What is a Resource?

A resource is an item that a teacher can use to support learning, such as a file or link. Moodle supports a range of resource types that teachers can add to their courses. In edit mode, a teacher can add resources via the ‘Add an activity or resource link. Resources appear as a single link with an icon in front of it that represents the type of resource.

Administrators can decide whether or not to force teachers to add descriptions for each resource by enabling or disabling a site-wide setting in Administration > Plugins > Activity modules > Common settings.

Book – Multi-page resources with a book-like format. Teachers can export their Books as IMS CP (admin must allow teacher role to export IMS)
File – A picture, a pdf document, a spreadsheet, a sound file, a video file
Folder – For helping organize files and one folder may contain other folders
IMS content package – Add static material from other sources in the standard IMS content package format
Label – Can be a few displayed words or an image used to separate resources and activities in a topic section, or can be a lengthy description or instructions
Page – The student sees a single, scrollable screen that a teacher creates with the robust HTML editor
URL – You can send the student to any place they can reach on their web browser, for example, Wikipedia

Managing resources in several languages:
The restriction by language availability condition additional plugin makes it easy to show an English resource only to English users and an activity in French only to French-speaking students. See this forum thread for an example.

Some Frequently Asked Questions that we often get asked are:

How can I prevent students from downloading my course files such as pdf or word-processed documents?
You can’t. There are various ways to make it more difficult for them, and you can make them sign a declaration not to download them, but determined users can always find ways to save or download your course materials. If all else fails they can make a screencast or screenshot, or use the camera on a mobile device. If it is essential that your students do not download your course materials then do not offer the materials in your course. See also the forum discussion Regarding uploaded content protection.

How can I stop uploaded files from being cached when I update them?
By default, Moodle adds a “cache-control” header to all files that are sent. The default period is 24 hours. You can reduce this or eliminate it entirely (set to zero) by adding the following line to your config.php (default value shown).

At Enovation, we pride ourselves on being one of the longest-standing Moodle Partners in Ireland with a strong team of Moodle experts, so if you have any questions you can email us at [email protected]. Our partnership with Moodle has enabled us to create powerful, flexible, and robust learning experiences for clients across numerous industries. To book a demo with one of our Moodle experts contact us today.