Lesson 4: Uploading an Assignment to a Drop Box

Attention

Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this lesson's material, students will be able to:

• transform a document into a PDF
• upload a document to a Blackboard drop box

Teaching

Assignments

Assignments are put into a class when your Instructor wants you to submit a file of some type. It could be anything from a word processing document to a spreadsheet...but what they want is the actual file so they can open it on their computer and see your work.

To do this your Instructor will post an "Assignment Drop Box" (remember the "rose by any name" thing! This could be called anything!)

File Types

Your Instructor will probably inform you as to what file types they will accept. For instance, if you used a free word processor (such as Open Office) but your Instructor did not have Open Office, they would not be able to open it! That would be BAD!

The standard file type for KVCC are those found in Microsoft Office (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) These programs are available for PC, Mac and all mobile devices.

However...

Why PDF?

PDF is a universal document type that was created by the company Adobe (famous for Photoshop) to be used in printing. Nearly all word processors can convert their file format to PDF and this is ALSO an accepted format to submit to a Blackboard drop box...in fact, I believe it is the preferred format.

Converting a Word file to PDF

This is not meant to be a computer class, so depending on the computer, the version of MS Word, etc. the details of how to convert a file to PDF may not look the same as on this video. But nearly all programs have a "Save as..." function and PDF is one of the options.

Click HERE to view a video on how to convert an MS Word file to a PDF on a PC.

Submitting Files to the Assignment Drop Box

Here is a short movie showing you how to upload an existing PDF (one I already made and have on my computer) to a drop box. - There is no audio in these videos.

Assessment

Your Faculty may decide to assign tasks in their class to help you demonstrate these skills. Check with your instructor.