Materials

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Overview

The Materials feature provides a centralized repository for sharing educational resources across your academic community. Whether you’re distributing lecture notes, sharing datasets, or curating useful links, Materials keeps everything organized and accessible.

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Material Types

Campus supports five material formats:

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Uploading Materials

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File Upload Process

1. Navigate to the Materials page
2. Click Upload Material
3. Fill in the material details:
   • Title: Descriptive name (required)
   • Description: What the material contains
   • File: Select your file to upload
   • Course Code: Optional course association
   • Tags: Keywords for discoverability
   • Visibility: Who can access the material
4. Click Upload

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Sharing Links

For external resources:

1. Select Link as the format
2. Enter the Link URL
3. Provide a title and description
4. Save the material

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Visibility Levels

Control who can access your materials:

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Choosing Visibility

Public - Best for:

• Open educational resources
• General reference materials
• Publicly available datasets

Institution - Ideal for:

• Campus-specific resources
• Internal documentation
• Shared teaching materials

Course - Perfect for:

• Lecture slides
• Assignment descriptions
• Course readings
• Lab instructions

Group - Use for:

• Project-specific files
• Team collaboration documents
• Research group datasets

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Organizing Materials

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Tags

Add tags to make materials discoverable:

• Use multiple tags per material
• Tags appear as clickable filters
• Common tags: subject names, topics, semester
• Example: statistics, midterm, python, tutorial

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Course Codes

Associate materials with courses:

• Enter the course code (e.g., “CS 101”, “BIO 230”)
• Materials appear in course-specific searches
• Students can filter by their enrolled courses

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Search Terms

The system automatically generates search terms from:

• Title
• Description
• Tags
• Course codes
• File names

This ensures materials are easily discoverable through search.

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Finding Materials

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Search

1. Use the search bar on the Materials page
2. Enter keywords, titles, or tags
3. Results update in real-time
4. Filters narrow results by format or visibility

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Browsing

Explore materials through:

• Format filters: View only documents, slides, etc.
• Recent uploads: See the latest additions
• Most accessed: Popular materials (tracked via access logs)
• My uploads: Materials you’ve shared

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Pagination

The materials library uses pagination:

• Default: 24 materials per page
• Navigate with Previous/Next buttons
• Page numbers show your position

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Downloading Materials

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Download Process

1. Click on a material card
2. Review the material details
3. Click Download to save the file
4. Or click View to preview in the browser

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File Formats

Materials are served with original:

• File names
• MIME types
• File extensions

This ensures compatibility with your local applications.

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Access Tracking

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Analytics

The system tracks:

• Number of views per material
• Download counts
• Access timestamps
• User access patterns

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Privacy

Access logs record:

• Material ID
• User ID
• Access timestamp
• Action type (view/download)

This data helps instructors understand resource usage.

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Managing Your Materials

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Editing Materials

Update material information:

1. Navigate to My Uploads
2. Click on a material to edit
3. Modify title, description, tags, or visibility
4. Save changes

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Deleting Materials

Remove materials you’ve uploaded:

1. Open the material details
2. Click Delete
3. Confirm deletion

Deleted materials:

• Are permanently removed from storage
• Cannot be recovered
• Disappear from all user searches

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Permissions

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Who Can Upload

All authenticated Campus users can:

• Upload materials
• Set visibility levels
• Manage their own uploads

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Who Can Access

Access is determined by:

• Material visibility setting
• User’s authentication status
• Course enrollment (for course-scoped materials)
• Group membership (for group-scoped materials)

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Moderation

System administrators can:

• View all materials
• Delete inappropriate content
• Update visibility settings
• Track usage analytics

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Use Cases

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Course Instructors

Upload weekly materials:

• Monday: Lecture slides
• Wednesday: Lab instructions
• Friday: Reading assignments
• Tag with week number and topic

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Research Groups

Share research assets:

• Datasets from experiments
• Analysis scripts and notebooks
• Literature review documents
• Presentation slides for conferences

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Student Organizations

Distribute resources:

• Meeting agendas and minutes
• Workshop materials
• Training guides
• Event planning documents

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Librarians and Staff

Curate collections:

• Campus policies and forms
• Research guides
• Tutorial videos
• Useful external links

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Best Practices

File Naming

• Use descriptive, version-numbered names
• Include dates for time-sensitive materials
• Avoid special characters in filenames
• Example: CS101_Week3_Slides_v2_2026-02-15.pdf

Descriptions

• Explain what the material covers
• Mention prerequisites or dependencies
• Include any special instructions
• Note the intended audience

Tags

• Use consistent tag naming
• Include both general and specific tags
• Add semester/year for time-based materials
• Example: machine-learning, python, tutorial, fall-2026

Visibility

• Default to the most restrictive appropriate level
• Review visibility settings periodically
• Update when course/group membership changes
• Consider copyright and licensing

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File Size Limits

The system supports various file sizes:

• Small documents: < 5 MB
• Presentations: < 50 MB
• Large datasets: < 500 MB
• Videos: Contact administrators for large video hosting

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Searching Tips

Keyword Search

• Searches title, description, tags, and course codes
• Use specific terms for better results
• Try different synonyms if needed

Filter by Format

• Narrow results to specific types
• Combine with keyword search
• Filter multiple formats simultaneously

Course-Specific Search

• Enter course code in search
• Materials tagged with that code appear first
• Include semester for historical materials

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Accessibility

For Uploaders

• Add descriptive titles
• Write clear descriptions
• Include text alternatives for images
• Provide transcripts for video materials

For Users

• Materials list includes accessible markup
• Screen reader support for navigation
• Keyboard shortcuts for browsing
• High contrast mode compatible