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You may have come here after seeing the messages 'Above Large File Omitted' or 'Above Media File Omitted' (shown right).

Certain file types and large files are excluded from the import process to provide a better Moodle experience for staff and students. Excluded file types are: avi, mpv, mov mpg, wmv, m4v, mp4, flv and any file type over 10Mb.

'Above Large File Omitted'

When creating teaching resources it is easy to inadvertently generate very large files. E.g.  Two photographs (taken with a '16 Mega Pixel Camera') added to a presentation or word document can add around 12Mb to a file. On a modern (4G) mobile device this would add approximately 60-90 seconds to the download wait.

Additionally for students studying on our international campuses or at an overseas location (where bandwidth is not as good as across the University campus), waiting a significant amount of time to view a large powerpoint or PDF file can negatively impact the student experience.

To help create a satisfactory experience we automatically omit large files from the content copy process, preventing them being rolled forward.This aids in identification and allows opportunity for making improvements to the filesize moving forward. The Learning Technology Section are able to offer advice and guidance via email in reducing file size.

For staff teaching at our international campuses we have technology that allows the local upload and download of files within Moodle. I.e. Files are uploaded, stored and downloaded on your campus instead of having to traverse the internet to Nottingham. This technology is called Equella and is the recommended way for any files to be added to Moodle, specifically at out international campuses. For more information click here.

Additional Technical Note: The process of copying content involves creates a compressed version of all the materials in your existing module, that is uncompressed into your new module. Where there are large files in a module, the copy process can take some time. Omitting large files from the transfer process means that the content transfer process remains as quick as possible. Large files can still be uploaded directly into the new version of the module. E.g. Where high quality large files are needed. It is recommended to inform students that the files are likely to take sometime to download via a label.

'Above Media File Omitted'

The excluded file types represent all of the different types of video uploaded by staff into Moodle. Each of these file types need differing software (codecs) installed on the end user computer.

Use of video within teaching is a strong growth area and where implemented successfully is highly effective. However feedback from students indicates that they often do not have the necessary codec installed on their computer and are unable to watch. Video playback differs according to the device that you are accessing the course with E.g. Additional software is needed to watch .wmv files on apple devices and .mov files on android devices. 

Finally video files are usually very large and end users need to wait quite some time for the video to become ready on their computers, especially on mobile devices.

To help standardise the experience the University has integrated Moodle with a video handling system called Mediaspace. Mediaspace is the recommended way to handle video and audio in Moodle.

How to add video and audio in Moodle