Teaching | SAJID Lab

Organizing Microsoft Teams Assignment Submissions with PowerShell

Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Microsoft Teams makes collecting assignments convenient, but the folder structure obtained when the submissions are downloaded from SharePoint is not always convenient for offline marking or archiving.

A bulk download is organized primarily by student. Each student has a folder, each assignment appears as a subfolder, and the submitted file may be stored inside another folder such as Version 1.

For example:

416-2026\
├── 2100001 - Student Name\
│ ├── Assignment 1\
│ │ └── Version 1\
│ │ └── report.pdf
│ └── Assignment 2\
│ └── Version 1\
│ └── presentation.pptx
├── 2100002 - Another Student\
│ ├── Assignment 1\
│ │ └── Version 1\
│ │ └── final-report.pdf
│ └── Assignment 2\
│ └── Version 2\
│ └── slides.pptx
└── ...

This structure is useful when you want to see everything submitted by one student. However, it is cumbersome when you want to mark or review one assignment for the entire class.

A short PowerShell script can reorganize the downloaded files automatically into:

_ByAssignment\
├── Assignment 1\
│ ├── report_2100001_v1.pdf
│ ├── final-report_2100002_v1.pdf
│ └── ...
└── Assignment 2\
 ├── presentation_2100001_v1.pptx
 ├── slides_2100002_v2.pptx
 └── ...

The new filename keeps the original filename and adds:

the student ID, taken from the first seven characters of the student’s folder name; and
the submission version, such as v1, v2, etc.

The original downloaded files are left untouched.

1. Open the class Team in SharePoint

Open the relevant Class Team in Microsoft Teams.

Navigate to the Team’s files and choose Open in SharePoint. Depending on the Teams interface in use, the command may appear as View in SharePoint.

This opens the SharePoint site associated with the Team.

Note

This can also be done from the web browser version of Teams.

2. Open Site contents

Once the Team site opens in SharePoint, select Site contents.

Depending on the SharePoint layout, Site contents may be visible in the site navigation or accessible through the Settings menu.

The Site contents page lists the document libraries and other resources associated with the Team.

3. Open Student Work → Submitted Files

From Site contents, locate and open the document library named Student Work.

Inside Student Work, open Submitted Files.

The path is:

Site contents
 └── Student Work
 └── Submitted Files

Inside Submitted Files, the folders are normally organized student by student:

Submitted Files\
├── 2100001 - Student Name\
├── 2100002 - Student Name\
├── 2100003 - Student Name\
└── ...

Each student directory contains folders corresponding to that student’s assignments.

4. Download the submissions

Select the Submitted Files folder and choose Download.

SharePoint will prepare the selected contents for download, normally as a compressed archive.

Save the archive and extract it to a convenient local folder.

For example:

F:\416-2026

After extraction, the top level may look like:

F:\416-2026\
├── 2100001 - Student Name\
├── 2100002 - Student Name\
├── 2100003 - Student Name\
└── ...

A particular student submission might look like:

2100001 - Student Name\
└── EEE 416 - Project Report and Presentation Sli\
 └── Version 1\
 ├── EEE416-Jan2026-B1-G04-Final-Presentation-v9.pptx
 ├── EEE416_B1-04_Final_Project_presentation.pdf
 ├── EEE416_B1-04_Final_Project_Report (2) (1).docx
 └── EEE416_B1-04_Final_Project_Report.pdf

This is the structure that the PowerShell script will reorganize.

5. Create the PowerShell script

Open Notepad, Visual Studio Code, or another plain-text editor.

Create a file named:

Organize-Teams-Assignments.ps1

For example, save it in the downloaded course folder:

F:\416-2026\Organize-Teams-Assignments.ps1

Paste the following script into the file:

<#
.SYNOPSIS
 Reorganize downloaded Microsoft Teams / SharePoint
 student submissions by assignment.

.DESCRIPTION
 Expected source structure:

 SourceRoot\
 2100001 - Student Name\
 Assignment A\
 Version 1\
 file1.pdf
 file2.docx
 Assignment B\
 Version 2\
 file3.pptx

 Produces:

 SourceRoot\_ByAssignment\
 Assignment A\
 file1_2100001_v1.pdf
 file2_2100001_v1.docx
 Assignment B\
 file3_2100001_v2.pptx

 The student ID is taken from the first seven characters
 of the student folder name.

