Teacher Dashboard Drive button overview Follow

In this article:

What is the Drive button and how do you access it?

How is the Drive button organized?

What does each Drive button drop-down menu category show you?

What are the main uses for the Drive button?

 

Google Drive is a convenient way to create and store student work. But what happens when files get lost? Google Drive can be a messy place: files can be named incorrectly, moved to the wrong folder or even deleted accidentally.

Fortunately, Hāpara Teacher Dashboard’s Drive button makes it easy for you to find, access and manage students’ work throughout Google Drive — no matter where files are located. Not only will you save time, but you can also support students by helping them access their work and stay on top of learning. Plus, the Drive button allows you to collaborate with other teachers on instruction and promote digital citizenship.

 

 

What is the Drive button and how do you access it?

In Teacher Dashboard, the Drive button gives you access to all of the files students have stored in their Google Drive — not just the ones that are shared with you.

For example, in Teacher Dashboard, you’ll see Student Tiles with the most recent files students are working on. These recent files are from the folders that are shared with you. What you won’t see are the files that have been stored in other areas of the student’s Google Drive. 

The Drive button, though, shows you everything in a student’s Google Drive. This could include:

• Files that students put in their trash
• Files from folders that are shared with other teachers
• Files that students have not shared with you

To access the Drive button:

1. Log into Teacher Dashboard through app.hapara.com.

2. Click on your class.

3. Click on Drive button in the white section at the top.

 

How is the Drive button organized?

Once you click the Drive button, there is a drop-down menu that allows you to filter student work by the following categories:

• All documents
• Public
• External
• Unshared
• Deleted Docs

 

What does each Drive button drop-down menu category show you?

The five categories organize student Google Drive files to make it easy for you to find student work, monitor learning progress and keep an eye on student activity.

All documents

The All documents category shows all files in students’ Google Drives, regardless of which folder they are stored in. 

If you can’t find work in the place it’s supposed to be, looking here will help you find it, no matter where it was saved. 

Public

The Public category contains student files that have been shared publicly. That means that they’re accessible to anyone on the internet. 

For instance, there may be times when sharing with a wider audience is a learning goal. If your class wants to create a public website to inform the community about an issue, your students may make their related files public. 

On the other hand, this is a good category to select to see whether or not students are unintentionally sharing documents publicly. 

External

The External category includes files that someone without a school email address shared with the student. While some schools don’t allow these files into their network, Hāpara includes this subtab just in case. 

Sometimes there could be an assignment that a teacher accidentally shared from their personal email account. But there may be times when a file looks concerning and may be worth investigating in order to protect the student.

Unshared

The Unshared category includes all student files that are not shared with you. This could include assignments students are working on for other teachers or files that students created but didn’t share. There can also be files here that the student simply saved in the wrong place, which makes this a good place to look for lost work. 

Deleted docs

The Deleted docs category has files that students tried to remove from their Google Drives or accidentally added to the trash. This is another place to look if a student can’t find a file or thinks they’ve deleted it. 

 

What are the main uses for the Drive button?

There are several ways that the Drive button helps you instructionally and makes it easier for you to support your learners.

Find lost or misplaced files

With the Drive button, it's easy to find any misplaced student files, regardless of how they were named or where they were saved. For example, a student may be worried because they can’t find a project document and aren’t able to move forward with their work. With the Drive button, you can easily help the student find the document. 

Or there may be a case when a student says they’ve completed an assignment but it isn’t appearing in their Student Tile in the main Teacher Dashboard page. In that case, you can search in the Drive button to find it.

 Drop-down menu categories to check for lost files:

• All documents  —  this subtab will show you all files in a student’s Google Drive
• Unshared — this subtab will show you any files that aren’t shared with you
• Deleted docs — this subtab will show you any files students added to their trash

Collaborate with colleagues

The Drive button also allows you to collaborate on student work with colleagues. That’s because the Unshared drop-down menu category gives you access to work saved outside of your own class folders. 

For example, an English teacher could work with a health teacher on an assignment. The English teacher could access students’ research reports for the health class and provide formative feedback about grammar and structure. 

Or math and science teachers could collaborate on a STEM project. The science teacher could start the project in their class, and the math teacher could use the Drive button’s Unshared category in the drop-down menu to access the files. 

Just be sure you’re on the same page as your colleagues before you open work from other classes. 

Promote digital citizenship

The Drive button also allows you to promote digital citizenship by keeping an eye on students’ digital activity and having conversations with them when needed.

For example, when using the Drive button, you may come across student activity that shows that several students are distracted. 

In that case, you could share a lesson about responsible digital behavior. In another instance, you may want to start a digital citizenship conversation with one student who is having trouble focusing. Keep in mind that if you notice anything more serious, such as cyberbullying or where students’ online privacy has been exposed, you’ll need to intervene as soon as possible.