Why use it?

Folders are useful for storing multiple files together. If you are sharing a lot of files, use folders to avoid long lists of files cluttering up a Moodle page and creating an ‘endless scroll’ problem for your students.

Note: Please ensure that you are not in breach of copyright law when adding folders of files to Moodle e.g. files such as scanned chapters from books or journal articles downloaded from the internet must not be uploaded to Moodle.

Step 1: Add a Folder

Go to the course page and Turn editing on. Scroll to the section where you want your Folder to be displayed, click Add an activity or resource and pick Folder from the Resource tab.

Screenshot of the resource picker with the folder icon highlighted

Choose Folder from the resources and activities picker

Step 2: Settings

Tip: Click on the question mark icon next to any setting to display extra help or click on Moodle Docs for this page link at the bottom of each page in Moodle for accessing context-specific documentation.

General

Provide a Name and, optionally, a Description for the folder. Use a clear, descriptive name for your folder. Use the description field if you wish to provide longer contextual information for students. To display the description next to the folder on your Moodle page, tick 'Display description on course page'.

Content

Method 1 - File picker

Click the Add icon to open the file picker. Click Upload a file, then Choose a file to find the right file on your computer. You will have the option here to change the name by which the file will be saved to Moodle.
Select an appropriate license.
Click Upload this file to complete the upload.
Repeat the process for each file to be included in the folder or add a single zip file containing the files.

Note: Please ensure that you are not in breach of copyright law when adding files to Moodle e.g. files such as scanned chapters from books or journal articles downloaded from the internet must not be uploaded to Moodle.

Method 2 - Drag and drop

Drag a file from a folder and drop it directly into the upload box on the settings screen for your file resource
Repeat the process for each file to be included in the folder, or add a single zip file containing the files.

Screenshot of the drag and drop are for adding files.

Drag and drop a file from your computer to the upload box.

Appearance

In the section marked Display folder contents, choose how you wish folders to appear to students . Click on the question mark icon next to each icon for more information.

On completion, click Save and return to course.

Replacing, removing, or adding files

The contents of a folder can be changed at any time by editing the folder itself.

First, Turn editing on.

Next to the Folder, click on the cog icon and from the dropdown select Edit settings.

Add new files using the method above. To remove an unwanted file, click on the existing file. A window will appear in which you can click on Delete.

Organising files within folders

By default, files in folders will appear in alphabetical order. When viewing the files on Moodle, students can reverse alphabetical order or arrange files by creation date. To ensure your folders are easy to navigate for your students:

Use subfolders where relevant
Name all files and folders clearly
Use a clear file naming system
Make sure files with numerical names also make sense alphabetically. Use a reversed YYMMDD system for dates and preface single digit numbers with a 0. eg:
- 22-03-21 Problem Set.pdf
  22-04-04 Problem Set.pdf
- Wk09 Answers.docx
  Wk10 Answers.docx