Section 3.2. Create Link to File or Web Site


3.2. Create Link to File or Web Site

You don't have to create all of your content in Moodle. You can also upload and store any digital content that you have created in other applications. Documents you create in a word processor or presentation package can be shared with students in your course. You can also easily add links to other web sites to give your students access to important web resources.

3.2.1. Uploading Other Documents

Although it's easy to generate content directly in Moodle, you can also upload any type of electronic file you like. All you need to do is make sure your students can access it with the appropriate software on their computers.

Once you've added a file to your files area, you can easily add it as a resource for your students. There are two resource types you can use to add files. The first method is to add an "Uploaded File" resources (see Figure 3-4):

  1. In Editing Mode, select "Add Link to File or Web Site" from the Resource menu from the content block where you want to add the link to the file.

    Figure 3-4. Adding a new resource


  2. On the Edit page, click the "Choose or upload a file" button. A new window will pop up with the files area directory structure.

  3. Find the file you want to add in the files area. You can also upload a new file here if you'd like .

  4. On the right side of the files list, you will see a "Choose" link in bold (see Figure 3-5). Click that link. The Files window will close, and the path to the file will be entered into the filename.

  5. You can choose to display the file in a new pop-up window. Most of the time, you won't need to worry about this with uploaded content.

  6. The name of the resource will now be an active link in the content block.

Figure 3-5. Choose file link


3.2.2. Adding a Directory

The other option for displaying files is to create a link to the entire files area or to a subset of the directory structure. To add a file directory:

  1. In Editing Mode, select "Display a Directory" in the Resource menu from the content block where you want to add the link to the file.

  2. On the Edit page (see Figure 3-6), select the folder you want the students to be able to browse. If you leave the default Main files directory selected, students will be able to browse the entire course files area.

  3. When a student clicks on the resulting link, he will see a list of all the files in that folder, as shown in Figure 3-7. He will be able to browse any folders underneath it.

Figure 3-6. Display a directory


Figure 3-7. Viewing a directory


3.2.3. Creating Links to Other Web Sites

Creating links to other web sites is very similar to adding your own HTML . If the address of the page you want to link to isn't simple, such as http://www.moodle.org/, it's probably best to cut and paste it from the address bar of your web browser. That way, you're not typing a weird, long URL into the link text box.

To add a link to another web site:

  1. Click Turn Editing Mode On.

  2. Select "Link to a file or web site" from the Resource menu in a Topic or Schedule block.

  3. Give the new link a name and Summary in the fields at the top of the screen, as shown in Figure 3-8.

  4. In the location field, enter the address of the page you want to link to. If you want to look for the address, click the Search button, and Moodle will open a new window and take you to Google.

  5. After you have selected the options you want, click Save Changes.

Figure 3-8. Adding a new web link


After you enter the link, you'll see the name of the resource listed in the content block. It is now an active link. If you've selected the window pop-up option, a new window will pop up when the user clicks the link.

3.2.4. Parameters

When you create a link to another web site, you can also easily send data about the student and the course to the receiving site. For example, if you want to create a link to another site in your university that use the same username as your Moodle site, you can send the student and the student's username to the other server. This makes it easier to utilize other dynamic web sites that share data with your Moodle site.

To send data to another server using parameters:

  1. At the bottom of the link page, click the "Show settings" button next to the parameters.

  2. Select the data you want to send from the list shown in Figure 3-9.

  3. The variable name is the name of the variable that the receiving server is expecting. For example, if you're sending the student's username and the server wants a variable called userID, select username in the parameter list and put userID in the Variable name field.

Figure 3-9. Parameter list




Using Moodle
Using Moodle: Teaching with the Popular Open Source Course Management System
ISBN: 059652918X
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 113

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