing Discussion Boards
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Students need to feel that the time invested in preparing responses is not wasted.
Posting to the board must feel like a worthwhile activity to the student.
Posting deadlines need to be provided.
Students should be encouraged to build relationships and continue common interests outside of the class.
Provide criteria for discussion postings in the discussion board grading rubric
o Create discussion board activities that require students to reflect
o Create discussion board activities that require students to list the pros and cons of a topic.
o Provide examples of quality postings.
o Ask students to post "My muddiest moments" or "Aha moments" in the course.
o Tell students that if they can answer another student they should do so.
Netiquette
o Students need to know what proper etiquette is for using the discussion board. The etiquette must be
enforced so that students feel free to express their ideas.
o Layout ground rules during the first class meeting
Instructor Presence
o All students need to receive some feedback on postings either from peers, or the instructor.
o Answer questions within 24 hours
o Make your presence known on the board but don’t be overwhelming.
o Wait for students to answer first
o Always be there – even if you are not responding.
o Send private email thanks for profound postings.
o Let students know if you are going to be away from the computer for longer than 24 hours.
Guest Speaker
o Guest speaker examples – Fill out a the form for adding non-enrolled users to your course, located
under the faculty tab, at least 48 hours before the guest is supposed to appear in your course - D2L
Support Link - http://www.mtsu.edu/d2lsupport.
o Adding a guest speaker to your course will allow the guest speaker to appear on the discussion board
with his/her actual name attached to the posting.
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Discussion Board, Dropbox, and Group, Email, and Calendar Tools
Anonymous Discussions
Why use Anonymous Discussions?
Originally posted on this site:
Why Use Anonymous Discussions? - http://cccomaster6.blogspot.com/2010/03/why-use-anonymous-discussions.html ,
by Dan Branan, CCCOnline Master Teacher
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They encourage honest questions about the material. Students hate to look stupid.
They encourage honest feedback. This worked two ways.
o First, when students posted anonymous questions about assignments, other students could
anonymously attempt to answer the question and help their fellow students.
 They could do this without fear of either being wrong,
 Students would not be perceived as a know-it-all
o Secondly, the instructor can receive honest (and sometimes brutal) feedback about the course itself and
about the instruction.
They allow the instructor to play "student". Instructors can seed the field a little by posting a "student" question
about material he/she knows students will have trouble understanding, if someone hasn't done it already. The
instructor can then answer the question as themselves, signing the response posting.
Dropbox
Tips
1. The Dropbox organizes user submissions – allowing the instructor to grade submissions online or download
submissions for grading offline.
2. One dropbox should be set up for each assignment. (Do not set up one dropbox for the course.)
3. Multiple dropboxes can be set up for each assignment. (First draft – final submission) This is particularly
important if you are using the TurnItIn tool to check for originality. If using the TurnItIn Tool the first draft should
not be submitted to the paper database so it should be submitted to its own drop box.
4. Several submissions for the same assignment can be submitted to the same drop box. If you are not using the
TurnItIn tool at all or is you are not submitting the paper to the paper database but using TurnItIn to add
comments to papers or if you are using the rubric tool to provide feedback.
5. Dropboxes can be restricted by date and time, group, or other restrictions using Selective Release.
6. Grading: Instructors can view submissions using the Dropbox Viewer and grade using attached rubrics or using
the TurnItIn Tool (Comments feature). The TurnItIn Tool also creates originality reports.
7. TurnItIn
1. Students (and the instructor) can view and filter originality reports to ignore quoted material and the
bibliography.
2. The TurnItIn tool allows student work to be compared against a database of student work and other
published resources.
3. Instructors can choose to use this tool as a learning tool and allow students to see the plagiarism
reports. Students can then resubmit their assignments with corrections.
4. The TurnItIn tool allows instructors to create their own set of comments (or use the built in comments)
and drag comments directly onto student assignment submissions.
5. Care needs to be taken when reviewing the report and the instructor and student may need to discuss a
report rather than taking it at its face value.
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6. TurnItIn notifies the instructor if a paper contains more than a certain percentage of quoted material.
There are other notifications, too.
Setting Dates for Dropboxes
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The Start Date opens the dropbox for students.
The Due Date doesn’t close the dropbox but any assignment submitted after the due date is marked late.
The End Date closes the dropbox.
Tip: If you set the assignment Due Date and then set the dropbox End Date for the last date you will take late
assignments you will not need to reopen the dropbox for late students. Late student work will be marked late when
turned in after the Due Date.
Displaying Dropbox Dates in the Calendar
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If you set a Due date on the dropbox OR a Due date and an End Date, the Due Date will show in the calendar.
If you only set an End Date (or a Start Date and an End Date) the End Date will show in the calendar.
