Welcome to MyDropBox!

This Student Manual provides you with a complete guide to the MyDropBox Assignment Management System.

On completion you will know how to:

Obtain and modify your user profile

Log in and out of the MyDropBox system

Find your way around the system

Use elements of MyDropBox such as the Announcements, Calendar and Tips

Submit your papers and assignments

Contact your Instructors and Teaching Assistants

View course documents and links

View your grades, past and present and

Get help when you need it

MyDropBox is a learning management system with a focus on assignment management and advanced plagiarism detection. MyDropBox facilitates work with written assignments for both students and instructors by automating such functions as

distribution of information about assignments to students,

paper submission,

originality and plagiarism detection,

assignment grading,

archiving of submitted papers, and

tracking student progress over time.

MyDropBox is available online at http://mdb2.mydropbox.com/.

The MyDropBox system is build around traditional principles of instruction, and therefore it has the same set of user roles - Administrators, Instructors, Teaching Assistants and Students. Each role has its own set of responsibilities and privileges in the MyDropBox system.

In addition, every user can have several roles associated with his/her profile. For example, a student may also be an instructor and have an Instructor Account in MyDropBox, or a teaching assistant can also be a student and have TA's privileges in one class and student privileges in the other classes. In MyDropBox, it is very easy for users with more than one role to switch between their roles to perform different tasks.

1.2.1 Students

MyDropBox's functional designers have put much effort into minimizing the responsibilities of students in the MyDropBox system, while providing them with a range of useful tools. As a result you can start using MyDropBox without any training, gradually becoming a power-user if you wish to master all advanced features. Your only responsibility as a student is to get enrolled in your class and submit papers on time. However, you can also benefit from more advanced MyDropBox tools available to you:

1) Course Documents and Links - access course-related documents (e.g. the syllabus or the instructor's biography) and links for all your Courses from the Course Content area of your MyDropBox account.

2) Assignment-Related Documents and Links - use MyDropBox to download detailed assignment descriptions and sample data files posted by instructors and associated with particular assignments.

3) Instantly Updated Online Gradebook - monitor your grades in MyDropBox through the Gradebook featuring instant updates and automatic calculation of average and total grades.

4) Announcements - keep track of all news in all of your courses in one place - the MyDropBox Announcement System.

This chapter may assist students who wish to have a better understanding of the MyDropBox structure.

Besides its user hierarchy MyDropBox has a Course structure that manages the entire system. The Course structure is organized around Courses that instructors register in the MyDropBox, and several functions are available from within Course units. The Course structure includes the following elements:

1.3.1. Courses

The Course is the main element of the structure. Your instructor/s will create as many Courses in MyDropBox as are required. Courses have properties such as name, start and end date and so on. Every Course contains several other elements:

1. Student Join Code - this code, unique for every course, is generated automatically when a Course is registered. The Join Code will be distributed to all students when you enroll into the Course.

2. Enrolled Students - Instructors enroll students in a Course. Students must be enrolled in a Course to be able to use all course-related tools and features.

3. Teaching Assistants - each Course may have one or more teaching assistants enrolled.

4. Course Documents and Links - for each Course, instructors can upload your course-related documents to MyDropBox to make them available for you online. Instructors can use MyDropBox to publish course-related links as well. This feature is great for publishing such documents as the syllabus, instructor's biography, peer evaluation forms, and/or links to external information sources on the Web.

5. Announcements - instructors can use the Announcements feature to communicate with students enrolled in their courses.

6. Assignments - Every Course can contain an unlimited number of Assignments, and each Assignment has properties such as name, start and due dates, as well as other sub-elements, including:

• a. Assignment-Related Documents and Links - just like a Course itself, every Assignment in a Course can contain one or more documents and Web links associated with it.
• b. Student Papers - you can submit your papers into Assignments. Logically, papers cannot be submitted in Institutions that contain no registered Courses, or in Courses that have no Assignments.
• c. Plagiarism Detection Reports - plagiarism detection reports on student papers operate in parallel to the papers that students submit. For more information on the plagiarism detection functionality, please see the .

1.3.2. Announcements

MyDropBox features a powerful internal communication system called Announcements. Announcements enable MyDropBox users to quickly pass any information to related groups of users.

For example, an instructor can send an Announcement to all students enrolled in one or all of his/her Courses, or an Account Administrator can create an Announcement visible to all MyDropBox users in the corresponding institution.

As a student, you can receive copies of Announcements related to you in your personal electronic mailboxes, once you have enabled this option in your user profile.

There are three tiers of Announcements:

1. System-Wide Announcements - these Announcements are created by MyDropBox representatives and are visible to ALL MyDropBox users. Such Announcements are extremely rare, but they contain very important information about the MyDropBox service.

2. Consortium-Wide Announcements - these Announcements are created by an Account Supervisor for a group of institutions using MyDropBox as one consortium (e.g. a college district). Consortium-wide Announcements are visible to all MyDropBox users in all institutions belonging to one consortium.

