Having been an instructor for the past few years, I've found that students who attend my classes often ask me to share some class materials with them. Now, while there are some things that I can't share, there are plenty that I can. For example, in my SharePoint Developer course, I like to write some code on the fly and do a bit of live experimentation; it makes for a more realistic scenario and helps attendees retain more information. After class, someone usually comes up to me and asks, "Can you send me a copy of that code you wrote?” Of course, this is the kind of code that doesn't do anything very useful and shouldn’t be used in a production environment, but if it helps someone learn, why not?

Sharing Files – Present Day

Presently, I use SkyDrive to share such files. In addition to my students, SkyDrive makes it very easy to share important documents and photos with my family, friends, and colleagues, too. I just upload the files that I want to share to a folder in SkyDrive, and then I can share each file or the entire folder to whomever I choose, however I choose. I even have the option to shorten the generated link so that it's easier to read, write, and remember.

1. To get started, I created a new folder in my SkyDrive called “Student Files.”

1. Next, I uploaded my code files to the folder. The drag-and-drop upload feature made this quick and easy.
   

1. Next, I used SkyDrive’s “Share” feature to generate a short, public link (http://sdrv.ms/QGc1GY).
   
   
   

1. Once I had the link (http://sdrv.ms/QGc1GY), I’d write it up on the whiteboard during class to direct my students to it so they could then download any and all of the files that they wanted.

Sharing Files – Before SkyDrive

Before I started using SkyDrive, like most people I’ve met, I was in the habit of doing everything through email. Not to knock email, but there are some things for which it's useful and some for which it's not. File sharing falls into the not category, in my opinion. In any case, to send out my code samples I'd start a new email, attach the compressed files, and send it off. Nothing difficult about that, but it became tedious when I had to do it for 15 people in every class every week. Something as simple as passing around a piece of paper to collect email addresses wasn't always an option because some students didn't want their email addresses exposed to others.

To solve this problem, I put my email address up on the board and notified the class that anyone wanting copies of sample code I wrote would have to email me directly...then I'd get 15 emails from 15 different people, sift through it all, and send out 15 separate emails with my attached files. On a Friday afternoon after a five day class, there's only one thing I'm thinking about and going through all of this nonsense is not it.

It only took a few cycles of this for the frustration to really start to set in. I knew there had to be an easier way, and when I remembered that I had a SkyDrive, I decided to look into using it to share my files.

Lesson Learned

SkyDrive has made sharing files with my students less tedious than it once was. All I need to do is share the link to my public folder with them and they can visit it any time to download my supplemental course materials. Going forward I’ll keep adding to it and they’ll still be able to access it whenever they need to. My favorite benefit of this is that now my Friday afternoons are a bit more enjoyable.