If you only set a Start date for the dropbox that date will show in the calendar.
TurnItIn
TurnItIn addess two features to your dropbox, an originality report and the ability to add comments/markup to student
papers online from within the dropbox.
Setting Up TurnItIn for a Drop box.
1. Click the Enable for this folder check box under the OriginalityCheck heading.
2. Scroll down the page and click the Show Advanced Originality Checking Options link.
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3. If you want students to see the originality reports check the box. (Most often you will want them to see the
report. Make other choices and then click Save and Close.
Grading Student Dropbox Assignments
Instructors: Working with Feedback Files
If you upload corrected or graded documents to student dropboxes you have to put some sort of comment in
the feedback box for the file to show up to the student. You could even put something generic like “See
document below” and it works fine. If you put nothing though, the link to the document you submitted does
not show up. (Note: Problem should be fixed when the next update is applied to D2L, possibly in March.)
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If you upload a file to the dropbox and then remove it and try to add another file....and you then receive an
error message... you can get rid of the error by clicking the RETRACT button to remove the file. You will then be
able to add another feedback file to the student's dropbox. Note: Make sure you type a comment in the
comment box (see above bullet) to enable the student to see the file you upload.
Students - DO THIS! (Please read what not to do below!)
To view feedback files that instructors have uploaded to your dropbox complete the following steps.
1. Click Dropbox in the Blue Navigation Banner.
2. Locate the dropbox for which you want to view feedback left by your instructor. Click the View Button
associated with that dropbox.
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Look for the instructor file at the bottom of the window that opens.
Students - Don't Do This!
Students do not access your instructor's feedback files from the content area. You will receive an error message when
you try to open the instructor's file.
Rubrics: Grading Dropbox Assignments Using Rubrics
Why Use Rubrics?
Instructors
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Helps instructors more fully define each assignment
Provides a consistent method for grading and giving feedback to students.
Students
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Guides students as they complete each assignment
Helps students to more easily complete complex tasks
University centers can more effectively help students
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Discussion Board, Dropbox, and Group, Email, and Calendar Tools
Group Tool
Participants will use the Group Tool to set up discussion boards, dropboxes, quizzes, etc. that are restricted to groups of
students. These restrictions can be used to create spaces for students to communicate and hand in assignments for
group projects. Group restrictions can also be used to create discussion boards for private journaling or reflective
activities, or to choose paper or project topics. Participants will also learn to use Group restrictions restrict access to
other tools and content in D2L besides discussion boards and dropboxes.
Content, assessments, discussion boards, drop boxes and other tools can be made visible to students according to group
enrollment. Groups can 1) allow self-enrollment, 2) D2L can randomly or alphabetically assign students to groups, or 3)
D2L can create the groups with no enrollees and the instructor can assign students to groups by hand.
Students can belong to any number of groups in one course.
Restricted Discussion Board Scenario
1. Private Discussion Boards Restricted by Individual can be used for:
a. Journaling
b. Reflection
2. Restricted Group / Reporter / Open Group.
a. Each of the 5 groups is assigned one of the 5 questions for the week
b. Each group has a recorder for that week (the recorder position rotates weekly)
c. The group discusses their question in their private group discussion area.
d. When the discussion period is finished the reporter for that week posts the question and a synopsis of
the discussion in an open discussion area specific to that week.
(So all 5 questions with a synopsis of the discussion will be available for all students to read).
3. Self-Enrollment Groups
a. Choose paper Topic - rename group name to reflect papers topics (may add descriptions, too.)
b. Enroll in group of one's choosing.
4. Share documents with class.
a. Create a group that includes all students in your course.
b. Create a group dropbox based on that group.
c. Any file uploaded to that dropbox will be accessible by all students in the course.
Setting Up Groups
In D2L Groups are organized by Category.
1. Click on the link to the Groups tool in the blue navigation board and then click New Category to create your first
group category.
2. Give the category a descriptive name according to how you plan on using the category. It is not necessary fill in
the category description but in some cases you will want to do this. We will discuss reasons for this later.
3. Choose the enrollment type. You will be choosing enrollment type by the number of groups you want or by the
number of users you want in group.
a. No Auto Enrollments – the instructor adds students to the groups after the groups are created.
b. Self-Enrollment – Students add themselves to the groups after the groups are created
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c. Auto Enrollments – the students are added to the groups as they are created. Students can be
alphabetically or randomly added to the groups.
4. Type in a number indicating the number of groups or the number of users in each group that you want.
5. In the additional options area select the Set Up Discussion Areas and/or Set Up Drop box selection boxes if you
wish to create discussion boards or drop boxes. In some cases you may not want to create them.
6. Click the Create button to move to the next screen that allows you to name the discussion forums and drop
boxes if you have chosen to create them.
Email
Calendar
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