Sharing and permissions for grading StoryMaps

[JamieTrammell1]

Hi all,

We utilize StoryMaps for a take-home final in one of our GIS classes. Traditionally, this has worked out because the only instructor happened to be the AGOL administrator, so any content on our account was visible to the administrator. However, we now have more than one instructor, who aren't administrators, that still need to be able to grade final exams, without requiring students to share their StoryMap to the Organization. 

I'm wondering if anyone has a solution for this type of situation? We've tried various group settings, but haven't found anything that works yet. 

Thanks in advance!
Jamie

[SaraJL]

I work with faculty who are doing similar assignments! In the past, we've used a couple of other methods:

• If you have access to Google docs - sometimes we've had students post a link to their Story Map in the doc. This is a good solution if it's not a huge deal if the projects are visible to everyone in the class. I've also worked with a few courses where they've used posting to Google docs for peer review sessions.
• Depending on the LMS that you use (Blackboard, Moodle, D2L, etc.) - sometimes using a Forum or post activity works well. We use Moodle - so we'll create a Moodle Forum and everyone can post a link to their Story Map. The pro about this option is that you can hide posts so individual students only see their own Story Map.

The biggest challenge we have with any alternative method - is that if a student doesn't make their Story Map visible publicly, no one can see it. Posting it to ArcGIS Online groups does offer additional methods to find work if someone makes it private or org-only permissions. But if the student posts the link without updating the share settings, then we'll have to play email tag to get the visibility updated. (or an admin has to overwrite it)

Some methods might be better than others - depending on what grading methods you have to use, and whether or not the Story Maps should be visible to everyone in the class (or not).

I hope that helps! Let me know if you have any follow up questions.

[ElizabethZizzamia1]

Hello! We use storymaps at University of Richmond too but usually as a final project/presentation so the student can share to a class group to help organize the content. But I see your problem since they are final exams. What if you made a class group with the students and the instructor (maybe you), have the students press publish but leave unshared, then when it's time to grade, have the admin share the student content to the group, which will be easy to do because they can use the group as a filter. The time stamp will help you see if they alter the assignment after the due date. And remember you can't remove the students from the group once their content is shared to the group because their content will be removed too. I hope this helps!

[LauraBowden]

Just throwing out an idea here: Would it work for the student to create a group and invite only the instructor, and then share the storymap with that 2-person group? Or, perhaps the instructor could create the two-person groups for each student for sharing the exam storymap. I realize it would be a bit of work for the instructor unless there's a way to do it with a utility or a script.