How to upload a file

This is probably the most boring blog entry I will ever write. Or at least I hope it is.

The university’s content management / e-learning / blended learning platform is clunky at best, and although I wouldn’t deny that it offers some useful functionality, it is positively user-hostile when it comes to pretty simple tasks such as uploading files. Here is the procedure, which I have moaned about on numerous occasions, most recently today….

1. Log in to the e-learning platform
2. Click on “Content management”
3. Click on “Course management”
4. Click on “Course manager”
5. Enter search term in the box, or look under “My content”
6. Select course (checkbox)
7. Click on “Edit”
8. Click on “Contents”
9. Select the folder you want to upload your file to (checkbox)
10. Click on “Create”
11. Prompt: Please choose element type
12. Select “Content”
13. Click “OK”
14. Prompt: Where do you want to paste the components?
15. Select before, after or in the hierarchy below the selected element
16. Click “OK”
17. Prompt: Please choose a category
18. Select from animation, audio, CBT or twelve other categories
19. Click “OK”
20. Prompt: Please choose a language
21. Select from English (US), English (GB), German etc. (note: only German offers full functionality so it’s not worth choosing anything else!)
22. Click “OK”
23. New popup window: Type in title of file and name of creator (these are mandatory, other fields may also be filled in)
24. Click on “Upload” and select the file you want by the usual route – clickety-click-click
25. Click “OK”
26. Another new popup window appears with the  prompt: File successfully uploaded
27. Click “OK” – second popup window closes
28. Click on “Save” – first popup window closes
29. Prompt: Your changes have been saved successfully. Would you like to go to the Release Manager now?
30. Click “No” (note: I’m not even sure what the Release Manager is, only that I’ve never experienced the need to go there)
31. Hey presto, your file now appears in the place you wanted to insert it
32. AND NOW……. repeat stages 9-31 to upload another file to the same folder, or – deep joy – go a few steps further back still if you want to add a file to a different course
33. BUT DO NOT FORGET TO CLICK ON “SAVE” BEFORE EXITING ANY GIVEN COURSE, OR ALL THIS WILL HAVE BEEN IN VAIN!

Today I uploaded 22 audio files to one folder for one course. It took me over half an hour.

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