3. Institution-Wide Announcements - these Announcements are visible to all MyDropBox uses within one particular institution. Such Announcements will come from your institutional Account Administrators and consortium-level Account Supervisors.

4. Course-Wide Announcements - these Announcements are intended for students that are enrolled into a specific Course and are usually created by your instructors or TA's.

For more information about using MyDropBox Announcements, please refer to the

of this manual.

As a MyDropBox user, you have a unique user profile consisting of your contact information, preferences and authorization data - your login and password. Your email address is used as your login.

To get access to the MyDropBox services as a Student, you have to create a Student Profile and be enrolled in at least one Course. Your instructor, Account Administrator or Supervisor may have already created a user profile for you. In this case you just need to log in to MyDropBox using the login and password provided by your instructor. Otherwise you have to create your profile and enroll in a Course yourself. To enroll in a Course, you need to obtain a Course Join Code from your instructor.

To create a user profile and join a Course:

1. Go to http://mdb2.mydropbox.com/.

2. Follow the Create Profile link.

3. Fill in the profile creation form. Please enter a valid email address, as it will be used as your login and for communication purposes.

4. At the bottom of the form, enter the Join Code that you received from your instructor.

5. Click the Submit button. Your profile data will be emailed to you, and you will be redirected to the Login Page.

To log in:

1. Go to http://mdb2.mydropbox.com/.

2. In the Login form, enter your email address into the Login field and your password into the Password field, and click the Sign In button.

To log out:

1. Assuming you are logged in, click the Logout icon in the upper-right corner of any MyDropBox page.

2. You will be logged out of the system and forwarded to the Login Page.

2.3.1 Top Bar

The Top Bar is essentially the horizontal line located at the top of every MyDropBox screen. This bar has several simple but useful functional elements:

1) Greeting Line - this is located right next to the MyDropBox logo in the upper left corner of the screen. This line welcomes you by name. In addition, clicking on the name brings up the current user's profile page.

2) Breadcrumbs - this is the dark text line located immediately below the Greeting Line. The Breadcrumbs help you not to get lost in the MyDropBox system providing a quick way back to any higher level of the user interface. Breadcrumbs is a chain of links that lists all levels above the current level separated by the "/" sign, with the Homepage being the highest level., Use Breadcrumbs to get back to a higher level with just one click or to check where exactly you are in MyDropBox.

3) Account Select Box - if you have several MyDropBox accounts (roles) associated with your user profile, you can use the Account dropdown list at the top of the screen to quickly switch between your accounts.

4) The Join Account Link - clicking on this link brings up a form where you can enter a Join Code to join a new MyDropBox user role. For example, if you are a Student, you can also add a role of Teaching Assistant (T.A.) to your profile by clicking this link and entering the TA Join Code for your institution.

5) The Log-Out Button - this button does nothing more than log you out of the system. It is highly recommended to log out at the end of every MyDropBox session to prevent unauthorized access to your MyDropBox account.

2.3.2 Main Menu

The Main Menu is the horizontal graphical menu located right below the top bar. The menu consists of three tabs that open the corresponding sections of the system: Homepage, Courses, and Announcements. Each section is described further in this manual.

Most of your common activities in the MyDropBox system will be performed within a particular Course. A Course is the main organizational unit for working with Assignments, learning materials, paper submissions and your grades. You can quickly switch between Courses using the Switch Course dropdowns you will find on some of the MyDropBox pages.

2.3.3 Homepage

Upon logging in, you are forwarded to your Homepage. If you have joined several MyDropBox accounts, you have several homepages, one per account. In this case, you will see the homepage of your default account. You can change your default account on your Personal Preferences page (see <Chapter 3.1>).

The Homepage is your entry point for all MyDropBox services. Your Student Homepage consists of three elements:

My Courses - Direct links to all Courses that you are enrolled into with notifications showing the number of Assignments that were not completed (Open Assignments).

Common Tasks - Quick links to the most common operations you may want to perform: Join Course or View Grades.

Latest Announcements - An aggregated list of the latest Announcements posted by your Instructor and/or other users.

On the right side of the screen of every page of MyDropBox there are Tips and Calendar boxes.

2.3.4 Tips

The Tips window displays random advice about effective work with MyDropBox tools.

2.3.5 Calendar

The Calendar window displays the current month highlighting Announcements and assignment due dates for your Courses. Clicking on any highlighted date will open a separate page listing all events for that date.

Announcements are highlighted in blue, and assignment due dates are highlighted in red.

To modify your personal information and preferences:

1. Click on the My Info icon located in the upper-right corner of every MyDropBox screen.

2. In the profile modification form, edit the necessary fields.

3. Press the Submit button to save changes.

To change your login and password:

1. Go to your profile modification page by clicking on the My Info icon or your name in the Greeting Line at the top of the screen.

