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How well versed are you in the use of our main virtual learning environment? There are certain things in Moodle that every teacher should be able to do by him- or herself. Adding a file to a course and displaying it as a link on the course page is one of those things.

If you start with the file you want to upload, saved in a format that everyone can open without problems (so avoid MS Office 2007 formats, or Open Office formats for the time being), you can make this file available to your students on a Moodle course page in 11 clicks and one text string (The amount of additional clicks and scrolling depends on the organisation of your course and course files). Count with us:

1. Turn editing on in your course and scroll to the topic section where you want the file to appear.
2. Click on Add a resource.
3. Click on Link to a file or web site.
4. Fill in the link Name (i.e. the text string that will appear on the course page and link to the file) and scroll down a bit.
5. Click on the Choose or upload file button. (This opens the course Files. If you wish to upload the file to a separate folder that ads a click on the folder. Creating a new folder adds 3 clicks and a text string, i.e. the folder name.)
6. Click on the Upload a file button.
7. Click on the Browse button. (This opens a file upload box that looks at a folder in your PC. If it is not the folder where your file is saved, you need to open that folder, which adds about two clicks.)
8. Click on the file.
9. Click the Open button.
10. Click on the Upload this file button. (This uploads the file to the folder in Moodle.)
11. Click the Choose link behind the file name in the folder in Moodle. (If you use a small browser window, you may have to scroll to the right to see this link.) This adds the file to the location box. Scroll down.
12. Click the Save and return to course button. (This adds the file as a link to your Moodle course page.)

Presto, twelve steps! This process is illustrated on the corresponding page of our Moodle manual.

The previous installment in this series deals with topic sections and the enrolment key (in the course Settings).

Lue viesti suomeksi

How well versed are you in the use of our main virtual learning environment? There are certain things in Moodle that every teacher should be able to do by him- or herself. Managing your course Settings is one of those things.

Changing the number of topic sections (course content blocks)

Often we get requests from teachers to add more “content blocks” to their courses, when the course materials are so many that the five default topic sections do not suffice. Topic sections are not added via the course page, but via the course Settings. The link to this important page can be found in the Administration block of your course. Upon clicking the link (one time is enough) you will see the course settings, with which you can control many aspects of your course. The number of topic sections in the course can be set after the text Number of weeks/topics. If you change the number of topic sections, scroll down to the bottom of the Settings page and Save changes.

Note that if you reduce the number of topic sections, the superfluous ones disappear from view, but they still exist, including any course materials linked to those sections.

Checking the enrolment key

The enrolment key is a password that you can give to your students, so that they can enrol themselves in your course. If you do not remember the enrolment key for your course you can find it in the course Settings (further down on the page) under the header Availability. There you can see the enrolment key if you tick the Unmask box. If you do not like the existing enrolment key, you can change it, but remember to scroll down to the bottom of the Settings page and Save changes.

Do not leave your course without any enrolment key, because that would mean that anyone can enter the course and enrol themselves.

You can learn more about the various course Settings on the corresponding page of our Moodle manual.

The next installment in this series deals with uploaded file resources.