Organise your electronic spaces

Get organised early. If you start early then it becomes easier to organise your electronic content of your subject and your web sites and resources.

• Organise and choose digital and electronic equipment that will suit you, and do this early!
• You could use a hierarchical structure and clearly label folders for your electronic spaces.
• Using colour electronically can also be a valuable tool. You can also colour-code your subjects and projects.
• Use folder names and file names that you'll remember like Biology-Semester 1.
• It's useful to include the date in the name of your files.
• Include key words in your file names. For example, the file name for your first year Biology notes could include the week of the semester, the date, as well as information on what the file is about.
• Biology-101-wk1lecture-27-02-2007
• Biology-101-wk1lab-29-02-2007
• Biology-101-wk2lecture-6-03-2007
• If you work spatially then you can also choose different spaces on your computer to allocate subjects and icons or topics.

I'm a highly visual person. In fact I think conceptually and I don't like seeing everything in a list so what I do is I choose different computer screen backgrounds and I anchor my files and folders to parts of the images that make sense to me. At the moment I've got one that is of a house and it has a window and pot plants and a door…so what I do is I have all my four subject folders in each corner of the window and it stands out.

I also make sure that my folders have some consistency in naming and dates…When I get bored with my computer background then I change it to another image and remember to relocate my folders…

— Miranda

Planning your digital folders

Think about how you might arrange your individual files into folders and sub-folders. You may also want to colour code them. Create shortcuts to your current work.This means you can access it easily and quickly.

• What does your desktop look like?
• Can you make any further improvements?
• Are the categories you've chosen easy to remember?
• You can choose icons for your folders. On a PC, right click, choose Properties and select an image using the Change icon button.
• Good file naming can help you get organised. When working on document drafts always include the dates in your filenames so you can keep track of your versions. If you're getting feedback on drafts from your tutor or lecturer then include their names or initials in the filename.
• Always remember to back-up your electronic versions. Portable USB Flash drives are not always reliable. If you save files on your USB Flash drive to move from one computer to another, make sure you have a copy saved to your hard drive. And for any assessment tasks make sure that you print out a hard copy version too!
• Another useful technique is to insert the location and name of your file in a header or footer in your document. This means that you can look at the printout and easily locate the pathway if you've forgotten what you've called the document or where you've put it.
• To do this use the Insert menu in MSWord, select Field and then File name. For example: Filename C:\Anne\Subjects2006\Biology101Assignment1-Draft_2-12-05.doc
• You must ensure that you've got adequate digital backup! Deciding how you're going to back up your important files is vital. And be rigorous in your back up. Do it nightly!
• Think about your software requirements and make sure you have enough memory and hard drive space installed on your computer.
• Don't forget to think about an ergonomic set-up that suits you. Work out where to put additional assistive technology hardware if you're going to use it.

It's a good idea to save back-up copies of essays. I use a technique that a friend suggested and I'd never thought about. I send myself an email version of any assessment tasks I am drafting and the final version as back-up. That way even if my hard disk or back-up copies get damaged I can always get a copy from the web mail I've sent myself. I think that's really cool!

— Sam

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