What is the File Drop tool?

The File Drop tool creates a folder for each student in a course site or member in a collaboration site. Each student or member is only able to access their own folder. Students or members and instructors/site administrators can use File Drop folders to privately share files and folders with each other.

Note that an individual student's or site member's File Drop folder does not have permissions options to allow the folder's contents to be shared with anyone other than instructors, site administrators, and the individual to whom the folder is assigned.  You can store items in Resources to share them with the entire site or specific groups, or to make them publicly viewable.  By default, members of collaboration sites can upload items to folders in Resources. To allow students to upload and share materials with other students in a class, see How do I allow students to upload and modify content in a Resources folder?

Note: For instructions to add this or any other tool to your site, see How do I add a tool to my site?

File Drop features

File Drop allows instructors/site administrators and students or members to:

  • Place files and create folders within their File Drop folders for private sharing.
  • Delete files and folders within their own student or member File Drop folder.
  • Upload multiple files using Drag and Drop. 
  • Establish a WebDAV connection to a site's File Drop to manipulate files and folders within it.

To access this tool, select File Drop from the tool menu in your site.

File Drop folder examples

The File Drop tool displays similarly in course and collaboration sites. The names of students or members are displayed in alphabetical order:

  1. File Drop folders that contain files will display an Open this folder icon to the left of the participant name. Select the Open this folder icon to expand the folder and view the contents on the main File Drop screen, or click the participant name to view the contents of the folder only.
  2. File Drop folders that do not contain any files will display an Empty Folder icon to the left of the participant name. Select Upload Files from the Actions dropdown menu to the right of the participant name to upload files to the participant's File Drop folder.