Adding Materials to a Course

Owned by Adam Dinnes
Last updated: Jul 02, 2020 by Amy Pfeifer (Unlicensed)
3 min read

A course is only as good as the materials in it. A Moodle courses is comprised of activities and resources. Any file or content that students will consume is a resource. Any item that may be graded is an activity.

You must Turn editing on before you are able to add activities/assignments or resources/files.

 For a full list with descriptions of the activities and resources that can be added to a course please see the Activities and Resources section.



Adding Resources to a Course

There are a number of methods to add files and other resources to a course. The most common methods will be covered below. You must Turn editing on before you are able to use any of the methods below

Drag-and-drop: You may drag and drop files directly into a topic section within a course. You can upload any single file that is 100MB or less in size. The file will be added to the course with its file name, but you can edit this directly on the page by clicking the pencil icon to the right of the file name. You can also drag-and-drop images into your course.

File Repository: Moodle connects to a number of repositories including: Google Drive, Flickr, WikiMedia, Youtube, and others. You can search for and add materials from these resources to your course. All of these repositories may be accessed through the File Picker (see Subchapter).

URL: You can add a web link (URL) to your course. To do so, follow the steps given :



  1. Click the Add and activity or resource link in the topic section you wish to add the link.

  2. Select URL from the list of Activities and Resources and then click the Add button.

  3. Give the URL a name. The name will the the link text that the students see and click on.

  4. Add a description. This is helpful for providing context or directions for a specific task you wish the students to undertake.

  5. Paste in the URL you want to share with students into the External URL field.

  6. Expand the Appearance section and choose how you would like the link to be displayed.
    The options include:
    Automatic - The best display option for the URL is selected automatically
    Embed - The URL is displayed within the page below the navigation bar together with the URL description and any blocks
    Open - Only the URL is displayed in the browser window
    In pop-up - The URL is displayed in a new browser window without menus or an address bar
    In frame - The URL is displayed within a frame below the navigation bar and URL description
    New window - The URL is displayed in a new browser window with menus and an address bar
    Note: Choosing In Pop-up or New Window will yield the best results and user experience.

  7. Click Save and Return to course.



File Picker

File Picker is the interface for navigating the Moodle file system. While you can use the Drag-and-Drop feature on most pages, the File Picker gives you added flexibility and access to other file storage options (Repositories - enabled by the Moodle administrator). 

Access to the file picker

The file picker may be accessed from any area content may be added in Moodle. Click the Add files button (image below) to access the file picker. Various repositories will be listed on the left. You may select the one you wish to use by clicking on it.

Upload a File

On your file settings page, clicking the [Add] button will open the File Picker. Click on Upload a File in the File Picker to upload files, while setting the author and licensing of the file.

Private Files

This is a special storage area for each Moodle user that you will be able to access from any of your course sites. It's a great place to store files commonly shared amongst various courses you teach in Moodle.

Server Files

Server Files will allow you to access the file storage for other courses that you have access to in Moodle. If you suddenly decide that you want to add a file already used in another course site, you can go to Server Files > System and then navigate to your other course file to retrieve the document.

Repositories

It is possible for the Moodle administrator to enable repositories or other locations from which to pull content. Dropbox, Flickr, Google Docs and Youtube are examples of these.