SPU > Departments > ITS > Online Learning > Posting Course Documents
Posting Course Documents

Creating Folders | Posting Documents | Posting Scanned Journal Articles
Posting Images | Posting Audio or Video Files | Reordering Documents
Moving Documents to Another Folder

The Course Information and Course Documents sections are the most commonly used content areas for posting course materials. The following conventions are recommended for posting documents in these two areas.

Item

Location

Syllabus

Course Information

Course Schedules or Calendars

Course Information

Lecture Notes

Course Documents

Handouts

Course Documents

Homework Assignments

Course Documents *

Supplemental Readings

Course Documents

Worksheets

Course Documents

Tests, Quizzes, and Essay Questions

Course Documents

* Homework assignments should be distributed and collected through the Assignments feature. 

Using Folders to Organize Your Documents

Documents posted in an online course need to be organized so that students can quickly find what they are looking for.  Using folders within your course site to group your documents is beneficial, especially if you post many documents.  It is often appropriate to group documents by type of content (i.e. Lecture Notes), course chronology (i.e. Week 1 Documents), or subject matter (i.e. Resources about Plato). 

To create a folder:

  1. screen capture of control panel buttonLog into your course site.

  2. Click the Control Panel.


    screen capture of content area screen

  3. Click on the content area in which you want to create a folder (i.e. Course Info, Course Docs).

  4. Click the Add Folder button.

    screen capture of folder button

  5. Type a name for the folder.

    screen capture of folder name screen

    You can enter a short description of the folder contents in the Text field, if desired.  

  6. Under the Options section, you may choose to track how often people are viewing the folder.  You may also set a date restriction on the availability of the folder.  It is typically recommended that these dates not be restricted so that students have access to the content throughout the duration of the course.

  7. Click the Submit button.

To add documents to a folder, click on the name of the folder and follow the steps for posting documents.

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Posting Documents

You can post a variety of document types to your course site, including Microsoft Office documents (i.e. Word, PowerPoint, Excel), Adobe Acrobat PDF files, and HTML files (web pages).

Note:  If your Word document contains only normal text, it is possible to save it as a faster-loading HTML document (a web page).  If your Word document has unusual fonts or special characters, you may want to post it as an Acrobat PDF file.  For assistance with converting your document to an Acrobat PDF file, please contact us.

Special Offer:  Because of a software agreement with Microsoft, all current students enrolled in an undergraduate or graduate degree programs, as well as faculty and staff, can obtain Microsoft software for a minimal charge. Students enrolled in the Continuing Education program, taking 5000-level courses, do not qualify for this offer at this time.

To post a document to your course site, please do the following:

  1. Log into your course site.

  2. Click the Control Panel.

  3. Under Content Areas, click on the area in which you want to place the document (i.e. Course Documents).  If you want to post your document in a specific folder, click on the name of the folder.

  4. Click the Add Item button.

    screen capture of item button

  5. Type a name for the document. 
    You can also add a short description or message to accompany your document in the Text field.

  6. Under the Content section, click the Browse button.

    screen capture of content section

  7. Locate the file you want to post, and click Open.

  8. In the Name of Link to File field, you may choose enter the type of file you are posting (i.e. Word Document).  If you don’t enter anything, the file name of your document (i.e. syllabus.doc) will appear as the linked text.

  9. Under Options, you may choose to track who views the document and set date restrictions.  If you do not set a date of restriction, the document will display indefinitely within the course site.  It is generally recommended that date restrictions not be set.

  10. When you're finished, click the Submit button. 

Posting Scanned Journal Articles

We can scan and post printed media, such as journal articles, as Acrobat PDF files. Before we do this, however, we need to make sure we are following fair use copyright regulations. We'll do our best to help you sort through the issues and post your materials. If you are interested in posting a journal article or other printed media in your online course site, please contact us. 

Posting Images

Images can be displayed on your course web site. You must have your image in a web-compatible format (JPEG or GIF), and it should be a reasonable file size as well. If you aren't sure if your image is the right format, contact us. In addition, we can scan photos or slides and save them as image files. Once you have an image, follow the same directions for Posting Documents. 

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Posting Audio or Video Files

If you are interested in posting audio and video files to your course site, please contact us so that we may assist you with converting the media into a web-compatible format. 

Re-ordering Posted Documents

By default, documents appear in the order in which you post them, with the most recent postings added to the bottom of the document listing. To change the order of documents:

  1. Click the Control Panel.

  2. Click on the content area in which you want to rearrange your posted files.

  3. Click on the drop-down menu located to the left of the title of the posted document, and select the number indicating where you want the document to be listed. For example, if you wanted the document to appear at the top, you would select 1. The page will refresh, with the document moved to the place you selected. It will displace other documents down one number

Moving Documents to Another Folder:

You have the option of moving a document from one folder to another. You can also move a document from one course to another. To do so, follow these steps:

  1. Click the Control Panel.

  2. Click on the content area in which the document is located.

  3. When you have located the document, click the Copy button to the right.

  4. Next to Destination Course, choose the course in which you want to post the document.

  5. Next to Destination Folder, click the Browse button.

  6. In the Select Location window that opens, click on the area/folder where you want the document to be posted.  Once you have clicked on a folder, the window will close, returning you to the main window.

  7. You may choose Yes next to Remove item after copy if you are confident in the new location you have selected.  Otherwise, you may choose No and remove the item after having verified that it copied to the desired location.

  8. Click the Submit button.

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