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Avoiding lost work in Moodle

When students are working in our installation of Moodle, there are some common ways that their work can be lost. Because Moodle doesn't save what you've written until you click Save (assignments) or Post to Forum in Forums, anything that interrupts your connection to Moodle can lead to lost work and frustration. Interruptions include computer problems or network outages or disconnections. If you are writing anything longer than a paragraph,  it's a good idea to use a text editor to do your writing and then copy and paste into Moodle so no matter what happens, you won't lose any of your work. If you combine your use of a text editor with an online backup plan, you'll have a secure backup of all of your work even after the class ends and you can no longer access it (see below). You could use a word processor like Microsoft Word, but you may need to save your work as plain text first to avoid seeing formatting errors when you copy and paste from Word into Moodle.

A free and nearly foolproof workflow for the online student combines a text editor (Notational Velocity on the Mac or ResophNotes for Windows) and a free Dropbox account. Do your Moodle work in the text editor and copy and paste it into Moodle - no issues with hidden formatting codes. Once you've configured things correctly, everything you write is also backed up to your dropbox account and synched with any other computers you choose. There is almost no chance you'll lose any work, and you'll avoid the second way you can lose your work in Moodle. Let's assume you've completed your Moodle class without losing any work. 30 days after the class ends, our enrollment system removes you (and all other students) from the class roster in Moodle along with all of your work. A few months later, your laptop is stolen or your hard drive fails or you decide that something you posted to a forum in week 3 would be great in your learning portfolio. If you used the text editor + dropbox method, everything is still available and easily found. If you thought you'd just get back to your Moodle class and make a copy of your work, you won't be happy as that isn't an option and we don't have access to the work you did in the class.

If you use this link to sign up with dropbox, you get an additional 250 MB of free storage and I get some free space also (500 MB) for the referral.

If the text editor + dropbox method seems too complicated, a free Evernote account will accomplish the same thing and stores all your notes online.
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