Problems Accessing Resources

With the start of term fully underway, some students have been reporting problems accessing a few resources on Moodle – for example links to PDF articles, slides, or recordings.

The problem is caused when teaching staff are using links to resources which are stored on archive Moodle pages. These work for the member of staff if they taught on that paper in previous years (because they are enrolled on the archive pages), but not for the students (who are not).

• So for example, you have a Word document you created last year in which you included a link to a PDF of an article on the 2021-22 Moodle page, and you reuse the handout this year. That link will not work for students this year, because you are linking to an archived document.

• So if a student raises problems with any links you have provided, please consider this possibility. If you are creating links to resources for teaching, please give careful consideration to where the resource is actually stored. Ideally you should have the actual PDF on your Moodle page, and not a link. That way the PDF file gets rolled over from year to year, and this problem would not occur.

• Another problem is broken links to legal research platforms. Please note, if you have provided links to legal resource platforms such as Lexis, Westlaw or HeinOnline, you should also try clicking on these links to ensure they still work before you release your resources. You cannot assume that because the link in your handout from previous years has worked, that it will continue to do so, as these platforms often make changes over time.

It’s always a good idea to ask Lizz in the library if she might check your reading list, Moodle page or handout to ensure the links are correct.