Moodle Quick Start Guide: Adding a Group of Documents to Your Moodle Course

Transcription

1 Moodle Quick Start Guide: Adding a Group of Documents to Your Moodle Course Within Moodle, the most common way to add a file to a course is by uploading the file into the Files area and then linking to it from one of the content blocks (or week blocks) in the central content area of a course. If you have a group of files that you want to add to a Moodle course, a more efficient way to add those files is to package them up as a *.zip file, upload that zip file into the Files area, and then unzip the files within the Moodle course. If you zip the files up as a single folder, you can provide access to the entire folder from a content block, or you can link to the individual files within the folder. In this Quick Start guide, we will demonstrate the following parts of the overall procedure: 1. How to zip up a folder using WinZip or Windows 7 (on the PC); 2. How to upload that zip file into your Moodle course and unzip the folder; and 3. How to link to the folder or to its individual files from a content block, so students can view the files. Creating azip File Using Winzip or Windows 7 In this guide, we are assuming that you have placed all the files within a single folder, and you will zip up that folder (along with the files it contains) to add it to your Moodle course. If you haven t done that already, you should create a folder on your hard drive and put all the files you want to upload into that single folder. Please note that if you have Windows 7 as your operating system, you can zip up your folder using the operation system itself. You right-click on the folder that you want to compress, put your mouse over Send to, and click on Compressed (zipped) folder. Windows 7 will create a zip file with the name of the folder as the file name: ITEC Instructional Technology Enhancing the Curriculum Please consider the environment before printing this document.

2 If you have Windows XP as your operating system, you can zip up the folder by launching a program called WinZip, using a technique similar to the Windows 7 method described above: 1. Navigate to the folder on your hard drive that contains the files that you want to add to your Moodle course. 2. Right-click on the folder, slide your mouse down to WinZip, and click on Add to Zip file : 3. WinZip will open up an Add dialog box, and the Zip file will be given the same name as the folder. Click on the Add button. : Your Moodle Course Page 2

3 4. WinZip will compress the files and return a confirmation dialog box, saying that the files have been added to the Zip archive. You can click on the OK button to clear out the dialog box. 5. The new *.zip file will be in the same parent folder as the folder that you just compressed. You ll need to remember that location when you are ready to pull the zip file into Moodle. (You can exit out of WinZip at this point.) Uploading the Zip File Into Moodle and Unzipping the File Moodle allows you to upload the Zip file into the Course Files area and then unpackage the file, so that its contents are available to your course. 1. Go to our Moodle server at or use the Moodle link on the internal Bucknell home page at Once you have logged in to Moodle, click on the link for the course to which you want to add (and unpackage) the Zip file. 2. Within that course, click on the Files link in the Administration block: 3. On the Files page, click on the button on the right side of the page, and then on the button to locate the Zip file you created in the first stage of this process (described in the section above). Once you find the *.zip file, double click on it to select it, then click on the button. 4. At the top of the Files page, in the middle, Moodle will confirm that the File uploaded successfully, and you should see the name of your Zip file in the list of files, marked by the Zip file ( ) icon. In the Action column will be a link that will allow you to unzip the file. Click on that link: Your Moodle Course Page 3

4 5. Moodle will list the files that it has unpackaged and added to the Files area. Click on the button to return to the Files area of your course. 6. You should see the new folder listed in that files area, near the top of the list. You are now ready for the next step of the process. Linking to the Folder or Individual Files from a Content Block Depending on how many files are in the folder (and whether they are relevant to only one week or one topic area), the more likely scenario is that you ll want to link to an individual file (or files) in the folder, rather than linking to the folder as a single unit. However, the process we describe below would work for either scenario, with a few extra clicks to select an individual file, rather than the folder: 1. Return to the main page for your Moodle course, and click on the button in the top-right corner of the page, if you are not already in that mode. 2. In the central Topic or Weeks content section, go to the topic or week where you want to post your file or folder, and click on the downward-facing arrow next to Add a resource. Then click on Link to a file or web site if you want to add a particular (individual) file, or Display a directory if you want to link to the full folder: Your Moodle Course Page 4

5 3. On the page for adding a new resource to that topic/week, enter a name for the item in the Name field, add a brief description (if you d like) in the Summary box, and then click on the Choose or upload a file button (for a file), or click on the down arrow next to Display a directory, and select the unzipped folder that you want to display:: 4. If you are linking to the full directory, you just need to click on the button, and the folder will be displayed in the topic/week block where you started to add the resource. If you are just linking to a file within the folder, you need to click on the link for the folder to see its files: 5. To add the individual file, click on the Choose link in the row for the file: 6. Moodle will return you to the familiar Adding a new resource page. As with the instructions for adding a folder, scroll down to the bottom of the page, and click on the button to finish posting your file in the chosen topic/week block. Your Moodle Course Page 5