Note: You are currently viewing documentation for Moodle 3.6. Up-to-date documentation for the latest stable version of Moodle is likely available here: Course files.

Course files

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Revision as of 14:38, 13 February 2016 by Michael Waugh (talk | contribs) (Homework)

This page explains the legacy "Course files" area in Moodle 2, and related topics.

It's useful for any teacher who wants to know how to add files to a Moodle 2 course (especially if you previously used Moodle 1.9 or earlier).


Name: Homework #2 1. Find the angle of elevation if you are standing 400 ft. away and the building is 850 ft. tall?


2. From the top of a tower, the angle of depression to a stake on the ground is 60 degrees. The top of the tower is 80 feet above ground. How far is the stake from the foot of the tower?




3. You are a block away from a skyscraper that is 780 feet tall. Your friend is between the skyscraper and yourself. The angle of elevation from your position to the top of the skyscraper is 42°. The angle of elevation from your friend’s position to the top of the skyscraper is 71°. To the nearest foot, how far are you from your friend?




4. Find the distance of BC. Hint: add the altitude from vertex B.


5. Use the diagram below to find the distance across the suspension bridge.



6. An airplane climbs at an angle of 18° with the ground. Find the ground distance the plane travels as it moves 2500 m through the air. Give your answer to the nearest 100 m.







7. You are watching a fireworks display where you are standing 290 feet behind the launch pad. The launch tubes are aimed directly away from you at an angle of 65° with the ground. The angle for you to see the fireworks is 40°.


a. To the nearest foot, what is the horizontal distance from the launch pad to the point where the fireworks explode?

b. To the nearest foot, what is the height of the fireworks when they explode?

c. What is the measure of angle A?















8. Graph line M: y = 3x + 1 a. Write and graph the equation of the line that is perpendicular to line M going through the point (-3, -8). b. Graph the line x =3 c. Identify the type of triangle that is created by connecting the lines. Be as specific as possible. d. What is the measure of each angle formed in the triangle? e. What is the perimeter of the triangle? f. What is the area of the triangle?







9. Triangle ABC is graph on the cartesian plane below. Reflect triangle ABC over the line y = 2.

Files in Moodle 2

In Moodle 2 the files work a lot more like Web 2.0 systems, such as Facebook and Google Docs.

Each activity and each text has its own file area, and files are associated directly with the place it is used. For example, a file attached to a forum post is stored "with" the forum post, and becomes subject to exactly the same access restrictions.

The Files system is intimately connected with the Repository system, and a file picker which makes it easy to browse external and internal repositories for files, and then copy them into Moodle. Certain repositories also allow you to link directly to their media files. Repositories in general are the way of the future for content - most Web 2.0 systems are really repositories of data with various management interfaces.

A private files area is provided for each user to store a collection of files for their own use. This is useful for students as well as teachers, and makes it easy to re-use media across the Moodle site. Only you can access your own private files.

The course files area in Moodle 2 is deprecated and is not available by default due to the problems described above. When a site is upgraded from 1.9, all course files are migrated into new file areas and the old course files area is hidden from view.

Internally, files are stored in a "file pool" of blobs on disk with numbers for names. All the actual names and metadata are stored in a database.

Typical Moodle 2 workflow

  1. Edit a text or activity
  2. Use the filepicker to select the file from a local or remote repository

The file is then copied to Moodle and stored securely with the text or activity.

More advanced Moodle 2 workflow

  1. Edit a text or url resource
  2. Use the filepicker to select the file from a local or remote repository and select "link"

The file URL is then embedded into the text and when viewed, the media comes directly from the repository.

Why is it better?

Integrity

If a forum post with attached files (eg images) is imported into another course, then the files move with it. Anyone in the new course will also see the files. This makes activities more portable and re-usable.

If two activities use the same file and one is deleted, then the other one is not affected.

There should be fewer problems where everything looks fine for teachers but doesn't appear for students.

Security

Access to files is governed the same way as the items that they attached to, which is what people expect. All files are now controlled by the settings in the Moodle interface, including roles and permissions.

Re-usability

It is now fast and easy to re-use files across Moodle. Using the file picker, a recently-used file may easily be chosen, or a file from any course a user has access to.

Backups

Backups of activities are small and accurate, because Moodle detects exactly what files to include. This is important for things like Community hubs, where sharing of courses and parts of courses will become more common, and sharing every file in a course may be inappropriate.

Internationalization

There are no restrictions on file names - even files with names in Japanese may be used.

Repositories

The world is turning towards better management of files and less "dumping" of files into disks. There are many repository solutions out there that focus on better management of files, with versioning, workflow, metadata and other features.

How to duplicate Moodle 1.x functionality in 2

If you really want to mimic older workflows in 2 then there are some solutions, although none of them are exactly the same.

FTP files into Moodle

  1. One way to do this is via the File system repository. This allows you to turn a directory on the server into a repository of files within the Moodle file picker. You can then use any server technology to access that directory from a desktop, such as FTP, Samba, Appleshare or WebDAV.
  2. See the direct WebDAV plans below.

Change a file once and have it update in many places

  1. See Working with files for the areas in which this is possible.

WebDAV support for course files and user files

This would effectively replace direct FTP access to the file system with WebDAV access to the "virtual" file system inside these file areas in Moodle. It would allow people to update files without going near the web GUI.