NoodleTools (citation tool) and How It Works: Group Projects

In NoodleTools, you can work together with your classmates on a project. You can share source references and notecards linked to the project. You can also exchange comments or questions about the project. 

1.  One person needs to create the project in NoodleTools.

2.  That person then needs to add the other group members to the project as collaborators.

1. On the Dashboard screen, in the Sharing and Collaboration section, under Student Collaboration, to add a new collaborator to the project, click Add students.

2. Enter the student’s Personal NoodleTools ID in the text field. By default, the student will be a Full collaborator (equal access to edit the project as yourself). If you want the student be able to view your project and add comments, but not be able to add or change anything else, select the Peer-reviewer option.

If you need to add more than one collaborator, click Add More and enter the Personal IDs for each one. When you are done adding collaborators, click Done. Click to reload the Dashboard screen. You will now be able to see all collaborators' contributions to the project. 

A collaborative project shows up like any other project that you created on your My Projects screen, but you will see a checkmark in the Collaborating? column. 

1. How to determine what team members are currently working on the project

As you work together on a collaborative project, your team members will use their NoodleTools accounts to contribute work or make changes to the project. When another student has the project open, you will see “Who's online” below the top navigation. Click on the link to view who is working on the project. If “Who's online” is not visible, it means that you are the only one currently viewing the project.

2. How to determine when a team member has made a change

When a team member has saved a change (e.g., edited a notecard, deleted a source reference, etc.), other team members will get a green notification at the top of the screen reflecting what has changed.

Notecards — On the Notecards screen, when the green notification appears (see above image), the title of the modified notecard on the Tabletop will also blink.

As team members make changes to the project, your own screen will update to reflect those changes. On the Notecards screen, the changes on your screen will occur in real-time. For example, as a collaborator moves notecards around on the Tabletop, or into piles, you will see those same changes immediately on your Tabletop.

Sources — On the Sources screen, like with notecards, a green notification at the top will alert you when a teammate made a change. To view their changes, reload the screen.

3. See project history

If you were not logged in when changes were made to the project, you can view updates in the Project history log on the Dashboard screen. Under Project and History, click “30-day log of work done on this project.”

The Project history log shows the most recent activity at top. Scroll down to see what actions and changes took place earlier.

How to delete or recover a deleted project

If you are a collaborator on a project, selecting the project and deleting it from your Projects screen simply removes you as a collaborator. The project will still remain visible to your team members.

If you accidentally delete a collaborative project from your folder, you will need to ask one of your team members who still has access to re-add you as a collaborator to the project.

Collaborators can communicate through comments made in NoodleTools about the project and/or sources.  Comments are permanently added to the project and cannot be deleted, so be responsible with what you choose to say!