Information Technology Services

By: Jodie Nehrt

It’s a common recommendation from ITS to faculty: “Save your files on OneDrive and link them in your course.” Until a few weeks ago, that recommendation was followed by a set of instructions to change the share setting to limit student access so they could see and download but couldn’t alter your original documents and files.

Now, you can link content to Blackboard with fewer clicks! This updated Knowledge Base article, Share a File or Folder from OneDrive, shows the default setting is “can view.” If you want to allow editing to the linked file, the article explains how to change from the default setting as well.

Using OneDrive for course file storage has definite benefits:

• Save space - Large files, such as videos and image-heavy PowerPoint presentations, fill up your course, and Blackboard limits to 2GB of storage per course.
• Save time - Using Office 365 to edit a file stored in OneDrive updates that file linked in a course without attaching a new version.
• Improve access – OneDrive is cloud storage, allowing you to access your files from any device.

OneDrive is well-known for its collaborative features; it is a tool that allows co-creation when you share with editing rights. Ultimately you, the file owner, need to make the choice to share any item with editing rights. Your items now have view-only access by default.

Distribute information to your students and collaborate with your colleagues, all from OneDrive!