Collecting, Annotating and Redistributing Student Work using an iPad, GoodReader, Dropbox (and optionally Jotform)
Cloud computing solutions and services are becoming extremely popular and now more options exist than ever before. iPads can harness this power, especially with apps like GoodReader. GoodReader ($4.99, iTunes) does a lot. It allows you access to all manner of cloud-based document servers, email attachments, locally saved files, and even S/FTP. It lets you view office docs, pdfs, images and multimedia files. It lets you zip files together, email from the app, or open the files in other apps for the purposes of editing. You can search within files, and most importantly for the present discussion, you can annotate files with drawings, highlights and sticky notes.
Use case: Collect work from students, mark or comment on it, send it back to them.
This is a fairly standard use case for teachers. Students have produced some work in the form of a document and you want to give them feedback. Here is the iPad workflow with some advanced tips.
Collect the work. 
There are various ways to go about this, but ideally you want the work to end up on a cloud server or on a network drive that you can access. I recommend Dropbox because it is flexible, cheap and it can be accessed by a number of different devices and services across platforms and the web. The simplest way to do this is to share a Dropbox folder with each individual student. They put assignments into the folder, you can access those files, create annotated versions of them, and drop them back into the folder. Simple, and it can be done on a laptop, desktop, iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, Android device, Windows, Mac or Linux. Basically, no limitations. Another Dropbox-linking service is Jotform. Jotform is a slick web form builder with tons of features like calendar date pickers, various fields like email and full paragraph text, enhanced security, theme styling, etc. You can try the service for free: Jotform.com. Jotform recently came out with a way to include an “Upload File” field, where the file is saved to a folder on your Dropbox. Very clever and easy to set up. It isn’t free past 20 uploads per month (which you would need), but at $9.95 a month, it won’t break the bank. It is a simple matter to create a webform that looks like this:
A simple webform created using Jotform. The upload field is linked to Dropbox automatically.
Connect to Dropbox with GoodReader.
Accessing a Dropbox folder from GoodReader. Click to enlarge.
Enter your Dropbox credentials. GoodReader creates a little Dropbox icon under “Connect to Server”. Tap it to access your Dropbox contents. Navigate to the Jotform folder or the shared folder you set up with your student. (A “Jotform” folder is created automatically when you allow Jotform access to your Dropbox.) Find the first student file and tap “Download”. Save it to the local iPad drive, and tap it to open it up.
Annotate and record feedback.
Tap and hold to select text, just as you would in any other text app on iOS. Instead of just “Copy”, though, you’ll be able to select “Note”, “Highlight”, “Markup…” and “Draw…”. The Note tab allows you to insert a text sticky note at the location of your cursor.
Highlight will highlight the selected text, Markup involves Highlighting as well as underline, squigly, cross out, insert and replace.
Draw lets you create lines, arrows, shapes, or freehand draw and write comments. I find that the draw feature works particularly well with a stylus, especially if you want to handwrite text, but you can also circle things or draw arrows with your finger.
GoodReader will ask you if you want to save a new version of the file or embed your annotations into the PDF permanently. If it is a draft, I just let the comments be embedded. Repeat the process with the rest of the files in the Jotform or shared Dropbox folders.
Markup options for annotating files in GoodReader.
Draw options for annotating files in GoodReader.
Embed the annotation or create a new file.
Distribute the files to students.
Select the file and tap “Upload”. Make sure you have navigated to the desired Dropbox location.
Backup your files.
Zipping files: select all the files you want included.
Using this workflow with Turnitin.com.
Turnitin hasn’t released an iPad app, or a plugin for GoodReader, although if they did I think they could charge some money for it. In fact, because Turnitin has an API, an enterprising programmer could make this work. But alas. For now, you have to download the student work from Turnitin.com as PDFs, and save them to a folder in your Dropbox. This takes a minute or two, and it is tedious, but once it is done, you have all the student files as PDFs and they are organized and ready for the iPad to access them. Of course, the feedback you record using GoodReader isn’t saved in Turnitin.com.
If you have a classroom full of iPads (or laptops) in a 1:1 program.