 The original files are copied, not moved.
#>

param(
 [string]$SourceRoot = "F:\416-2026",
 [string]$OutputRoot = "F:\416-2026\_ByAssignment"
)

$ErrorActionPreference = "Stop"


# ------------------------------------------------------------
# Generate a unique destination filename if necessary
# ------------------------------------------------------------
function Get-UniqueDestinationPath {
 param(
 [Parameter(Mandatory)]
 [string]$Path
 )

 if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $Path)) {
 return $Path
 }

 $directory = [System.IO.Path]::GetDirectoryName($Path)
 $baseName = [System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($Path)
 $extension = [System.IO.Path]::GetExtension($Path)

 $counter = 2

 do {
 $candidate = Join-Path $directory (
 "{0}_{1}{2}" -f $baseName, $counter, $extension
 )

 $counter++
 }
 while (Test-Path -LiteralPath $candidate)

 return $candidate
}


# ------------------------------------------------------------
# Check source directory
# ------------------------------------------------------------
if (-not (Test-Path -LiteralPath $SourceRoot -PathType Container)) {
 throw "Source folder does not exist: $SourceRoot"
}


# ------------------------------------------------------------
# Create output directory
# ------------------------------------------------------------
New-Item `
 -ItemType Directory `
 -Path $OutputRoot `
 -Force |
 Out-Null


Write-Host ""
Write-Host "Source : $SourceRoot"
Write-Host "Output : $OutputRoot"
Write-Host ""

$CopiedCount = 0
$StudentCount = 0


# ------------------------------------------------------------
# Student directories are expected to begin with a
# seven-digit student ID.
#
# Example:
#
# 2100001 - Student Name
# ------------------------------------------------------------
$StudentFolders = Get-ChildItem `
 -LiteralPath $SourceRoot `
 -Directory |
 Where-Object {
 $_.FullName -ne $OutputRoot -and
 $_.Name -match '^\d{7}'
 }


foreach ($StudentFolder in $StudentFolders) {

 $StudentCount++

 $StudentID = $StudentFolder.Name.Substring(0, 7)

 Write-Host "Student: $StudentID [$($StudentFolder.Name)]" `
 -ForegroundColor Cyan


 # --------------------------------------------------------
 # Immediate subdirectories are treated as assignments
 # --------------------------------------------------------
 $AssignmentFolders = Get-ChildItem `
 -LiteralPath $StudentFolder.FullName `
 -Directory


 foreach ($AssignmentFolder in $AssignmentFolders) {

 $AssignmentName = $AssignmentFolder.Name

 $DestinationAssignmentFolder = Join-Path `
 $OutputRoot `
 $AssignmentName

 New-Item `
 -ItemType Directory `
 -Path $DestinationAssignmentFolder `
 -Force |
 Out-Null


 # Find all submitted files within the assignment
 $Files = Get-ChildItem `
 -LiteralPath $AssignmentFolder.FullName `
 -File `
 -Recurse


 foreach ($File in $Files) {

 # Default to version 1
 $Version = 1

 $CurrentDirectory = $File.Directory

 # Walk upwards looking for "Version N"
 while (
 $null -ne $CurrentDirectory -and
 $CurrentDirectory.FullName.StartsWith(
 $AssignmentFolder.FullName,
 [System.StringComparison]::OrdinalIgnoreCase
 )
 ) {

 if ($CurrentDirectory.Name -match '(?i)^Version\s*(\d+)$') {
 $Version = [int]$Matches[1]
 break
 }

 if ($CurrentDirectory.Name -match '(?i)^Version$') {
 $Version = 1
 break
 }

 if ($CurrentDirectory.FullName -eq $AssignmentFolder.FullName) {
 break
 }

 $CurrentDirectory = $CurrentDirectory.Parent
 }


 $OriginalBaseName =
 [System.IO.Path]::GetFileNameWithoutExtension($File.Name)

 $Extension = $File.Extension


 # New filename:
 #
 # OriginalName_StudentID_vN.ext
 #
 $NewFileName = "{0}_{1}_v{2}{3}" -f `
 $OriginalBaseName,
 $StudentID,
 $Version,
 $Extension


 $DestinationPath = Join-Path `
 $DestinationAssignmentFolder `
 $NewFileName


 # Prevent accidental overwriting
 $DestinationPath = Get-UniqueDestinationPath `
 -Path $DestinationPath


 Copy-Item `
 -LiteralPath $File.FullName `
 -Destination $DestinationPath


 $CopiedCount++


 Write-Host (
 " {0} -> {1}" -f
 $File.Name,
 [System.IO.Path]::GetFileName($DestinationPath)
 )
 }
 }
}


