Drop box behaviour via Assignments

Brightspace does not have a dedicated drop box tool. In other systems, such a tool could be used by students to easily share files with a instructor (or vice versa), which is useful for handling multiple/ongoing file submissions, version tracking and draft management, exchanging feedback, providing instructions, etc.

It is possible to configure an Assignment in Brightspace to handle this type of file exchange.

Creating a drop box in Assignments

Many of the features required to replicate a drop box in Brightspace use the default Assignment settings.

The following steps outline a typical use case for a drop box that can accept multiple student file submissions. An Assignment will be created to act as a folder for ongoing submission and this can be set to be either graded or ungraded.

1. Click the New Assignment button in the Assignments tool.

2. Choose whether the assignment is Ungraded or Graded.

   1. There is only one grade entry field for an Assignment. Files that are to be submitted to the folder but evaluated independently will have to be tracked outside of Brightspace. A single grade can be applied to the “folder” in this case.

   2. Choose Ungraded if the drop box is used only to exchange files or if they will be evaluated by other means.

3. Adjust the settings in the Submission & Completion menu on the right-hand side of the assignment editor. There are two essential options to make this work for this situation.

   1. Set Files Allowed Per Submission to “Unlimited”.

   2. Set Submissions to “All submissions are kept”.

4. Set any other assignment parameters. For more information and to better understand how to tailor something to your specific needs, refer to the article on the basics of creating an Assignment.

5. Click Save and Close and be sure to switch the visibility toggle on if the drop box is to be immediately available.