17 Organizing documents

Where and how did you organize all of your course-related “stuff”? How did you organize your digital files?

ES: I had a small ruled notebook where I kept track of reminders, notes for the markers, and students’ accommodations. I also maintained a folder on my computer exclusively designated for ENG 2PC3. Keep a folder for your course on your email, and, upon receiving an email related to the course, immediately file in that folder. Otherwise, your inbox will be completely filled and you won’t notice other emails about your PhD, upcoming events, etc.

EG: Ditto on the designated documents folder and email folder. I also created a password-protected spreadsheet with student names. Here I recorded accommodation details as they came in, as well as the results of my introductory survey (pronouns, preferred name and pronunciation, etc.). For assignment extensions and MSAFs, I used a sheet of paper for each assignment, but in future I would add columns to this spreadsheet and track them all there.

ES: That’s a good point — for extensions and MSAFs, I had a running document in the Teams group that I shared with the markers, but I think that, in the future, I would also keep my own separate document for that information.