Dropbox or something better?

[Poly Hive]

Had a bit of a shock on Tuesday when I asked my evening class if a DVD with the course material on it would suit them. Answer was no as most didn't have a disc drive.... So.

I believe Dropbox can be used to distribute files but can this be done with the free version or is there something better altogether? The files will barely come to 1-2gig.

PH

[rusky]

Dropbox basic gives you 2gb free. Probably the best option as long as you don't need more otherwise Google drive will give you 15 gb

[Greenbank]

Dropbox will probably work fine.

Copy it onto a few USB drives and let people copy it off there and then? (If they have their laptop with them.)

Or ask people to bring in their own USB drives and do it before/during/after a session?

[Poly Hive]

From the feedback on Tuesday some don't even have the pendrive option (I suspect dead cheap tablets) so it will have to be an online deal. I have had DB for some time but never used it for file sharing so am really clueless on the in's and outs of doing it.

PH

[pcolbeck]

Put the file on Dropbox then login to the Web interface of Dropbox.
Navigate to to the file in question then hover your mouse over it and a "share" option will appear towards the right. click it.
A window will appear with "create a link as an option" click that.
Now there will be a "copy link" option, click that and it will save a url to your copy buffer that you can paste into an email or any document you want.
Anyone who clicks on that url will get the file from Dropbox.

[Beardy]

What does your institution have available? Dr Beardy (Mrs) is always complaining about her institution’s electronic system. Last year’s often complained about system of Blackboard is now being hailed as wonderful when held up against this year’s newly installed system, the name of,which I’ve forgotten.

[fuaran]

What sort of course material? 2GB is quite a lot, unless it has loads of videos. Or something like PowerPoint, with embedded photos, which has a tendency to make bloated file sizes.
If it is videos, maybe more useful on YouTube. Then people can watch them without downloading the full thing.

[Poly Hive]

Quite a lot of the material is video yes as the only way really at this time of year to show swarming for example is by video. As things stand the total of the files is 1point58gig so DB would work fine.

PH

[Poly Hive]

Why is nothing straighforward.

I can see my master folder and the contents are in there on my DB on the puter. I go on line and the folders are showing but no content which the pop up says have to be dragged and dropped? Am I missing something here please?

PH

[citoyen]

If you put the material in online storage like Dropbox, you're using up your disk space allowance, which may or may not be a problem depending on how much disk space you have (if not immediately then it may become a problem down the line).

If the material is 'static' (ie not regularly updated) and only needs to be shared with the group once, I would use Wetransfer.com to send it to them - you just have to input the list of their email addresses and upload the material, and they will be sent a link to download it. The free version of Wetransfer has a 2GB limit but that sounds like it should be enough for your needs.

I also like fuaran's youtube suggestion. You can make a private channel on youtube if you don't want the material to be publicly available.

[Ben T]

With dropbox, beware that if you share xGB of stuff with other people, then it consumes xGB of their allowance, as well as of yours.

[citoyen]

With dropbox, beware that if you share xGB of stuff with other people, then it consumes xGB of their allowance, as well as of yours.

Good point. Although they can choose to download it rather than save it to their own dropbox.

[Greenbank]

Sort of, they download it and then "delete" it (from just their view) so that it no longer takes up any of their space (but doesn't affect anyone else you've shared it with).

[pcolbeck]

If you share from Dropbox via a URL then the file will download to wherever they choose just like any download from a Web browser, the. person you are sharing with does not need a Dropbox account. If they choose to then save it to their own Dropbox account should they have one then that's up to them.