OneDrive's SHARE tool lets you provide students on Blackboard (or in a virtual classroom like Collaborate) with a link to a file on OneDrive. Because the file continues to be stored on OneDrive (as opposed to using Blackboard's Cloud Storage tool, which copies the file from OneDrive to Blackboard), if you update the file on OneDrive, students will see those changes when they view the file.
When you share a file from OneDrive you may also choose to let your students edit those files (useful for collaborative document creation or group activities in a live online classroom). At the other end of the spectrum, you may choose to prevent students from downloading the file.
Availability
OneDrive is available to all members of the Detroit Mercy community. This means instructors can use OneDrive sharing to share files with students, and students can use the sharing tools to work collaboratively with their peers, and to provide their instructors with access to files as well.
Any file uploaded to OneDrive can be shared. While the most common shares may be document formats (Word or PDF), OneDrive may also be used to share media files, slide decks, zipped folders of computer programming files -- any file that can be uploaded to OneDrive may be shared.
How It Works
File sharing is begun by generating a link in OneDrive. As part of this process, you can set access restrictions on the link (including blocking download, should you so desire). The link is then copied and can be added to a Blackboard course site, Collaborate chat, or other shared venue.