TABLE OF CONTENTS
About Course Size Limits
By default myLesley courses have a 5 GB size limit and communities have a 50 MB size limit. Once you have reached the maximum size limit you will no longer be able to upload or attach files. This will not affect your students' or community members' ability to post content.
This article will walk you through best practices for managing your course/organization files and provide some tips for reducing your file's size before uploading to myLesley.
Managing Course/Organization Files
All files (documents, PDFs, images, video, etc.) that you upload into myLesley are stored in your Course or Organization's Content Collection. All files stored in the Content Collection contribute to the overall size of your course. As a best practice, you should re-use files whenever necessary, overwrite files rather than upload another version of your file, and delete unnecessary our outdated files by deleting them from your Content Collection.
Reuse Files
Are you linking to the same file or image multiple times in your course? Instead of uploading the same file multiple times (and creating multiple copies in the Content Collection), upload it once and then use the Browse Course function to add it to multiple places.
When you click the Add Attachment or Insert/Edit Image button you will see multiple options for adding the file. Select Browse Course.
This will bring you to your Content Collection. Select your file and click Submit.
This will create a new link to your file in myLesley.
Replace/Overwrite Files
Do you need to make changes to your file? Instead of re-uploading your file in myLesley (and creating duplicate copies in the Content Collection), overwrite your file. This will replace the file in your content area as well as in the Content Collection.
Locate your file in your myLesley course or community and click the chevron next to your file.
This will open a menu. Select Overwrite File.
You will then be prompted to upload the new file. This file will replace your existing file both within your myLelsey content and in your Content Collection.
Delete Files
Do you have extra files in your myLesley course that you no longer need? In order to remove old or duplicate files, you will need to delete them from your Content Collection.
Go to your course Control Panel, select Content Collection and select your course.
This will open your course Content Collection. Here you may view all of the files in your course, delete files, organize your content into folders, download files, and more.
For more information on using the Content Collection, see Organize and Manage the Content Collection.
Tips for Reducing File Size
As a best practice, you should minimize your content's file size prior to uploading to myLesley. This will help keep your course size low from the start. Reducing your file size is also helpful to your students, as downloading large files can be time consuming and take up a lot of space on their hard drive.
Documents (Microsoft Word)
On their own, Word documents generally don't have a large file size. However, once you start adding images the file size increases dramatically. Before uploading your document into myLesley, reduce your file size by compressing your images: Reduce the file size of a picture in Microsoft Office.
PDFs
PDFs can be optimized to reduce file size by compressing images and flattening objects. If you have a large PDF, optimize it before uploading it into myLesley: Optimizing PDFs in Acrobat Pro.
Presentations (PowerPoint)
Does your PowerPoint have a lot of images or media files? These may be contributing to your overall file size. Before uploading your presentation into myLesley, reduce your file size by compressing your images and media files:
If you are creating a narrated PowerPoint, you may also choose to create a narrated presentation using VoiceThread or Kaltura Capture.
Images
If you uploaded your image from a camera or mobile device, resize your image and reduce its file size before you upload it to myLesley. The tool you use may vary based on your device and available apps/software.
Media (video, audio)
As a best practice, you should not upload media (video or audio) files directly into myLesley. This causes issues with players and compatibility across devices. Additionally, these videos will not be captioned, leading to issues with accessibility. Videos also tend to be large files and contribute to the overall size of your course.
Media you created:
If you have created media content or will be creating your media content, we recommend using Kaltura Media. You may use Kaltura to upload media you have already created or record a new video from your webcam or by recording your screen. Instructions for using Kaltura may be found here:
Media created by others:
If you are not the creator of the media or do not have permissions from the publisher, you cannot upload the media into your course. This includes copies of DVDs that you have purchased. If the content exists on the web (ex YouTube, PBS, the library media databases), you may either link to it or embed it in your course.
Do not download and upload media content into myLesley or Kaltura as this is a violation of copyright.
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