My Big Campus

New ways to organize your MBC Documents

  We've all had this problem: after awhile, the pile of paper on the desk gets so big, it's hard to find the document you're looking for. And, if you've been on My Big Campus for awhile, you probably have a good-sized collection of MBC Documents that need to be organized, too.

Image credit: Jean-Etienne Minh-Duy Poirrier

The traditional solution is to arrange your documents in some kind of order -- subject, date, importance, or whatever makes sense. So, the big pile of papers becomes a bunch of smaller piles. Grab some file folders and labels, put the documents into folders, and put those into a container where you can find them again quickly.

Image credit: Steve Ryan

That's one good way to organize files, but what if a document could easily fit into more than one category? An assignment for Science class, that's due next week, that you also want to include in your portfolio. For paper documents, you'd make copies, and store a copy in each file folder. For online documents, there are better options, so you can "file" the same document in more than one way without making copies.

That's the solution our developers have provided for MBC Documents users in the latest update to My Big Campus. You'll now see "Labels" on your MBC Documents page, and they work the same way as Labels in Your Stuff.

Here are the things you need to know about MBC Docs and Labels:

• The list of Labels is the same list that's in Your Stuff. Labels you create there will also be available for MBC Documents, and vice versa.
• Select multiple documents and apply a label to all of them with one click.
• You can add multiple labels to a document, and you can use the same label for multiple documents.
• Click a label to show all documents with that label.

There are a few other things to note about the new interface as well:

• You can now select one or more MBC Documents, and add them directly to a Bundle.
• Click headings to select or un-select documents, or sort by name, owner (for shared documents), or date.
• You can also select and delete one or more documents from the list (but be careful -- once you delete a document, it disappears permanently from the list)

I hope you'll find it easier to manage your MBC Documents this year. Please feel free to comment with any other tips or suggestions for keeping your My Big Campus content organized.

Easy ways to organize and manage schoolwork

If you're new to My Big Campus, here are a few tips to help you keep on top of your schoolwork, whether you're a student or a teacher.

Keep track with tabs and filters

Use the Assigned to You and Your Submissions tabs to keep track of your schoolwork.

• Sort assignments and quizzes by group, due date, and status.
• Filter the list by Need to Submit and Missed.
• Studens: On the Your Submissions tab, see Graded and Not Graded assignments.
• Teachers: Instantly find and grade new submissions on the Needs Grading tab. 

Use the dropdown lists to refine your view by

• Type: All, Assignments, Quizzes
• History: Current, Past, Pending
• Groups: All groups, or a specific group

All lists are sortable: click any column heading to sort from first to last. Click again to sort from last to first.

For teachers

• Use the Save and Continue button while editing a quiz to save work in progress before you publish the quiz.
• Use Student View to “preview” quizzes and assignments as a student, without the administrative burden of creating test users. Click Your View to resume editing.

Save as Templates to reuse quizzes and assignments you create. 

• Templates are quizzes and assignments that you can create and save, then publish and re-use as many times as you like. 
• Templates contain questions only, not start/end dates, groups, or people.
• Templates can be edited or reused as many times as you like.
• Any existing quiz or assignment can become a template: select the assignment, then click Create Template.

Where can I learn more?

Find quick answers in the Help, and download the Schoolwork technical note from the MBC Orientation Center topic. More questions? Let me know in the comments.