OneDrive is approved and integrated with LMS.

What is OneDrive?

OneDrive is Microsoft’s cloud storage tool that allows instructors, staff, and students to store files, set a time limit for links, access whiteboard via phone, scan documents, and save results as documents. All the data stored on the app is protected by encryption and loss management.

What is the purpose of OneDrive?

OneDrive’s primary purpose is to store user content in the cloud so that can be easily accessed from anywhere with an internet connection. It also allows Word, Excel, and PowerPoint files to be worked on by more that one person at one time.

Canvas Integration
Canvas supports an LTI integration with Microsoft Office 365 in Assignments, Collaborations, Modules, Course Navigation, and the Rich Content Editor. This integration allows students and instructors to use, create, share, and collaborate on Office 365 files within Canvas. Users can also view their OneDrive files directly in Canvas. 

Why use OneDrive?

Better learning occurs when:

  • Students actively create their own products like spreadsheets, presentation, and documents, rather than consuming things others make. When students apply what they have been exposed to by a lecture, video or demonstration, they are much more likely to learn it well and remember it. 
  • Students are given opportunities to connect and collaborate with other learners and make products with others while learning. Generating together, discussing, and revising encourages learners to make assumptions explicit and refine their thinking over time. This does not mean that should be graded products, or that graded products should mean that students get the same grade as others who worked on the same product.

Learning Technology Ecosystem (LTE) Principles

OneDrive most directly address these LTE goals:

Designed for students who are remixing or creating - Learning is most effective when systems are designed to help learners find, create, and/or repurpose significant content for the value of themselves and others.

Designed to enable connection - Learners exist in accessible networks, and connect to the experiences, concepts, people, and ideas that they need.

Best Practices

DO

DON'T

 Use groups functions in Canvas to host shared tiles. You will be able to see what students are doing as they are doing it, allowing for feedback and monitoring for academic misconduct. 

 Share a file without reviewing sharing permissions.  You may have trouble with people accessing it. 

 Actively teach students to use advanced features associated with scholarship. In Word, this would include: 

  • Linking to outside sources to acknowledge them, and automatically generating citations in the right format. 
  • Using headings and autogenerated tables of contents. 
  • Using comments and tracking changes. 

 Use features that help you assess student work more completely or efficiently. In Word, this would include who contributed what to the document and comparing versions of documents automatically so you can see what has changed. 

Support for OneDrive

Technical Support

(Why isn't this working?)

USask IT supported

Vendor Supported

Training Support

 (How do I learn to use this tool?)

USask IT supported

Vendor Supported

Teaching Support

 (How do I teach with this tool?)

Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching and Learning Supported
  • Email GMCTL for support or one-to-one consultation on using this tool effectively in your teaching.

Tool Evaluation

Technologies are evaluated based on their alignment with the Learning Technologies Ecosystem Principles.  Click to see explanations of each principle and a justification of the rating. You can also view a complete blank rubric to see more details or read about the assessment process.

Learning must be found easily at any time, and all learners and teachers have equitable access, regardless of culture, language, ability etc. 
More Information

Rating: Works well 

  • Cost of use for USask students: 
    • USask pays for licensing for all staff, instructors, and students.  
  • Platform/device: 
    • OneDrive is accessible via download on PC, Mac, and Mobile, and has a web-version that can be accessed from any up-to-date internet browser.

Learning is a process of meaning-making, constructed through learning with others, and as a part of an intentional, deliberate system within a course and across experiences.
More Information

Rating: Works well 

  • Collaboration: 
    • Live, instant collaboration amongst multiple participants in shared files.
  • Sharing: 
    • Share files with a group or individual users depending on needs. Can control how long files are accessible as well.

Learners create and control spaces for learning, understanding and retaining ownership, and purposefully choosing how and when they share.
More Information

Rating: Works Well 

  • Archiving, saving, and exporting data: 
    • OneDrive will accept content in a variety of file types. Cloud-based OneDrive allows access to files from anywhere with an internet connection.
  • Data privacy and ownership: 
    • Users are able to control how their personal content is shared.  
  • Sign Up/Sign In: 
    • No additional sign up required – works with NSID and SSO.
  • Customization: 
    • Flexible functions within the apps make up for the lack of customization within the apps.

Learners need to work in a system that is fluid and requires a minimum number of steps in systems that are intuitive and integrated.
More Information

Rating: Works well 

  • Interface: 
    • User friendly and reasonably intuitive.
  • Additional Downloads:
    • Download is not required but is optional. 
  • Functionality: 
    • Web and desktop versions are very similar. Some more advanced features and integrations are not available on the online version, but it is easy to convert to the desktop tool when you need to use those tools.