Files available to specific sections in a course

[AnitaCunningham]

Hi, I would like to make some specific files available by section.  I cannot see how to do this - they are not assignments, they are more like readings.   One idea I had was to put in a discussion or announcement for that section only but it feels a bit of a hack.  Is there a cleaner way of doing this?  Thanks

[Chris_Hofer]

Good morning, @AnitaCunningham ...

The "Files" area of your course does not allow you to set permissions on the files such that only specific sections in your course can gain access to them.  I think your suggestion of utilizing Announcements or Discussions is a good one.

Another idea that occurred to me was to use Groups.  It might not be the most elegant and would take a little time to set up.  You could create a Group Set in your course, and then within that Group Set, you could create groups that are the same names as your sections. You would assign your students to these groups.  Then, you can go to their individual group home pages, and there you would see a "Files" area that is only for that particular group.  Here are the four Guides on how to do all of this:

• How do I add a group set in a course?
• How do I manually create groups in a group set?
• How do I manually assign students to groups?
• How do I view content and student activity within a group as an instructor?

Anyway...hopefully this will give you some ideas to try.  Sing out if you have any questions...thanks!

[SusanNiemeyer · Accepted solution]

@Chris_Hofer  Using Groups is certainly a "work around," but I think my online students would be confused by this. They would have to go into their Groups and locate "Files" in their Group Navigation Bar. My guess is that less than 50% would be successful.

I think the better "work around" is to create an ungraded Assignment for that section and embed the File into it. Put these Assignments inside your course Modules. Only the section designated for that Assignment will actually see it.

[Chris_Hofer]

@SusanNiemeyer ...

Agreed.  Like I said, it's probably not the most elegant solution...but I wanted to provide an option for @AnitaCunningham in case this was of interest to her.  🙂

[CindyTaylor_DH]

I have this question and to me ungraded assignments is such a clunky method particularly when other adults monitor assignment progress.  This is a pretty basic request and if assignments can handle it, then so should files.