Summer means vacation and working on next year’s course updates. But many faculty face a challenge that their physical and computer desktops have in common: chaos and clutter. Files for research, course materials, lecture notes, emails; it can all get overwhelming. Although we all have our personal quirks when it comes to managing our digital assets, taking steps to minimize friction from these habits can ease working with others, as well as free up time and energy to focus on pedagogical matters.

Rename/reformat files to be useful

Faculty often upload articles and documents to their LMS course site but forget to update the file name. While “Foucault and Economics.pdf” clearly describes what the file contains in a common file type, “FoEc[2][4-1a]Rev.stw” does not. Uncommon file extensions and difficult to navigate names add an additional barrier to students access as well as increase the likelihood the file will become unsupported/un-openable in the future.

Use a naming schema and stick with it

Whether sharing files with colleagues, students, or simply keeping your own research materials organized, find a way to manage versions of documents beyond the “last modified date” displayed in the file manager. Computer time stamps can be incorrect, so having some clue in the file name adds an additional level of notation. I most often suggest a simple, 8-character addition of: YYYYMMDD. Useful to add at the end of a file (“Foucalt_Economics_Draft_20180728”) and a great way to sort chronologically when added to the beginning. Have more than one version per day? Use an additional, agreed-upon notation or add another number. Your colleagues will thank you for not sending along “final Draft Reviewdoc [Edited]USETHISONE 2.pdf” and you’ll be able to easily version control the documents you are loading into course sites.

Apply a submission naming rule for your students and you’ll have a much easier time getting through their documents as well!

Remember to maintain backups

When working on a syllabus, you probably already think “save early, save often” to ensure your progress isn’t lost. One more phrase to consider is: “two is one, one is none.” If your course rubrics only live on your laptop and water accidentally destroys it over vacation, you have lost those files forever. However, if you use a backup service (all DePaul users have free, unlimited access to Box.com), not all is lost. By using cloud-based storage in addition to another physical copy, your two extra backups could save you hours of re-creating work.

Have a personal retention schedule

Most institutions have a published retention schedule for handling and keeping records (DePaul’s is here). However, just because digital storage is cheap these days doesn’t mean you need to squirrel away everything on your hard drive forever. Make a calendar note to revisit old files periodically, deleting the ones that are no longer appropriate or consolidating bulky collections. Many course documents evolve over time with improvements and edits, so the initial versions may not be as “mission critical” as they once were and can free up space both on your hard drive and ease the hunt for other files.

Check your links

Ever gone to show a YouTube clip to your class and find that it was “taken down due to copyright infringement?” A quick click-a-palooza before launching your course will find those links that lead to digital dead-ends. But remember that other links embedded in documents might also have changed. Dynamic PDFs or instructions with text-links will be useless to students and colleagues if the target of the link is no longer online.

Avoid the miscellaneous

Never create a “miscellaneous” folder; your students and your sanity will both benefit. If you find yourself tempted to dump random digital assets together for the sake of a quick fix, ask yourself if they don’t belong with existing content that can be renamed. Just like with naming files, where you locate materials can change how students interact with them in the course environment and inconsistent, poorly organized materials can lead students to miss them entirely. Critical course documentation should be easily searchable and located in as prominent place with a clear organization understandable by new and veteran online students.