A 1:1 situation is a slightly different story. iPads work well together. If the students have Dropbox and iPads, they can create content on their iPad using an app like QuickOffice and save it to the folder that they share with you on Dropbox. You can pick up the file from there, annotate it, and save a marked up copy in the same folder. If one of you accidentally deletes a file, you can restore it by visiting the Dropbox web interface. Dropbox saves the entire history of each file in each folder, so you can even go back to previous versions if something goes awry. In this scenario, Jotform is eliminated, and the process is simplified. Another thing it does is gives students wider access to the data they have submitted. Jotform, on the other hand, can be a slick way to have students answer specific questions. For example, you could set up a Jotform and make it a kind of quiz. The students would navigate to the proper page (perhaps, it’s password protected so a different class can’t see the quiz), fill in the Jotform, hit submit, and their answers would be logged as a file in your Dropbox. You could grade the quizzes that way, or you could even annotate their answers using the method above. Jotform is a more flexible and more powerful data collection tool than Google Forms, which is why it costs a little money. And it is better suited to iPads. (I’ll compare them at length in a separate post.)
And there you have it.
Now you can collect student work, record feedback, and redistribute it, all from the comfort of your iPad.
[...] Collecting, Annotating and Redistributing Student Work using an … – GoodReader iPad app GoodReader ($4.99, iTunes) does a lot. It allows you access to all manner of cloud-based document servers, email attachments, locally saved files, and even [...]
[...] Wandering Academic just posted a helpful guide to using an iPad, GoodReader, Dropbox and Jotform to offer feedback on digital documents. Though [...]
[...] http://wanderingacademic.com/collecting-annotating-and-redistributing-student-work-using-an-ipad-goo… [...]
[...] Wandering Academic just posted a helpful guide to using an iPad, GoodReader, Dropbox and Jotform to offer feedback on digital documents. Though [...]
Found this article really useful – very keen to see how easy this will be for young children – I work with 6-7 year olds, confident that with a little practice we could get this working well.
Thanks, Gary. I think if younger kids are filling in online forms as a way of producing writing, it would be no sweat. Go to the class website (an app on their home screen, or a link on their laptop desktop) > Click the button or link > fill in form > click submit. You could even put pictures in for the form prompt, to generate some story writing or something. I don’t know how 6-7 year olds do writing, to be honest! But I would love to know what your experience is like, so come back and share.
Very cool. However, what IS MISSING is a direct relationship between the notes edited (as described above) to the Class, Assignment, Semester, Faculty Member, School, University, Curriculum, Program, etc.
studentforce provides that while the apps you discuss above are integrated (Dropbox is already integrated with studentforce as is Google Apps [at the platform level]).
Here is an example of eTextbooks and Course Materials: http://youtu.be/uN03s33e6zM
Thanks for this, Ed. I’m not sure of what Studentforce is – is it some kind of course management system? Anyway, at some point someone will invent the perfect LMS for iPad, but until then, there are good solutions we can piece together from the existing apps.
[...] Collecting, Annotating and Redistributing Student Work using an iPad, GoodReader, Dropbox (and optio… [...]
This post was extremely helpful to me. I am in an educational technology class and I was asked to figure out a data collecting/storage solution using iPads in a 1:1 setting. Thank you so much for the help! Massive credit will be given to you in my presentation.
Glad you could use this. I have been refining and rethinking the iPad in 1:1 situations, especially as I participate in my own 1:1 pilot program. Evernote is increasingly useful, as is google docs, which wasn’t always the case with iPads. The other thing that will probably change the way ipads are used is the upcoming iOS 5 update – it will allow full wireless video mirroring from the iPad 2 via an apple TV. This in itself could blow open the usefulness of the tablet as a classroom tool, not just a media manager and creation device. The other highly anticipated update is the release of Voicethread for iOS. But they have been promising this for a while now… In any case, send me your ideas, and perhaps we can collaborate.
Question about your article. I’m working with some individuals who want to set up such a system to have students upload docs, have the teacher grade and then put the graded results back up in the cloud for the student to retrieve the results.
So, here’s the question: how do you prevent the students from accessing other students work and merely copying it and putting it up there as their own?
DropBox’s limitation is that once a folder is shared, the students can invite others to the shared folder, and voila, they can then access the contents. Same goes for viewing the teacher’s markups, etc. What we want to do is prevent the student’s work from access by other students – and restrict only to the teacher.
Can JotForm help in this regard?
Also, just FYI, the Noterize app has Dropbox capabilities – but again, suffes from this Dropbox limitation on security.
Any direction would be greatly appreciated.
Thanx. JOe….
Dropitto.me is a service that allows one-way submission to a Dropbox account. JotForm is supposed to work this way, as well. But actually, neither of these services work with an iPad, since the iPad doesn’t have traditional files. If the students all have iPads, there are several ways to manage this:
1. Have them create a shared notebook in Evernote. Share the notebook with the teacher. Place documents in this notebook. Only the teacher and student will have access.
