Did you know that Google Drive can be used to share documents, spreadsheets, forms, as well as audio and video - which can be played directly in Google drive?
If you've decided to use Google Drive to share resources with your students, we recommend you start by creating a shared folder on Google Drive.
Once you create a folder and ensure the students have access to view the contents of the folder, all you need to do is upload the content to be shared!
Below, we have outlined two different ways of sharing this folder, depending on the nature of the content.
Google Drive can be found in my.ryerson.ca, under "Apps".
Important: If you plan to use Google Drive to have your students upload or collaborate on work, we recommend making the folder completely private.
Create a folder in Google Drive
Click the "New" button in the top-left corner of Google Drive.
Click "Folder" in the menu.
Enter a name for the new folder. We recommend using a combination of your course code, term and section number (if appropriate).
Click the "Create" button at the bottom.
Note: you can create folders within this folder to further organize the content you wish to share with your students.
Share the folder with your class
Now that you have a folder created for the class, you need to ensure the students can access it. This is done through the sharing settings in Google Drive.
Go to the top of the main Google Drive window, and click the arrow next to the name of the folder.
Click "Share" in the menu.
On the "Share with people and groups" screen, type in the email address of the Google Group you created for your class. Hit the "Enter" or "Return" key on your keyboard.
The window will update with some additional details. Look to the right of the class email address - you should see a dropdown menu, possibly with the label "Editor". Click this to review the sharing permission options.
We recommend setting the permission to "Viewer", which will only allow your students to view the contents of the folder and not edit them, nor make changes to the folder itself.
You may want to write a message to let the students know about the new class folder. An email will be sent to them with a link to the folder. Alternatively, you can uncheck the "Notify people" checkbox if you would prefer not to notify the students about the shared folder.
Click the "Send" or "Share" button to proceed with the changes.
Note: Users will be required to login with only their Toronto Metropolitan University Google account in order to access this content.
If the content you are sharing isn't private, but you don't want it to be totally visible to the public, you may choose to share the folder with anyone at Toronto Metropolitan University who has the link to the content.
Please note that this setting may not be appropriate if your students will be contributing to the folder, or the documents contained within.
Go to the top of the main Google Drive window, and click the arrow next to the name of the folder.
Click "Share" in the menu.
On the "Share with people and groups" screen, look to the "Get link" section displayed at the bottom, and click the "Change link to Toronto Metropolitan University" link.
On the "Get link" screen, confirm that it is now set so that "Anyone at Toronto Metropolitan University with this link can view" and click the "Copy link" button. This will copy the address of this item so that it can be pasted into another document (an email, D2L Brightspace, etc.).
Click the "Done" button at the bottom to save the changes.
Note: Users will be required to login with only their Toronto Metropolitan University Google account in order to access this content.
Tips for sharing Google resources with your students
Once you have created content and folders in Google Drive and set the sharing settings so that your students can access them, how do you provide them with the links?
We recommend posting the links to your class Google resources and activities to the Content tool in D2L Brightspace. This is an ideal place to collect all class resources so students can easily find them.
You may also choose to provide links via email or other tools in Brightspace, like Announcements... but we recommend also having the links available in the Content.
Copy the link from Google
For Google folders and documents (like Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Slides, etc.):
Right-click the folder or item, and click "Get Link".
On the pop-up, click the "Copy Link" button to copy the link into your browser's clipboard.
Paste this into a text editor, so that you have a copy of it for the next steps.
There is a slightly different process required for embedding multimedia files from Google, which we have outlined in our document on
sharing audio and video from Google.
Once you have the link copied, you can proceed to the sharing steps!
"Create a Link" in the Brightspace Content tool
Login to D2L Brightspace, enter your course shell, and go to the Contents tool.
If you already have a module in which you would like to share the audio/video link, go into that module. If not, create a new module.
Click the "Upload / Create" button, then "Create a link".
Give the new link a title, then paste the address of your Google Drive file into the "URL" field.
You may need to check the box "Open as External Resource" if your files are located in a Google Shared Drive or if you are linking to a folder. Otherwise, you may choose to leave this unchecked.
Click the "Create" button.
As long as the Google Drive folder has been properly shared and the students are only logged in with their Toronto Metropolitan University Google account, the audio/video should play directly in D2L Brightspace.
Are your students emailing you to request access to a Google document that you know you have already shared with the class?
It may be that the student has another Google account that is conflicting with their Toronto Metropolitan University account, and is preventing them from accessing your shared resources.
Here is a workflow that should prevent this problem.
These steps will help to ensure you can access content that is shared with you from Google Drive.
Go to google.com (external link) and click on the user icon in the top-right corner. Not only will this page tell you which account you are currently logged into, you will be able to logout or add your Toronto Metropolitan University account to this list.
Once you get to this screen, you can either "sign out of all accounts" (the quick method) or click "add another account" and then proceed to login using your Toronto Metropolitan University email address and password. (In the example here, you will see that I have both my Toronto Metropolitan University account and my personal account listed)
Go to my.ryerson.ca and log out completely. You're going to start the login process from scratch.
After logging out, log back in at my.ryerson.ca. Complete the remaining steps within 30 minutes.
Click on Apps and open Google Drive, just to ensure you have a new session in your Toronto Metropolitan University Google account.
Proceed to the page or application from which you are trying to access shared Google content (D2L Brightspace, email, or another application used in your course).
The "quick method" (logging out of Google) is useful for a one-time access of materials, but adding your Toronto Metropolitan University account will ensure your access isn't impeded long-term. If your course relies heavily on materials shared from Google Drive, adding your Toronto Metropolitan University account may be the better option.
Another tip: use a different web browser for your Toronto Metropolitan University work than for your personal communications. We recommend using Chrome if you use Google tools at Toronto Metropolitan University frequently, so consider using something like Mozilla Firefox or Safari for your personal accounts.