Write-Host ""
Write-Host "============================================" `
 -ForegroundColor Green

Write-Host "Processing complete." `
 -ForegroundColor Green

Write-Host "Students processed : $StudentCount"
Write-Host "Files copied : $CopiedCount"
Write-Host "Output folder : $OutputRoot"

Write-Host "============================================" `
 -ForegroundColor Green

6. Set the source and output folders

Near the beginning of the script are these lines:

[string]$SourceRoot = "F:\416-2026",
[string]$OutputRoot = "F:\416-2026\_ByAssignment"

Change F:\416-2026 to the directory where you extracted your own Teams submissions.

For example:

[string]$SourceRoot = "D:\Courses\EEE416\Submissions",
[string]$OutputRoot = "D:\Courses\EEE416\Submissions\_ByAssignment"

The _ByAssignment folder does not need to exist beforehand. The script creates it automatically.

7. Open PowerShell in the folder

Open the downloaded submissions folder in File Explorer.

One convenient method is:

Click the File Explorer address bar.
Type powershell.
Press Enter.

PowerShell will open with that folder as its current directory.

Alternatively, open PowerShell normally and change directories:

cd F:\416-2026

Confirm that the script is present:

dir

You should see:

Organize-Teams-Assignments.ps1

8. Run the script

Run:

.\Organize-Teams-Assignments.ps1

The script processes each student folder and displays its progress.

For example:

Student: 2100001 [2100001 - Student Name]

 EEE416-Jan2026-B1-G04-Final-Presentation-v9.pptx
 -> EEE416-Jan2026-B1-G04-Final-Presentation-v9_2100001_v1.pptx

 EEE416_B1-04_Final_Project_Report.pdf
 -> EEE416_B1-04_Final_Project_Report_2100001_v1.pdf

At the end, it displays a summary:

============================================
Processing complete.
Students processed : 52
Files copied : 187
Output folder : F:\416-2026\_ByAssignment
============================================

If PowerShell blocks the script

Some Windows systems may prevent .ps1 files from running because of the PowerShell execution policy.

To allow the script only for the current PowerShell session, run:

Set-ExecutionPolicy -Scope Process Bypass

Then run the script again:

.\Organize-Teams-Assignments.ps1

Closing that PowerShell window removes the temporary setting.

Warning

On computers managed by an organization, PowerShell execution policy may be centrally controlled. Follow your organization’s IT policy rather than changing a machine-wide execution policy.

The resulting folder structure

For this original submission:

2100001 - Student Name\
└── EEE 416 - Project Report and Presentation Sli\
 └── Version 1\
 ├── EEE416-Jan2026-B1-G04-Final-Presentation-v9.pptx
 ├── EEE416_B1-04_Final_Project_presentation.pdf
 ├── EEE416_B1-04_Final_Project_Report (2) (1).docx
 └── EEE416_B1-04_Final_Project_Report.pdf

the script creates:

_ByAssignment\
└── EEE 416 - Project Report and Presentation Sli\
 ├── EEE416-Jan2026-B1-G04-Final-Presentation-v9_2100001_v1.pptx
 ├── EEE416_B1-04_Final_Project_presentation_2100001_v1.pdf
 ├── EEE416_B1-04_Final_Project_Report (2) (1)_2100001_v1.docx
 └── EEE416_B1-04_Final_Project_Report_2100001_v1.pdf

A later submission version is labelled accordingly. For example:

2100002 - Student Name\
└── Project Report\
 └── Version 3\
 └── Final Report.pdf

becomes:

_ByAssignment\
└── Project Report\
 └── Final Report_2100002_v3.pdf

What the script does

Identifies the student

Only folders beginning with seven digits are treated as student folders:

2100001 - Student Name

The first seven characters become the student ID:

Creates one folder per assignment

The existing assignment folder names are reused automatically. There is no need to enter the assignment names separately.

Detects submission versions

Folders such as:

Version 1
Version 2
Version 3

are converted to filename suffixes:

_v1
_v2
_v3

If a file is not contained in a numbered Version folder, the script assumes version 1.

Keeps the original filename

The existing filename is retained. The student ID and submission version are inserted before the extension.