2. Have them submit documents to Google Docs, and share the collection with the teacher. Again, the teacher will see a collection called “Bobby Period 3″ or whatever, and Bobby just needs to place his document in this collection for the teacher to see it. The teacher can then access the files from a variety of places, including the web version of Google Docs, any of the Office suites for iPad (except iWork, unfortunately), GoodReader, etc. Google Docs allows for revision history, too, so you can check to see a student hasn’t altered work after the fact (if you care about that).
3. You could rig an “email the file to my dropbox” setup, such as the one described here: http://www.labnol.org/software/upload-dropbox-files-by-email/18526/ – It looks clever, I’ve never used it so can’t vouch for it. Sendtodropbox.com, Dropitto.me and AirDropper.com are third party services for this same kind of thing.
Hi, Enjoyed your article and very useful but need some additional assistance if possible please.
We have just started a travel blog using wordpress for our planned round-the-world trip soon. We are doing a test run next week on a car trip using the iPad only – No PC. (all posting prior to this was done thru a PC using wordpress). On the iPad I am using the Safari aps and accessing wordpress that way.
It works well but am having trouble uploading photos from the iPad into wordpress.
I have transferred jpg images from my camera directly into the iPad and then edited them in the iPad using the PS Express aps.
Two problems I’ve encountered so far that I am looking for advice on, are
(i) I can’t resize the images to the 64kb size needed to upload into wordpress using the PS Express aps (how-to please??) and
(ii) I can’t access the saved photos in the Ipad to put into the post in wordpress. Will the “GoodReader” aps allow me to do this?
(iii) Do I need any other aps
Your assistance would be appreciated. Thanks John Bee, Gold Coast Australia.
P.S. no doubt you’ve realized I’m not a techie or anywhere near it.
I would use the free WordPress app instead of Safari. It allows you to post images as well as video. Alternatively, you could use an app called Blogsy. Both apps require that you go to your WordPress Settings > Writing and “Enable XML-RPC” under “Remote Publishing”. This lets your iPad app talk to your WordPress site directly.
EasyCloud for OS X, their Utility app that allows Mac users to simply drag and drop data files into the EasyCloud Drop Window to have those files immediately available on all their Macs and iDevices. The app’s two functions, Drop and Mac to Mac, support the following file types via iCloud: .pages (iWork), .numbers (iWork), .keynote (iWork), .doc (Microsoft Word), .excel (Microsoft Excel), .ppt (Microsoft Power Point), .txt (TextEdit Application), etc. The Drop function sends files directly to all the user’s iDevices containing the matching app and via a common iCloud account. The Mac to Mac function enables both syncing and file sharing between Macs sharing the same iCloud account. A browser window displays all files available for sharing between Macs, files can be opened or deleted, and the list refreshed. EasyCloud support GoodReader.
http://www.kandalu.net/products/easycloud
The english teacher and I work together on research projects. Is there a way we both can use Goodreader to comment on the same document?
You can set up a two way Dropbox sync of a shared folder via GoodReader. One of you changes the PDF, sync to Dropbox shared folder. The other syncs the same folder, grabs the changed document and continues editing. Sync, change, sync, change. It isn’t live, but it is a good alternative!
I am working with a mobile iPad lab where different students use the same iPads. how can I set up a Dropbox type situation that is not linked to a specific student since the iPads are used by others? Thanks!
My suggestion would be Evernote. You can email any type of file to Evernote accounts, and you can log in and out of Evernote on various iPads without leaving your data behind. It is proving invaluable for our iPad 1:1 trials.
[...] 9.) Managing student work [...]
There were comments on using an LMS for this workflow and Moodle will work quite well as it supports Dropbox folders in the File Picker (quite easy to enable).
Meaning students can upload assignments directly from their Dropbox and you can also return marked work via Dropbox as well as part of the feedback mechanism in Moodle.
http://moodle.org/
Great suggestions. Thanks for submitting them. I wonder if anyone has tried using a service like Haiku Learning for this. That thing looks slick.
We are in the planning stages of a 1:1 iPad Intiative for our 5th graders. Workflow is presenting a challenge for us because 5th graders are under the age of 13. Our LMS is edmodo however students can not annotate a document in Edmodo and turn it in to the teacher. I have read recently that many elementary schools are using Dropbox, Evernote and Goodreader to help with workflow. I like the idea of edmodo as the LMS, evernote for organizing files, and Goodreader for annotating and reading… Are students able to have access to these apps if parents sign a waiver giving permission? Great article! Thank you for so much helpful information.
tcsteacher
The terms of service issue is interesting. Here’s my take on it:
1. Dropbox terms of service (Dropbox TOS) state that “The Services are not intended for use by you if you are under 13 years of age. By agreeing to these Terms, you are representing to us that you are over 13.” Now, I take that to mean that the account holder must be over 13. If the teacher, for example, set up accounts for the kids and managed the accounts and passwords, then perhaps it would be ok to let them submit things from iPads using Dropbox. I haven’t thought through exactly how that would work, but it’s an idea.
