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How to organize student submissions

Does anybody have any tips for organizing student submissions. Typically I have them share their project with me, and then I have to manually go in and add labels or create folders and then move them. This can be time consuming, and is easy to lose track of assignments (especially those submitted early or late). Is there a way for students to submit something already labeled or directly to a specific folder?

Comments

  • kate_leipold_ritkate_leipold_rit Member Posts: 36 EDU
    I have my students share the assignments with myself and a TA.  Then they copy and paste the URL into a dropbox in our LMS.  This is really helpful to me as it represents their "submission".
  • bradley_saulnbradley_sauln Moderator, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 373
    These are all great methods! I'd like to hear from you 3 @andy_mundell620, @brian_brady, and @kate_leipold_rit about how we could help support you better in terms of Onshape document control and organization for an educational environment?
    Engineer | Adventurer | Tinkerer
    Twitter: @bradleysauln


  • kate_leipold_ritkate_leipold_rit Member Posts: 36 EDU
    These are all great methods! I'd like to hear from you 3 @andy_mundell620, @brian_brady, and @kate_leipold_rit about how we could help support you better in terms of Onshape document control and organization for an educational environment?
    Oooo - my organization shopping list. 
    • the ability to view my folders under files created by me.  
    • the ability to sort teams I've created vs teams I've been added to. 
    • the ability to create a team that I use to share files out, but other team members can't. 
    I think there is more, but this is good, for now. 

  • brian_bradybrian_brady Member, Developers Posts: 505 EDU
    These are all great methods! I'd like to hear from you 3 @andy_mundell620, @brian_brady, and @kate_leipold_rit about how we could help support you better in terms of Onshape document control and organization for an educational environment?
    Off the top of my head:

    1. Bulk remove from share
    2. Ability to find "shared with me" that are not tagged
  • andy_mundell620andy_mundell620 Member Posts: 4 EDU
    I think that Brian hit the biggest thing for me, which is create a searchable naming convention and enforcing it. However, it would still be nice if I could create a submission folder/link/sharing option for assignments. Features might include

    - allow me to write a description or even attach a rubric for what they should be submitting
    - automatically place student submissions into a folder
    - a timestamp for when the file was submitted, or ability to not accept submissions after a certain time
    - automatically place a folder specific tag onto all submissions into that folder
    - lock students out of modifying their file after submission.

    I recently gave an exam where students were required to model a part within the time frame. We were able to identify students who cheated when we noticed a shared mistake between both files and then examined timestamps. One student had created the part, shared it with another student, and then they made a copy and submitted it. With the second file created after the first file had last been edited, it was obvious, but there are many other ways to cheat that would be harder to detect. 

    Creating a part template that is not allowed to be shared with anybody but the instructor (or some other way of identifying the origin of a part studio) would be huge. In the future I plan on creating all of the individual part studio templates, share them with students, and not give them the ability to invite collaborators, but this will be time consuming.
  • brian_bradybrian_brady Member, Developers Posts: 505 EDU
    @andy_mundell620

    History is your friend. I peruse the history often, especially if something seems fishy.

    I require my students to create a version with a specific naming convention as well as name their document a specific way. Except early in the semester when they are getting used to both Onshape and me, I enforce a "no version, no grade" policy. When grading, I branch their version if there are changes made since the version was created and grade the branch, otherwise I grade "Main". This ensures that I am only grading what they "submitted" before the due date/time. I also always check to see that the version was created before the due date.


  • paul_bunnellpaul_bunnell Member Posts: 25 EDU
    I use a system similar to @brian_brady but I have students begin the file name with a "status" label.  Options are Grade Me or IP (for "in progress").  (The full name format is Status, Period #, Last Name, First Name, File Name).  When I first stated I was tagging each submission with a label for graded or not graded.  I found that I had to open the "not graded" assignments several times to check on whether they were finished or not.  Now I sort by name and I know which ones to grade and which to ignore.  After I grade an assignment I rename it from "Grade Me" to "Graded."  My old system was a nightmare but this one has been working pretty well.
  • john_doubledayjohn_doubleday Member Posts: 58 EDU
     I have asked about sharing/combining student files for laser cutting within the Education forum. It may be of some use
    https://forum.onshape.com/discussion/comment/51281#Comment_51281
  • mike_reillymike_reilly Member Posts: 3 EDU
    These are all great methods! I'd like to hear from you 3 @andy_mundell620, @brian_brady, and @kate_leipold_rit about how we could help support you better in terms of Onshape document control and organization for an educational environment?
    It would be so much easier to enroll kids if OnShape had a code, like Google Classroom, Remind, and so many others.  Great product, using it for class, then FIRST Robotics, Team 4509!
  • mike_reillymike_reilly Member Posts: 3 EDU
    edited August 2019
    These are all great methods! I'd like to hear from you 3 @andy_mundell620, @brian_brady, and @kate_leipold_rit about how we could help support you better in terms of Onshape document control and organization for an educational environment?
    I will currently use a Google Form to collect emails, and do the "copy and paste" as suggested.  Thanks for a great tool that facilitates communication between students and engineering mentors!
  • KatieHuffmanKatieHuffman Member, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 194
    Has anybody thought of using versions for submissions to turn in homework or projects? This is something I have thought about, especially for projects that might be submitted in stages.  A version is an immutable bookmark in the document, which would allow a student to continue working- but give them something to turn in- that cannot be changed, of course with a naming convention-for you to identify the version they are turning in. Also URLS are specific to a version or workspace, so if a student turned in a URL belonging to the version instead of the workspace it would be easy to identify. Comments are also specific to a workspace or version, so if you wanted to help a student with work- your comments would be specific to that version or workspace.

