Multiple File folders
Guide

How I organize digital files for my classes

How I organize digital files for my college classes so that I stay organized and the computer doesn't eat my homework.

During my senior year of high school, I went from having a few virtual classes each year to a truly hybrid online class schedule, where 50% or more of my classes were online. This continued throughout undergrad in college, before I transitioned to having all of my classes 100% online for my final semester and then for graduate school. Since I complete all of my assignments in digital formats, it’s important to have an effective file organization system so that I can quickly locate assignments for upload, as well as reference past assignments and content from previous semesters. Here is how I organize digital files for my classes, including high school assignment organization and college file organization strategies.

I use cloud storage on a personal account

I have a Microsoft 365 subscription for Office apps that comes with 1 TB of storage on OneDrive, which is more than enough for storing all of my class assignments. While I do have offline backups on my desktop computer, cloud storage makes it easier for me to access my files from anywhere, whether it’s a lab computer, my iPad or pulling up a file on my Android smartphone when I’m away from my primary computer.

If I am working on a collaboration assignment with other students, I upload the document to my university account’s OneDrive, since there are enhanced collaboration options for accounts within the same organization. However, I also keep a local copy on my personal account in case I lose access to my university account or there is a system outage.

Many schools, colleges and universities offer free Microsoft 365 subscriptions that students can use with their personal accounts, or free premium tools for Google’s productivity applications. IT services typically provides this information to students and families.

I create nested folders that start with broad categories

Instead of having individual folders for all of my classes, I have a system of nested folders that start with broad category names, so that I can organize material more effectively. This helps create a foundation for more efficient organization and also helps me avoid saving information in the wrong place.

Examples of folders I use to organize digital files for school include:

I create folders for each class

For each of my classes in a given semester, I create a folder with the class name and number, i.e CDS 130. I don’t put these folders inside the nested folders until after the semester is over, so that they are easier for me to access.

Depending on how the professor organizes the class, I add additional nested folders inside of the class folder that can include:

Organizing by topic

For my database programming class, the professor divided our work by four different unit names, so I created corresponding folders for each unit name. This was helpful because we would frequently have to reference concepts we learned in a particular unit, and I could easily search the labeled folders for the information.

Organizing by time

My Java programming class was divided into three sections based on what point we were at in the semester. The professor would reference items we learned in Part 1 or Part 2 of the class, and I organized materials to reflect these sections. I also used this method in high school for organizing assignments from each quarter of the school year.

Organizing by file type

For one of my data science classes, assignments were divided into categories such as weekly activities, in-class exercises and module activities. I kept a folder with labels for each assignment within the class folder, and would put assignments in their appropriate section. Since that class had a large amount of files, this worked perfectly.

Naming conventions for files

Unless the professor has a different required naming convention (I’ve only had one professor where this was the case), I use the same naming convention when saving my files to their folders:

Class Name + Assignment Name + My Student ID

My program requires students to put their student ID at the end of file names due to the sheer number of computer files that professors receive. So for example, my 6th homework for my CDS 293 class will be written as CDS293_Homework6_Vlewis

As soon as I create a new document in Microsoft Word, I save it to the cloud to ensure that my progress is saved automatically as I work on an assignment.

More tips for how I organize digital files for my classes

By Veronica Lewis/Veronica With Four Eyes, www.veroniiiica.com

Updated November 2024; original post published February 2021.

Back to Paths to Technology’s Home page

SHARE THIS ARTICLE
Collage of various math expressions, graphs, and angles.
Activity

Digital math summary page

Image of an educator on a computer screen pointing to a math equation and image of a student leaning out of an smart phone with speech dots.
Guide

Digital Math: Workflows from teacher to student and student to teacher

A tablet displaying a checklist.
Checklist

Digital Math Tablet Skills Checklists: Building early tech skills