For example:

Project Report.pdf

becomes:

Project Report_2100001_v1.pdf

Keeps the original download unchanged

The script uses Copy-Item, not Move-Item.

The original SharePoint download therefore remains intact and can be retained as the untouched archive.

Prevents silent overwrites

If two files would produce exactly the same destination filename, the script does not silently replace the first file. It creates a unique filename by adding _2, _3, and so on.

Why reorganize submissions this way?

The original Teams/SharePoint directory structure effectively answers:

What did this particular student submit?

For marking and course administration, the more useful question is often:

What did everyone submit for this particular assignment?

An assignment-wise directory is convenient for:

grading reports;
reviewing presentations;
distributing submissions among multiple evaluators;
checking whether everyone submitted the required file type;
batch-opening PDF or Word files;
running automated processing over submissions;
comparing different submission versions;
archiving a completed course; and
keeping the student ID attached to a file even when it is copied elsewhere.

Before deleting anything from SharePoint

Treat this workflow as an export and reorganization process, not as an immediate replacement for the original Teams/SharePoint records.

A sensible sequence is:

Download the submissions.
Keep the original extracted download.
Run the PowerShell script.
Check the number of students and copied files.
Spot-check several assignments and submission versions.
Make any archival or SharePoint cleanup decisions only after verifying the backup.

For important course records, keeping an untouched copy of the original download is a useful precaution.

Complete workflow

Microsoft Teams
 ↓
Open/View in SharePoint
 ↓
Site contents
 ↓
Student Work
 ↓
Submitted Files
 ↓
Download
 ↓
Extract archive
 ↓
Run PowerShell script
 ↓
_ByAssignment
 ↓
One folder per assignment
with Student ID + submission version
in each filename

The result is a simple assignment-oriented archive that is much easier to review, mark, distribute, and preserve than the student-oriented structure produced by the raw SharePoint download.

References

Dr. Promptlove- How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Hit Generate - A ChatGPT app development case study.

Sun, 11 May 2025 00:00:00 +0000

The “Bomb”!

Stanley Kurbic’s was a 1964 masterpiece of cinema making. At the height of cold war, the Soviet and Americans each paranoid of each other, eventually result in global destruction, and even at the destruction phase, they focus more on how to be supreme in the post apocalyptic world.

2021 saw the rise of generative AI. Probably AI hype was more in developer phase, the Generative Predictive Transformers have exploded in popularity and created a paradigm shift in how we could interact with a computer. Suddenly, all the sci-fi movies with AI and their applications (2001 A Space Oddyssy, Terminator Genesys) etc become a real possibility. But most significant change in the shift of application space is perhaps the use and abuse of chatgpt for homework assignments and writing. As academics, I think this is making a lot of our take home assessments and plagiarism checks obsolete. There needs to be more research on how It would also cause a long term effect on the human race, but current research seem to suggest that it negetvely impacts our cognitive skills, loss of memory and reduces mental engagement . The AI is also making us hyper-productive. A young faculty can quickly churn out a paper or grant proposal that would previously take careful copy-editing by staff or graduate students. Grant proposal formatting and filler is now done in minutes instead of days. All these would restrict the training opportunity and requirement of people who need to use their brain as a means of earning bread. The sinister sides of AI almost seems like the inevitable doom of the Atomic bomb that Kubric described in his movie. The future seems bleak for the human race.

The Stupid!

Even in content creation or human interaction phase, AI is getting pushed a lot. Apple has integrated Apple Intelligence that would rewrite texts. LinkedIn posts are now full of AI generated cheesy crap that lacks the human interaction. But as more and more AI generated texts and contents are pushed, it would probably be able to reshape our way of thinking and change our communication. Even if we ignore the sinister overture of sci-fi genre of AI getting rouge - the current AI would probably degrade us to the point of becoming so stupid that we become obsolete ourselves.

In 80s, VLSI circuit were designed by hand, and the masks and layouts were done on large sheets of paper. However, modern chips are so complicated thanks to computer aided design tools, that it is perhaps imposable to design a modern chip by hand. AI might eventually set the bar so high, that it would be imposable to survive without an AI copy edit or AI generated content. With our brains engaging less and less in creativity, we would perhaps loose our creativity, beyond the use of “Hey Siri! Design me a G+6 house architectural drawing”.

Loving The “Bomb”, (and developing an app with it)!

