As mentioned in my review of the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 I previously worked as a technical support analyst as part of a helpdesk assisting students, faculty, and staff with issues they encountered with their hardware and software they are using for their online courses or work environment. One of the most common issues we would get from students would be uploading video recordings they had made for their course. The issue would be that they were unable to record the video with the expected software, most commonly Kaltura Capture, and had to record the video using a different device or software and their dilemma was how to upload the video to their course as they were commonly provided limited space within their online course and the video would be too large to upload through their course.

It is with this backdrop that I created the following guide as a resource for myself as well as my colleagues as to how to guide the student through the process of uploading their video from their computer or phone using either Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive, depending which vendor their school used for their email services.

Uploading files to Microsoft OneDrive or Google Drive

When assisting a user that has created a video or other content that they are unable to upload to their course directly we would remind the user that they should follow the assignment’s guidelines and try to assist them in uploading the video through Kaltura, but occasionally the user may run into issues and if the assignment is due within a short period of time uploading the video to Google Drive or Microsoft One Drive might be a better option.

As most of our clients rely on either Google or Microsoft services for their email, we can provide the user with guidance as outlined below to upload their file(s) to the cloud storage solution that is accessible to them via their school account.

Upload files to Google Drive or Microsoft One Drive from Windows or Mac

Please note that although I am using a Mac for this portion the process is nearly the same on Windows with the difference being the file management tool - Finder on macOS vs Windows Explorer on Windows.

At the beginning of our interaction with the user if they are trying to submit a video it would be a good idea that ask the user to confirm the file size of the item they want to upload, if they are on Windows we would direct them to locate the file on their computer, right click on the file and select Properties – from Properties we would ask them to provide us either a screen shot of the item or just to read the value written for Size and Size on disk. If the user is on a Mac they would locate the file, right click on the file(s) and select Get Info. If more than one file is selected on a Mac they will be provided with a dialog box for each file, at the top of this dialog box there is a General area under which there is a Size field that will list the file size.

Upload files to Google Drive from Windows or Mac

Once we know the file size, we will ask the user to sign into their school email (if their school uses Google as a backend) or their personal Gmail account in their web browser. Once the user has signed into their account we can direct the user to the following web page: https://drive.google.com/drive/my-drive

On the main page of Google Drive, we will ask the user to confirm the amount of storage they have available as indicated in the below image:

Once we know the user has enough space to upload the files, we can ask them to upload the files either by dragging and dropping their files, or they can click the + New button and to either select the File upload option, to select specific files, or Folder upload to select a folder to upload.

At this point the user needs to decide how they want to share the file, either directly to a group of individuals or the entire class.

The user will need to start by selecting the files they would like to share, right clicking on the files, and selecting Share. This will bring up a panel with 4 areas of interest: The Add people and groups text area, the Message text area, Viewer/Commenter/Editor dropdown menu, and the General access area.

From this panel if the user wants to share their files with a specific group of people they will need to enter the email addresses of the recipients in the Add people and groups text area and optionally they should enter a brief email message in the Message text area to explain what the shared files are. From the Viewer/Commenter/Editor dropdown menu the user will need to select either Viewer which means the recipients can view the file only or Editor which means the recipients can view and edit the file. The Commenter option is like the Viewer option except that the recipient can add comments. The user can now send the file.

If the user wants to just generate a link to their files that they can paste into their course they would ignore everything except for the General access area. In this area the user would need to click on the dropdown menu and change Restricted to Anyone with the link and to select a corresponding permission level for the file (view only or the ability to edit the file); once the permission level is selected the user can then click on the Copy link to generate a link to their files. If the user loses the link they can re-generate the link by going to the files in Google Drive, right clicking on the files, selecting Share, clicking on Copy link and making sure that General access is set to Anyone with the link.

Upload files to Microsoft OneDrive from Windows or Mac

Before uploading any files the user might need to confirm the file size of the files they want to upload; if they’re on Windows the user needs to locate the file on their computer, right click on the file and select Properties – from Properties they need to provide us a screen shot of the item or just provide the value written for Size and Size on disk. If the user is on a Mac they would locate the file, right click on the file(s) and select Get Info. If more than one file is selected on a Mac, they will be provided with a dialog box for each file, at the top of this dialog box there is a General area under which there is a Size field that will list the file size.

Once we know the file size, we will direct the user to sign into their school email if their school uses Microsoft services as a backend for their email, most of our clients use Microsoft. One they have signed in we can direct the user to the following web page: https://onedrive.live.com/

On the main page of Microsoft Drive, we will want the user to confirm the amount of storage they have available in the bottom left corner of the page.

Once we know the user has enough space to upload the files, we can ask them to upload the files either by dragging and dropping their files, or they can click the Upload button and to either select the File upload option, to select specific files, or Folder upload to select a folder to upload.

While the files are uploading there is a progress bar that will appear to show the number of files being upload and it will disappear when the files have been uploaded.

After the files have been uploaded we would ask the user to click on the three dots next to the name when they hover over the file name, from here they will need to select Share.

The user will now be presented with the Send link panel, from here they will need to click on the Anyone with the link can edit link that appears at the bottom of the panel to view the settings for the link. Under the Link settings the user will need to select Anyone with the link is selected and that Allow editing does not have a check mark next to it and click on the Apply button, unless the user wants people who are provided with the link to be able to edit the file.

The user will back at the Send link panel, from here they can click on the Copy button to get a link to their files that they can share, however if they want to send the files to a specific group they will need to enter the recipients email addresses in To: Name, group or email text area and optionally enter an email message in the Message… area, before clicking on the Send button.

If the user loses the link they can re-generate the link by going to the files in Microsoft OneDrive, right clicking on the files, selecting Share, clicking on Copy link and making sure the text underneath Copy link is set to Anyone with the link can view.

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