2. Edit the Login (email) field and/or type your new password in the Password and Confirm Password fields.

3. Press the Submit button.

4. You will be logged off and forwarded to the Log In page. Please log in again using your new authorization data.

If you received a Join Code from your instructor:

1. If you do not have a MyDropBox profile, please obtain your profile as described in <Chapter 2.1.>

2. If you already have a profile, then login to MyDropBox and click the Join Course link in the Common Tasks box located in the left part of the screen.

3. Input the Join Code into the Join Course form and click the Submit button.

All the Courses you enroll into become available instantly and appear on your Courses page.

Note that your instructor may prefer to enroll students manually. In this case, you do not have go through the steps described above (no action at all is required on your part).

To see the list of your Courses, click the Courses tab in the main menu. In the Courses section, you can see the list of all Courses that you are enrolled into and see the names and email addresses of your Instructors and Teaching Assistants. This information is useful when you need to contact your instructor or TA.

To view additional information about any of your Courses:

1. Once you are on the Courses page, click the Info icon next to the Course you need.

2. On the following screen, you will see available details about the selected Course.

Clicking on a title of any Course in the list on the Courses page will open the Assignments page of the corresponding Course. The Assignments page is divided into two sections, with the upper section listing your "open" Assignments (the assignment that you have not completed yet) and the lower section listing the completed Assignments. From this page, you can view assignment details, submit papers and view the Originality Reports generated on your papers.

To view more detailed information about an Assignment:

1. Once you are on the Assignments page, choose an Assignment by clicking on its title.

2. On the following page, you will see detailed information about the Assignment, including any additional documents and links to external resources related to this Assignment (e.g. a file with a detailed assignment description or a link to a Web site that can help you with the Assignment).

To submit a paper:

1. Once you are on the Assignments page (see <Chapters 5.2> and <5.4> if you do not know how to get there), click the Submit icon next to the Assignment you want to submit a paper to.

2. In the paper submission form, enter the title of the paper, choose the submission option, and either click the Browse button to pick the file for upload (recommended) or copy-and-paste the text of your paper into the text area.

3. Enter any comments for your instructor in the corresponding field of the form, if necessary.

4. Click the Preview button to make sure that the text of your paper was uploaded successfully.

5. Click the Submit button to finish the submission process.

IMPORTANT: MyDropBox supports the following types of uploaded files only: Microsoft Word Document (.doc), Rich Text Format (.rtf), Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (.pdf), HTML (.htm) and plain text (.txt) files. Please do not upload files of any other types. If you cannot save your paper to any of the supported formats, please use the Copy-and-Paste submission method.

To view your submitted papers or the Originality Reports on your papers, do the following:

1. Go to the Assignments page of the corresponding Course.

2. Scroll the Assignments page down to the Completed Assignments section.

3. Click on the "Source File" icon next to the necessary Assignment to see the paper you submitted or click the "Report" icon to view the Originality Report on your paper.

NOTE: The originality reports become available to students only with the permission of the instructor. Therefore, you may not be able to see your reports if your instructor did not enable this feature. Also please note that Originality Reports appear after some delay necessary for information processing.

In the Course Materials section, you can view Web accessible documents and links, related to your Courses or to particular Assignments. To open the Course Materials page, click the Course Materials tab in the Course menu of the corresponding Course.

To view Course documents and links:

1. Open the Course Materials page of the necessary Course.

2. In the menu on the left side of the Course Materials page, click the General Materials link.

To view Assignment-related documents and links:

1. Open your Course Materials page of the necessary Course.

2. In the menu on the left side of the page, click on any Assignment title to view the documents and links associated with that Assignment.

The MyDropBox Gradebook helps to track your grades online. All Assignments created in MyDropBox automatically become available in the Gradebook. Your instructors can also create custom Gradebook items to post grades for assessments outside of MyDropBox.

To open the Gradebook, click the Gradebook tab in the Course menu.

On the Gradebook page, you can see all grades you received for your Assignments, including point, weighted and letter grades, view instructor's comments on your grades, open your papers and view Originality Reports.

To view your instructor's comments on a grade:

1. Click on the Comment icon next to the grade you are interested in.

2. On the following page, you will see details about the selected grade.

To view Gradebook item information:

1. Once you are on the Gradebook page, choose a Gradebook item by clicking on its name.

2. On the following page, you will see details about the selected Gradebook item.

The MyDropBox Announcement system helps you to receive information from your instructors in a convenient manner. You can read Announcements from several places in the system:

1. On your Homepage, you can see the list of the latest Announcements, relevant to your Courses and institution-wide.

2. Clicking on a highlighted date in the calendar will open a page listing all daily events, including Announcements and assignment due dates.

To view older Announcements:

1. Click the Announcements tab in the main menu.

2. Choose the month and the year in the corresponding dropdown lists located in the upper left corner of the page to view all Announcements for the selected period.