Welcome to Cal WebFiles

Create an Instructor Dropbox

Many instructors could use a "Digital Dropbox" so their students can submit files to them electronically, securely and reliably. Unfortunately, email has proven to be neither secure nor reliable in most cases, yet many instructors continue to struggle with it.

WebFiles is the ideal way to implement an online Dropbox. It is secure, accessible 24x7 and free to all Cal students, Faculty and Staff. Following the tutorial below will create a Dropbox so that the following conditions are met:

A Dropbox folder will reside in the Instructor's account
A group of students enrolled in a class will have access to view the Dropbox
Within the Dropbox folder, each student will have a personal folder
Students can only view files in their personal folder
Students can only upload files to their personal folder
A student cannot see other students' folders or files
Students cannot delete files in any folder
An optional "Class Documents" directory can be viewed by all students
The files in the "Class Documents" directory can be downloaded
No student can upload or delete in the "Class Documents" directory
The Instructor Dropbox can be accessed at an easy URL:
https://webfiles.berkeley.edu/WebFilesUser/ClassNameDropbox

Where WebFilesUser is the Instructor's WebFiles username and ClassNameDropbox is the Instructor-chosen Dropbox folder name.

If an Instructor Dropbox interests you, follow the instructions below and email webfiles@berkeley.edu with questions.

Create an Instructor Dropbox:

As part of your students' first week or two of assignments, require that they sign up for a WebFiles account if they do not already have one. Send them to https://webfiles.berkeley.edu to sign up and log in.
Remind them that WebFiles is a new and improved campus-hosted service that provides 300MiB storage space, free to all UC Berkeley students, faculty and staff. Refer students with questions to WebFiles Support (webfiles@berkeley.edu).

If some of your students do not have a WebFiles account at the time you are setting up the dropbox, you may add these students to the dropbox at a later date. See instructions for adding students later, below.
Log in to WebFiles and navigate to the Contacts and Groups section of your account:
Add all of your students to your Contacts:
1. Click Add New Contact to begin.
2. Type the first student's first name in the box labelled "Begins with", then click OK.
3. A list of one or more WebFiles users with similar names will be displayed. Click the checkbox next to the student's name, then click Add Contact to confirm your choice. If your student's name is not listed, he or she has not yet signed up for a WebFiles account.
4. Your student contact will now be listed by his or her WebFiles Username, under My Contacts on the Contacts and Groups page. Once you've added all of your students, they will all be listed here.
5. Repeat steps a-d until all of your students have been added to your Contacts.
Next, Create a Group called ClassName (e.g., Psych1A) and Add all of your student contacts to the new Group:
1. Click Create Group to create a new group.
2. Choose a name for your group and click OK.
3. Click Add New Members to begin adding students to the group.
4. Select your student's names from the list provided, then click OK. To select multiple names at once, hold the Control (or Apple/Command) Key and select multiple names with your mouse.
5. Your students' names will now be listed under Members on the Group Properties page.
6. Repeat steps c-f until all of your students have been added to the group.
Use your Home Bookmark to return to the file management section:
Click New Directory .
Name your class dropbox directory appropriately. For example, you could name it ClassNameDropbox. In other words if your class is "Psych1A", you could name your dropbox "Psych1ADropbox". PLEASE NOTE: The Dropbox will only have an easily-accessible web address (URL) if you DO NOT include spaces or any special characters in the folder name. For the best result, use alpha-numeric characters only.
Enter your new ClassNameDropbox directory by clicking its name.
Make a bookmark to your dropbox by clicking the Bookmark icon next to the dropbox directory's name:
Click the Sharing icon (next to the directory name):
Make sure the permissions on the new Dropbox directory are set such that "Users with accounts" and "public" DO NOT have Read permission. Click the radio button next to "Apply changed settings to sub-directories and files", then click Apply Now to confirm.
In the same window, click Add User/Group .
Scroll through the list of contacts provided, select your "ClassName" group, then click OK.
Make sure permission for Read is the only box checked, then click "Only apply to this directory" and "Apply Now":
Click the Bookmark for your dropbox.
Making sure you're inside your dropbox folder, create a New Directory for each individual student. When you are finished with this step, you should have a directory (folder) for each of your students inside your dropbox folder.
PLEASE NOTE: The Dropbox will only have an easily-accessible web address (URL) if you DO NOT include spaces or any special characters in the folder name. For the best result, use alpha-numeric characters only. One option would be to name each directory StudentName, based on each student's name. For example, a student named "Oski Bear" could have a directory called "OskiBear" or "OBear". If releasing student names is an issue, a random number or another random identifier could be assigned to each student.
Once you have created a directory for each of your students, you need to change the permissions on each student's folder individually. To begin, click the Sharing icon next to the folder for your first student's name:
On your student's folder permissions page, remove Read permission from your Class Group. To do so, UN-CHECK the box under Read, next to your Class Group. Click Apply changed settings to sub-directories and files, then click Apply Now:
On the same page, click Add User/Group to get a list of your contacts and groups. Scroll down to find the student whose folder you're working on, then click OK:
Make sure Read AND Write permissions are checked (i.e., CHECK Read and Write), then click the radio button next to "Apply changed settings to sub-directories and files" and click Apply Now:
Use your Bookmark to return to your dropbox folder, then repeat steps 17 through 20 for the each student.
Send your students to the following web address to find their personal dropbox folder:
https://webfiles.berkeley.edu/WebFilesUser/ClassNameDropbox

Where WebFilesUser is the Instructor's WebFiles username and ClassNameDropbox is the Instructor-chosen Dropbox folder name.

Students will be asked to log in with their CalNet ID and passphrase.
To add students at a later date:
1. Add your student to your Contacts.
2. Add your student to your "ClassName" Group.
3. Add a folder for your student inside your dropbox.
4. Change the permissions on your student's folder as outlined in steps 17 through 20.
OPTIONALLY, you can create another New Directory inside the ClassNameDropbox directory for downloading class documents. This directory (called ClassDocs, for example) will be for information that the whole class should be able to Read, but NOT modify (Write) or Delete:
1. Use your Bookmark to enter your dropbox folder.
2. Click New Directory , and choose a name for it (ClassDocs, for example).
3. Your permissions should already be set so that the ClassDocs folder (and ALL new folders in the ClassNameDropbox directory) will provide Read only access, only to your ClassName Group. To check this, click the Sharing icon next to the ClassDocs directory.
OPTIONALLY, you can turn on Subscriptions so that you are notified when a student has uploaded or downloaded files. To do so:
1. First, check your email address in the UC Berkeley Online Directory. When you turn on subscriptions, email notifications will be sent to this address.
2. Click the Info icon next to the ClassNameDropbox folder:
3. Click Subscriptions:
4. Click Create Subscription , choose your options and click OK.

PLEASE NOTE:

Instructors should remember to clean up their contacts and/or remove Dropbox access rights from students at the end of each semester.