In the last 5-6 years many file access solutions have emerged, all requiring some sort of uploads and downloads. I have tried several and given up on them due to their cumbersome nature. Recently, I tried one of the new services recommended by several magazine articles and Web sites: Dropbox.com. I am writing this post to recommend this service to my colleagues and students. It is totally automated and works like magic.

You may have received an invitation from me to join Dropbox. But even without an invitation, point your browser to Dropbox to see how simple this can be.

1. Click on the big blue button that says “Download Dropbox”. It will initiate the download.
2. When it is complete, double click on the downloaded file to start the installation
3. Accept all the default settings it suggest, they can be changed later if you like
4. When the window comes asking whether you have a Dropbox account or not, choose the one that says you do not have an account
5. Enter your information
6. You may skip the brief explanation that requires going through several windows by clicking the appropriate button
7. You now have 2GB of storage totally free of charge on Dropbox

The installation creates a Dropbox folder on your desktop, which is the magic portal through which full synchronization happens.  You can create new folders there, load them up with files, they will magically appear on your Dropbox account which you can access wherever there is a Web browser. Now, you can go to the Dropbox Web site, login and you will see the contents of your local Dropbox folder. But, wait! There’s more!

On your second (or third, or fourth,… ) computer, say your office computer, and your laptop, go through the steps 1-3 above. When you come to step 4, choose the option that you have a Dropbox account and enter your e-mail and password. Dropbox will install on that computer, create the same Dropbox folder on the desktop (or wherever you decided to put it) and to your total amazement will make the files you put in your Dropbox at home appear in your Dropbox on your office computer. You can repeat this on other computers you use with the same automatic synchronization feature, in all directions. DO NOT INSTALL DROPBOX ON PUBLIC COMPUTERS WITH YOUR LOGIN CREDENTIALS. That will give access to  your files to anyone sitting at that computer. Instead, access your files using a Web browser on those public computers, in the lab, at a friends house, at a cafeteria, …

Now, are you satisfied? But, wait there’s more!

Say you are collaborating on a project, be it a group project in a class or collaboration on a paper with a colleague, or you simply want to show some photographs you have taken during the spring break with your family. (What? You do not want them to see those photos? Why? Oh, well, never mind.) Create a folder in your Dropbox for sharing with one or many people. Put some files there. Then share this folder on the Dropbox Web site. You will see the menu tab for this purpose which simply requires that you choose the folder to share and enter the e-mail addresses of the people who should see the contents of this folder. That simple. Your friends will receive your invitation to access the shared folder (you can have multiple shared folder for different group of individuals) and arrive at the Dropbox Web site. If they do not have a Dropbox account, they can create on on the spot, or use their login credentials to login to their Dropbox account and accept your invitation to view the folder contents you shared.

I suggest that you go in small steps and get comfortable with the software and the service. It works with remarkable ease and the storage space they give you free of charge is rather generous. You can almost use it for off site backup purposes.

Now, you can stop worrying that you left your USB drive at home. Your files are at your fingertips, wherever you are.

Note: I have found out after posting this message that anyone who registers at Dropbox from the links on this page will add more capacity to my account. Feel free to start your account and share your link with your group members so that you get more capacity if you need it.

Watch the following video about Qualtrics survey software, then follow the instructions in another post to get yourself an account at Qualtrics. Once your account is activated, you will find many more useful, helpful, informative tutorial video programs on different parts of the software. Although there will be a general introduction to using Qualtrics in class, you need to work with it, experience how it works, and become sufficiently comfortable with it before you need to use it for your projects. If you try to learn it when you need to use it, you will find that to be far less efficient and effective in carrying out your responsibilities.

CEO of Qualtrics speaks on the software

Edit Survey Tab

My Surveys Tab in Qualtrics

Are you looking for instructions on how to create your own account on Qualtrics? Here they are.

1. Point your browser to the Providence College master account on the Qualtrics site:
   http://www.qualtrics.com/providence
2. You will see a link to create your account (see below), click on that link and follow the instructions. It is important that you use your Providence College e-mail address to have an account with full access to all the features of Qualtrics
   
3. Once you log in with your account, visit “Help and Tutorials” menu option at the top of the page. You will find many useful tutorials. I suggest that you start with “Create a Survey and My Surveys” group to get familiar with the software.
4. Additionally, you will find other types of help, tutorials, helpful documents in the area they call “Qualtrics University”. Explore them all.
5. Go ahead and create a sample survey with a few questions, try different question types, use available scales, etc.

Remember, you are learning something new which may feel awkward at first, like when you learned how to ride a bike. As you use the software you will learn its working paradigm and become more comfortable with its myriad of features. The idea is not to use them all, but to be able to choose what tools to use. A huge tool box is useless if you are trying to drive a nail to the wall and you cannot find the hammer; worse yet, you do not recognize the hammer!

Have fun (indeed many students find the survey creation part of this course to be fun; believe it, or not!)

1. Login to your domain control panel. You need to point your browser to:

   https://yourdomain.ext:8443

   Not the “s” at the end of http and the trailing :8443

2. You may receive a warning about the certificate not matching the site, ignore that and continue to the site
3. For login ID enter your full domain name, for password use the password I sent to you when I set up your hosting account. You will find yourself at the domain “desktop”
4. Click on “Home” on top of the left column, this will take you to the actual control panel. You should see the following (click to enlarge)
   
5. You need to create a MySQL database, so click on the “Databases” icon, then on the following screen “Add new database”
6. The system will suggest a DB name, enter your own, don’t make it too short; write down the name that you chose on a piece of paper, you will need that. Make sure that you select from the drop down menu MySQL for the type. Then click on OK to create the DB
7. Now you need to add a DB user for this database with a password. Click on “Add New Database User”. You will need to enter the DB user name and password. Make sure they are not easy to guess or too short, you will not need to remember them after the installation. Enter the values into the fields and write them down as you will need them
8. Now, go to http://www.wordpress.org and download the application, it most recent version is 2.7 and you will see a link to download it on the front page. Save the file to a known location on your local computer
9. Using a ZIP utility, like WinZIP or ZIP Genius, extract the contents of the ZIP file making sure that you create the embedded directory names and contents
10. Locate the wp-config.php file and edit it to reflect the DB name, DB user name, and DB password. There are a couple of other fields that ask you to enter an arbitrary phrase; don’t overlook them.
11. Using your FTP client, login to your hosting account, change to httpdocs directory, and create a new directory called blog which will be the location of your WordPress installation. Note that there are no uppercase letters in the directory name.
12. After creating the directory, double click on its name to open it; then upload the contents of the WordPress extracted files into it
13. You are almost done, now point your browser to:
    http://www.yourdomain.ext/blog/wp-admin/install.php  and you will see the following screen:
    
14. Enter a blog name, you can change it later, and enter a working email address. Click on Install WordPress.
15. WordPress will complete the installation and give you a very cryptic password. Select the password (double-click on it with your mouse) and copy it (Ctrl-C)
16. Click on “Login” and enter admin for user name, paste the password you copied and login. Do not put a check mark in “Remember …”
17. As soon as you login, click on the admin name on the top right corner to edit user information. Scroll down to the end of the page to see “New Password fields, you will need to enter it twice. Enter a password you will remember. Click on Update Profile button
18. Look for the Users on the tool bar on the left, click on it to expand its menu choices. Click on Add New and add a new user. Set this user’s role to “Administrator” as well. You may do the same for all the group members. Make sure you have a division of labor and do not perform the same maintenance functions at the same time.
19. Congratulations, you now have a working WordPress installation

We will then tweak it to do more than the basic installation provides.