2. Evernote terms of service (Evernote TOS) state that you “must be of legal age to form a binding contract”. I don’t know what that means for you, because it depends on what country you live in (in the US the age is 18!) but again, I think if you were to manage the accounts for the kids, then all would be well. Incidentally, I’ve submitted a request for clarification on this issue to Evernote. We’ll see if sponsored education groups can be treated as an exception or not.
3. If you use GoodReader then consider using Google Apps to organize files. I think you can get 5th graders into a google apps domain.
As far as I know, having parents sign a waiver is not a way around the TOS, but it can’t hurt.
Good luck.
Thanks for your article. You say students “put assignments into the (Dropbox) folder”… how can they do this from Pages (say), since Pages won’t allow upload to Dropbox? The only way seems to be via a webdav service such as DropDav. This costs money, so would mean that every student has to subscribe and pay… nope!
Our situation is currently a double class (60 students) with iPads, producing assignments in a variety of formats, e.g. Movie files from iMovie, Pages documents that we would like them to be able to submit as PDFs. One big problem is we have a file size limit for attachments at the school, so can’t email large files (so dropittome etc not a possibility).
Have been trying to work out how to use Goodreader somehow, (e.g. Pages-> Goodreader -> Dropbox, but it seems that need to use email to get from Pages to Goodreader.
You can use Otixo – it has a free and easy WebDAV address that you can use to upload a Pages doc to any cloud service you’re signed up for – Google Drive, Dropbox, SugarSync, whatever. It’s free for casual users (2GB of bandwidth per month, or something like that.). It would solve lots of problems with getting Apple iWork documents into the relevant cloud servers, and even the relevant folders. http://otixo.com/
It’s awesome to see how educators are having their students create work on the iPad! For teachers who are looking for a super easy to use service to facilitate assignment or project file workflow between themselves and students, we’ve created a service called Showbie. With Showbie, teachers setup a class and assignments. They invite students to the class by giving the students a class code that links the student with all the assignments in the class once the student joins Showbie. This gives students each and assignment drop folder where they can upload work from their laptop via our website, or through our provided WebDAV server. If you’re a teacher or student using an iPad app like Pages or Keynote, you can easily save work into your Showbie assignment folder by putting in the Showbie server URL (https://w.showbie.com) and then entering your Showbie login and password. Going forward, you won’t need to put in these credentials unless you log out of the WebDAV connection.
If you have any questions or want to check us out, head over to http://www.showbie.com!
Thanks,
Colin
Founder, Showbie.com
Learning Happens Everywhere
Good reads above. I am just starting with ipads and only have a class set. Will the dropbox and goodread still work if multiple students are using the ipads? Thanks!
It depends on how you work with your apple id’s…They have to log in using their own id to get it right, every time.
Classes with ipads tend to be much more fun when choosing the right apps. The ones you mention are useful, but there’s a collaborative one called Nearpod, really cool for teachers and truly engaging for students, regardless their age. You can get more info at their website: http://www.nearpod.com.
Hi there! Thanks ever so much for these articles – they REALLY are a help! This was just what I was looking for, as I’m spending hours trying to get my head around finding the easiest and most effective workload methods!
However, I need your help please! I’ve managed to link Jotform with Dropbox, however when a piece of work is submitted, it doesn’t get dropped into a specific person’s folder i.e. it doesn’t pick up their correct name from the and fields …could you please clarify how to set this up so that it allows “Jotform to create a separate folder called “First Name Last Name” on my Dropbox, and the file gets placed within that folder automatically”?? Thank you!
Keep an eye out for meebook.com when it is launched in english. Just in danish as of now…
a teacher-student platform like itunes-U, but better…!
I’m not affiliated with meebook at all being an ICT learning consultant in a state institution. My advice is to contact the them and get a talk about a translated version…or learn danish! The latter a tough one…
[...] 9.) Managing student work [...]
Thank you so much for this. I was wondering about DopBox for one-way uploading (so that students cannot see each other’s work but can leave the work for me to see) and your post was the perfect answer. Now I will try Jotform because it’s even more straightforward, I think.
Working in a 1 to 1 laptop environment. Any way to send back the annotated documents so that students can make revisions right on the annotated document?