Creating Folders in Google with a Scripts: GClassFolders

So thankful that Ben Revkin, a Latin and tech integrator from East Greenwich High School, was at EdCampRI, an Unconference.  One of the challenges that we have faced as we roll into Google Apps for Education, is the ability to create folders for students with naming conventions. 

As a teacher, it is overwhelming to have student work handed in only to be lost in a long list of documents in the Shared with me section of the Drive.  We tried having students make the folders, but that often led to many unwanted sharing emails, even with reminders to uncheck the "Notify" box on the share screen. We are now also facing the need to create folders for younger students who do not have the email feature and the need to use instructional time in a more purposeful and developmental way!

Then Ben offers a Google Drive seminar at EdCampRI and didn't get nearly enough airtime in my opinion.  He was able to introduce a couple of scripts.  He demonstrated one that I have finally been able to master, its the gclassfolder script. 

GclassFolders script allows the teacher to create folders for each student.  Mr. Revkin collected the necessary information in a Google Form and ran the script. There are several layers that are created from View only , Shared, and a Homework/Assignment Folder.  It is hard to explain, but once you go through the steps, viola folders can be created for the whole class. I didn't like the names of the folders that I had created, but when I went to rename them the Drive accepted the name change. Those changes transferred to the student folders and I only made changed to three different folders and all thirty students received the changes. Talk about a time saver!