How do I upload a material (PDF, image, audio, video) and organise it?

Uploading a material

The files are sent one at a time, in the order of the list. Each row goes from “Waiting” to “Uploading…”, then to “Uploaded” or “Refused”. A refused file does not stop the ones that follow: the reason for the refusal appears under its name, and the final summary gives the number of files uploaded and refused.

During the upload, the screen asks you to stay on the page (“Do not leave the page while uploading: the remaining files would not be sent.”). The files already uploaded stay in place if you leave it anyway. An uploaded material is not open to anyone: to offer it to your students, follow sharing a material with my students.

Formats and sizes

Each file has a maximum size, which depends on its type:

• PDF: 50 MB at most.
• Image: 20 MB at most, in JPEG, PNG, GIF or WebP format.
• Audio: 200 MB at most, in MP3, WAV, OGG or M4A format.
• Video: 500 MB at most, in MP4 or WebM format.

An image wider than 1600 px is downsized before upload, and the original is not kept (“Pictures wider than 1600 px are downsized before upload; the original is not kept.”). The screen shows this under the drop zone. So keep the original on your side if you need it.

What the upload asks you

Two messages can appear before the “Upload” button.

• The question about the recording of a class. It is only asked for an image or a video, never for a PDF or an audio file. Until you have answered it, “Upload” stays greyed out (“Answer the question above first.”). With “No”, the material has no end date: it lasts until you delete it. With “Yes”, the screen warns that the recording may not be shared with anyone other than the students who attended that class, and that it will be deleted automatically three months after the upload, a date the students will see. A single answer applies to the whole batch: it covers all its images and all its videos.
• The warning for an audio file or a video. It appears as soon as such a file is in the list. Its text is as follows: “Do not include your students in this file: we advise against it. TestFLE staff have access to every uploaded document and may review it for moderation.”

Organising your materials

The folders, materials and card decks of “My materials” are organised in the same tree. The breadcrumb trail, above the list, starts at “Root” and follows the folders you open.

• Creating a folder. In the “My materials” header, type the name in the “New folder” field, then click the “Create folder” icon (the Enter key does the same). The folder is created inside the one you have open. Two folders in the same place cannot have the same name, whatever the capital letters.
• Renaming. Click the “Rename” pencil on the row, change the name, then click “Save” (Enter) or “Cancel” (Esc). For a material, TestFLE puts the original extension back if the new name does not have it: “Plan” becomes “Plan.pdf” for a PDF.
• Moving. Click the “Move” icon on the row of a material or a deck. The “Move the material” window (or “Move the deck”) asks “Choose the destination folder.” and offers the “Root” then your folders, with the current folder marked “(current folder)”. Choose the destination, then click “Move”. A message confirms that the material has been moved to that folder.

The screen does not offer to move a folder. To put a folder somewhere else, create the folder you want where you want it, move the materials into it one by one, then delete the old folder once it is empty.

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Removing a material

The deletion is immediate and cannot be undone: the file is erased from the server, and the screen offers no way to restore it (“The file will be permanently deleted from the server: this action is irreversible.”). The space it took up is freed.

A folder is deleted with the “Delete (empty folder only)” bin on its row, with no confirmation window. If the folder still contains a subfolder, a material or a card deck, the screen refuses (“The folder is not empty: empty it first.”). To go back, create a folder with the same name again.

Adding a sound or a video to a page of a PDF

The PDF itself cannot be edited. The screen only lets you attach an audio file or a video to a page, which the student plays from a “Listen” or “Watch” button under the page.

The media accepts the audio and video formats of the upload (MP3, WAV, OGG, M4A, MP4, WebM), with the same maximum sizes. Without text, the student’s button says “Listen” or “Watch”. The text has 80 characters at most. A page carries six media at most (“This page already carries 6 media, the maximum.”).

To change the text of a button, edit it in the page’s row, then click “Save the text”. To remove a media, click its bin, then “Remove” in the “Remove this media from the page?” window: its file is then deleted, with no way back.

