Upload documents for sharing

Updated 17 Aug 2021

Use the Document Sharing tool to upload and share document, presentation, audio, and video files, and then set up categories to store the uploaded files. Others can then download the files you uploaded. You can later edit a shared file to change its description or upload a new version of it, or you can delete it.

Students can use this feature to upload their own documents and share them with the entire class or with the instructor only.

Tips:

  • Do not use special characters, such as & $ % # @ * ( ) or spaces in the folder and file names you create or upload.
  • There is no storage space limit for a course, but try to keep each file you upload smaller than 10 MB to ensure that it uploads successfully.
  • To include content that is larger than 10 MB, upload the file to an external server then link to the URL from a Linked Content menu item or add a website link on a content page.
  1. Select Document Sharing from the course menu or after selecting Course Tools or Communication Tools.
  2. Under Categories, choose the category to contain the uploaded document.
  3. Select Upload Document.
  4. Select Instructor Only to hide the uploaded document from your students or Entire Class to share the document with your students or if you want to link to the document from other content items and assignments in your course. (If Share is set to Instructor Only, students cannot open the document from a link.)
  5. For Find new file, select Choose File, locate the file to be uploaded, and select Open.

    Note: If you want to link to uploaded documents, do not upload the same file name more than once within a course.

  6. If the selected file is a zip file and you want it unzipped as part of the upload process, select Unzip .ZIP file.
  7. Select Upload Document.
  8. Enter a Description and select Add Entry.

    The document appears in the list.

  1. Under Categories, choose the category containing the documents to be downloaded.
  2. In the list, choose the documents you want to download.
  3. Select Download Documents.
  4. Save the documents.

To edit a shared document, you can upload a new version of a document or change its description.

  1. Under Categories, choose the category of the document to be edited.
  2. In the list below, select the Edit icon  for the document to be edited.
  3. Select Instructor Only to hide the uploaded document from your students or Entire Class to share the document with your students or if you want to link to the document from other content items and assignments in your course. (If Share is set to Instructor Only, students cannot open the document from a link.)
  4. For Replace file with, select Choose File, choose the file to replace the uploaded file, then select Open.

    Caution: If you edit a document and replace it with a different file name, the document's URL will change and links to that document from other content items or assignments in your course will break. Be sure to use the same file name when updating documents.

  5. Update the Description and Owner of the document if needed.

    The document appears in the list.

If you no longer want to share a document, you can delete it so that it can no longer be downloaded by others.

Caution: If you added links to a deleted document from another content item or assignment in your course, those links will break and students will see an error when selecting them.

  1. Under Categories, choose the category of the document to be deleted.
  2. In the list below, select the Delete icon  for the document to be deleted.

    The document is removed from the list of uploaded documents.