Moodle 101
Linking to Outside Content
Many instructors enjoy utilizing the wealth of multimedia content already available electronically within their course. To share electronic resources, Moodle allows instructors to add or embed links to content within a course topic. Examples include links to electronic journal articles, podcasts, YouTube videos, digital films, music, blogs, and websites. Moodle makes it quite easy to include a link to any electronic resource that has a URL.
Pro Tip: If you are sharing from Google Drive (Doc, Sheet, etc), make sure you are updating the link share settings to anyone with the link can view.
Some links are "permalinks," meaning they will always stay the same. For example, Naz.edu is a permalink. Other times, links to content will change. It is the instructor's responsibility to ensure that any links to outside content in a course are functioning. A best practice is to check all links in a course at the start of each semester in order to catch any that are outdated or that link to inaccurate content.
For training purposes, this guide will complete the steps using the example of a YouTube video link.
Step 1: Switch on edit mode.
Step 2: Locate the topic section (or week) in which the content will be located and click +Add an activity or resource.
Step 3: In the pop-up menu, scroll down through the many activity choices to the Resources area and click URL.
Step 4: Enter a title in the Name field.
Step 5: Place the external link in the URL field. Many times users can simply copy and paste the URL from the browser's window. YouTube videos have a "share" option which will generate a link that can be copied and pasted into Moodle.
Step 6: If desired, enter text in the Description field. Including instructions in this field can provide helpful guidance for students.
Step 7: Click the check box if you wish the description to display on the front of the course. If left unchecked, the description will display after they click into the resource.
Note: Another setting users have the power to adjust is how the content is displayed. The display setting defaults to Automatic; this setting opens the link in a different Moodle window where students can then click on the link to open the content. For training purposes, Steps 8-9 provide instructions to change the display settings to embed. This setting will display an embedded video in a separate Moodle page. The change outlined in these steps is optional; you can skip to Step 10 if you wish to leave the default display settings.
Step 8: To adjust the display setting, click the Appearance arrow to expand the menu.
Step 9: Click the Display field and select Embed from the drop-down menu.
Step 10: Click Save and return to the course when finished
Once saved, the URL link will display under the appropriate section. Students must click on the link text to access the content.
