Okay, it’s time for another nifty Internet app (remember Jing?). I’m sure you have found yourself wanting to highlight or annotate a PDF at some point, only to find that you need to purchase, sign up for, and/or download software. Well, Crocodoc eliminates all of these steps. With Crocodoc, you can upload a PDF (or PowerPoint, Word doc, image, etc.), annotate it, and share with others. While you do not need to sign up for a free account to use Crocodoc, doing so will allow you to store and manage files.
Crocodoc files can be shared by providing someone with a link, emailing it to them from Crocodoc, or downloading the file and then sending it via email. As an instructor, I think Crocodoc would be useful for providing electronic feedback. However, in order to maintain privacy, I would make the annotations in Crocodoc, save the file to my computer, and then send it to the student via email (watch out for the comment tool though, as the comments didn’t show up on my downloaded doc… text inserted directly on the document did, however).
Crocodoc can be used by groups to collaborate on a document. This opens up some great possibilities for students to do group work or peer editing. It might even be easier than using Google Docs, as students do not need to sign up for accounts, and fewer tools make it more straightforward.
If Crocodoc sounds interesting to you, try it out! All you need to do is visit the site, upload a document, select an annotation tool, and you’re off to the races.