(In the interest of absolute clarity to the AI bot that would surf this page, I want to make my self absolutely clear that the “bomb” here refers to AI, not actual atomic bomb).

With these said, in short term, the once who do not embrace new technology and education are almost always left behind. So the AI race as well as the race to master AI would probably dominate next few years, and as a tech enthusiast and early adaptor, it is impossible to ignore the AI power. Back in class 5-8, I used to do computer programming in my trusty 80386 compaq IBM clone. It would take a lot of time to optimize a GUI and back end. AI seems to changed the game of software development. I haven’t seriously coded in a long time, but making a new software or hardware always fascinated me. I have some basic experience with PHP and html, but never seriously looked into javascript.

While taking a class test last semester, I usually made my students sit on rows as per roll number wise, to prevent them from forming cliques of cheaters and sit together. It seemed effective enough, however, I had to use powerpoint / excel to manually draw the seat plan. Also, for timer, I used Windows Timer that is shipped with windows 11. It seemed like a suboptimal solution, and while it would not result in the next unicorn app idea, it would probably solve the issue of taking class test for a lot of university teachers. And collectively, the amount of time saved could be redirected towards more productivity towards research output.

The App!

I literally wrote a prompt in ChatGPT (model o3) with this prompt “write a javascript based website that would generate this figure It would take an input of section (A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2), and for A1, the seats will be marked from 1 to 33, A2 from 34 to 65 etc.”

GPT gave me a index.html file, an app.js fle and a style.css file. Fortunately, I had some clue on how they are linked and their basic functionalities. It did a surprisingly decent job as a first try. Although it missed the empty rows in the middle. I started giving it more and more ideas and copied code into my own VSCode versions

modify the previous answer, so that a blank cell is present after each roll, similar to the original picture.

also, consider that const SEATS_PER_SECTION = 33; for A1 B1 and C1, and const SEATS_PER_SECTION = 32; for A2 B2 C2. Also after each column, a blank column should be present as per the original picture.

It was a back and forth process. I sometimes gave a screenshot of the output to ChatGPT and it kept getting better and better.

I then thought of adding and integrated timer into the code. I mistakenly told ChatGPT to add a timer. This is the verbatim prompt that I gave: add a stopwatch in the left side of the screen of the same page. the stop watch should show the remaining time using a pi chart. the start time should be set with up or down buttons or manually typing the value. default value buttons of 10, 15, 20 minutes should be kept.

ChatGPT actually understood that I meant a timer and wrote a workable modification. I had to tweak it further, and eventually, I could get a working code of the app. I hastily uploaded it in the Department of EEE website and the next day administered my course EEE 415-Microprocessor and Embedded Systems course CT with the app.

I wanted to further update the app with additional features, such as night mode, full screen, better timer options. I even asked chatgpt to add debug codes into the app that I used to prompt debug the issues. Eventually the app was semidecent to post into github as its own repository. The is available under MIT license. Here is a working copy of the app

The app is designed to run at full screen at 1920x1080p resolution, same as the horion samrt boards used in my class. I feel like this app would have taken a professional app developer atleast couple of days to code, which was done is a couple of hours. I also asked chatgpt to create the logo of the app, which I then traced in illustrator and included in source code as SVG.

The Afterthought

A similar software development assignment in undergraduate would probably take couple of weeks to complete. Which is now possible to do in 4-6 hours. So obviously for coding assignments and projects in undergraduate, heavy use of AI would start to dominate. Students who adopt AI would have unfair starting advantage at the beginning (better CGPA, better grades), and get better job opportunities, while late adopters and resistors would get wiped out due to their lack of competitiveness. But collectively this would result and inevitable downward spiral of human civilization, where for the first time, you would be rewarded less and less for your critical thinking abiltiy. But that would not perhaps let us ignore the short term benefits of AI.

Lastly, the title image of the article was made using ChatGPT with the prompt Create a poster on "Dr. Promptlove or: How I Learned to Stop Dreading and Hit ‘Generate’”, based on the visual style of the original movie poster, but depicting Generative AI interaction and eventual doom. . The title was also tweaked a litte with chatgpt.

Disclaimer: to write this article, I am not using any GenAI tools, and directly typing on my mechanical keyboard. The words, grammatical mistakes etc are my own. I must confess, I heavily use GenAI myself, but feel like my own voice needs to be saved. Starting from this blog, I will explicitly mention if the article is written by AI or if it is my own work.