    I am also curious if any instructor provides grading feedback via comments?

    I have also thought of using teams to divide your students into classes to distribute assignments, by creating a document with the assignment information and sharing to the team. Remember documents can contain more than just CAD models! This might make it easier to reset after new classes start. You can just update the team members- remove the old students, and add the new.

    You could also use teams if students work on projects together in a group, you could add all the students in a group to each team, to make it easy for them to share/work on the right documents together. If you create the team- you would have more insight into how their projects are coming along (as long as they share the docs with the team- because you would be part of the team).

    To turn in an assignment, I think its good to have the student share to the instructor/TA, if they shared to the team- then all other students would be able to see their work.

    The idea to use labels to mark what you have graded seems like a great idea- since its specific to you and not the students. 

    These are just some ideas I have had to make use of some of these professional tools in Onshape in a classroom environment- and would like some feedback from you guys if you think any of these are viable or could work in your classrooms.
  • owen_sparksowen_sparks Member, Developers Posts: 2,660 PRO
    edited September 2019
    Interesting.
    I'm curious if each student could work within their branch of a single document?  No more chasing of "files", but that would be dependent on branch level sharing...
    Owen S.
    Business Systems and Configuration Controller
    HWM-Water Ltd
  • brian_bradybrian_brady Member, Developers Posts: 505 EDU
    @KatieHuffman I have students make versions all of the time. They can share their assignment with me at any time so I can provide input via comments or "follow" them if they can't get something to work correctly. They are told that I will only grade their work that is done before the version named "Grade Me". This is their explicit signal that they are done and want me to grade their assignment. They know I won't grade any assignments until the due date has passed, so they can always create a second (or third or fourth) "Grade Me" version as long it is before the due date. 

    I always check to see to see if there are any changes after the version. If there are, I activate the version and grade it, leaving comments. If there are no changes after versioning, I just grade Main. 

    Brian
  • KatieHuffmanKatieHuffman Member, Onshape Employees, Developers Posts: 194
    @KatieHuffman I have students make versions all of the time. They can share their assignment with me at any time so I can provide input via comments or "follow" them if they can't get something to work correctly. They are told that I will only grade their work that is done before the version named "Grade Me". This is their explicit signal that they are done and want me to grade their assignment. They know I won't grade any assignments until the due date has passed, so they can always create a second (or third or fourth) "Grade Me" version as long it is before the due date. 

    I always check to see to see if there are any changes after the version. If there are, I activate the version and grade it, leaving comments. If there are no changes after versioning, I just grade Main. 

    Brian
    That is great! I bet the newer capability that allows you to view the history and versions graph on the main page really helps with knowing which student's docs are ready to grade without opening each one!

  • paul_hermanspaul_hermans Member Posts: 2 EDU
    As I read this thread, and feel many of the same issues, I am wondering if turning the model around would make more sense. What If I create a folder for my class, then create a file for the assignment. For example:
      M1_Seed

    Then I write a script using an API (assuming it can be done) to copy the seed file, rename it to follow convention, and share it with the student.   For example, if I had a list of student1@abc.edu and student2@abc.edu I could have the script generate 2 copies of the seed file named . M1_student1 and M1_student2 and then share the appropriate file with them via their email address.

    Not sure if the API would support this or not (haven't looked) but seems like a pretty basic process that should be doable. If it would help anyone I will try to find time to experiment a bit with it.

  • brian_bradybrian_brady Member, Developers Posts: 505 EDU
    @paul_hermans I would entertain using a scriptable way to create and share multiple copies of a seed document with my students. If the script could also transfer ownership to the student instead of me, all the better.
  • jeff_buckjeff_buck Member Posts: 5 EDU
    @paul_hermans - it's over a year later.  I started using OnShape last fall and am having the same kinds of ideas as were discussed in this thread.  I wonder if the scripting idea ever came to anything?  I got here from Google rather than the forum directly so maybe there's another thread.  I'll look.  Since @bradley_sauln asked, I wonder where OnShape would like to take the instructor experience.
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