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Docs in My Big Campus

Many of you have documents that you have used for years in your lessons that you just can't bring yourself to let go of yet.  They are like your security blanket that you just don't think you can live without.  You may have even gone to the trouble to upload the file to Google Drive or Dropbox so you can access them from home or the doctor's office.  You might have even added them to your "Stuff" in My Big Campus so you can attach them to bundles or message them out to students.  You are well on your way to eliminating the excess paper wasted in your classroom at this point.

What do you do when it is time to create a new document?  Do you fire up Office on your machine, then drag it into Dropbox?  Do you create a new document in Google Drive?  Both are perfectly viable options.  If you are a My Big Campus user, and the document is for an assignment or sharing with students or coworkers, my question is, "Why bother with the other tools?"

I would go a different route and use MBC Documents.  First thing, login to My Big Campus and navigate to MBC Documents.  Once there you should notice in the upper left corner a spot to create a New MBC Document.  It will pull up an interface very similar to what you see with other word processing packages.  You will notice it give it the name "Untitled Document" and when you click on the name it give you a renaming dialogue.  Simply change the name and hit rename.

Now lets review all the tools available in the document editor.  I am starting on the top row and working across.

  • Print
  • Cut
  • Copy
  • Paste
  • Paste as plain text
  • Paste from Word
  • Undo
  • Redo
  • Find
  • Select All
  • Spell Check
  • Numbered list
  • Bulleted list
  • Decrease indent
  • Increase indent
  • Block Quote
  • Align Left
  • Center
  • Align Right
  • Justify
And the list keeps going.  All of these are very similar to what you would find in other word processors.  Here are some of the different  options
  • Insert My Big Campus Library Video
  • Insert Video fromYour Stuff
  • Insert My Big Campus image
You can do similar things in other word processors, but you don't have access to the prescreened material that you know is safe already.  Another great feature is the ability to quickly see the revision history of any document.  With a simple click you can see the most recent edits and then compare versions.  You can also share the document with other users or groups and add edit rights to the users.  

This would be great for collaborative assignments.  One student can start the document and share it with all the others in the group.  For simple projects with is a great possibility and doesn't require building a full bundle.  You can print the document, but keep in mind that if you put videos in the document there will be a blank space where the video belongs.  



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