The “Edit the document” button only appears for a PDF you can edit, that is, your own, or the school’s if you are an administrator. It only exists on a tablet or a computer. On a phone, the screen says that a material is edited from a tablet or a computer.

The school’s materials and your own

The library brings together two sections. “School materials” gathers the materials uploaded by the school’s administrator, such as “Les sons de la lecture.pdf” uploaded by Hélène Vautrin. You can view them, open the file, share them with your students and track their reading, but you cannot upload, rename, move or delete them. This section therefore has no folder field and no upload button.

“My materials” is your own space: you upload, organise, rename, move and delete there as you please. Your colleagues do not see these materials. As long as it holds no file, the screen says “You have no personal materials or card decks yet.”

If your account is also a school administrator, the screen also lets you manage “School materials”, with the same toolbar as “My materials”.

Storage space

At the top of the library, the “Storage space” gauge shows the space used, the total space and the number of materials. It counts the whole school, not just your files: the school’s materials and those of every teacher, as well as the images and sounds of the card decks and the media attached to pages. The total space is 50 GB by default, and it can be set differently for a school.

From 80% full, the gauge’s bar changes colour and the screen shows “Your storage is more than 80% full: consider deleting unused materials or requesting an extension.” Uploading remains possible up to the limit. Deleting a material frees the space it took up at once.

A class recording

A material uploaded with the answer “Yes” carries, on its row, the badge “Class recording, deleted on” followed by the date. This date is set at upload, three calendar months later: a recording uploaded on 6 November is deleted on 6 February. Students read it on their side (“Available until”), as opening a library document describes.

On the date shown, students no longer see the material, then the file is deleted automatically from the server, as the screen announces. The screen does not let you change the answer after the upload, or push the date back. To correct an answer given by mistake, delete the material and upload it again with the right answer, then open the access again. If a batch mixes a class recording and ordinary materials, make two uploads, since the answer applies to all the images and videos in the batch.

Renaming and moving: what does not change

Renaming or moving a material changes neither its access nor its tracking. The students it is open to find it under its new name or in its new folder the next time they open “My library”. A material moves within its own section: a material from “My materials” cannot go into “School materials”, or the other way round. The move window only offers the folders of the section anyway.

Card decks are renamed and moved in the same way, with the “Rename” and “Move” icons on their row. Creating them is described in creating a card deck.

What happens to a deleted material

As soon as it is deleted, the material disappears from “My library” for all the students who had access to it. You have nothing to close by hand beforehand: since the material no longer exists, its access no longer has any effect, and its row, with its tracking and its notes, disappears from your screen.

If a card deck was linked to this material, students no longer get it through that link. Those you had opened it to directly keep it. The audio files and videos attached to the pages of a PDF are deleted with it.

Who sees what

All the school’s teachers see “School materials”. Your personal materials stay invisible to your colleagues. The school’s administrator, however, sees them all from their own space, and can delete some; they cannot upload any on your behalf, edit them, or open them to students.

If the upload is refused

Your browser’s file picker only offers the accepted formats, but a file dragged into the zone is not filtered: the server is then the one that refuses it. Each refusal appears under the name of the file, which gets the “Refused” status.

• An unknown format is refused (“Unsupported file type (PDF, image, audio or video).”).
• A file that is too large for its type is refused (“File too large for this media type (…): … MB at most.”, with the type of the file in brackets and its maximum size). Make the file smaller, or upload a lighter version of it.
• A file whose content does not match its extension is refused (“The file’s content does not match its extension.”). Renaming a file does not change its format: it has to be converted.
• A file with no content is refused (“Empty file.”).
• When the library space is full, the screen gives the space used and the space available (“Not enough library space:” followed by the GB used, the quota and the MB available), then advises you to delete materials or to request an extension.
• If the school has not chosen the Library option, the page shows “This module is not enabled for your institution.”

If organising is refused

• A folder cannot take the name of another folder in the same place (“A folder with this name already exists here.”). Choose another name.
• A folder that still contains something cannot be deleted (“The folder is not empty: empty it first.”). Move or delete its content, including the card decks and the subfolders.