The simplest way to share large files with students is one link per course or class that holds everything — lecture recordings, slides, datasets — in folders, which students open without creating an account. Coursework goes the other way through a separate upload link, so submissions land in one folder instead of forty inboxes. Keep the two directions apart and most of the chaos disappears.
I run Yungle, which does both. The method matters more than the tool, and I will be clear about where a learning platform is the better fit.
The two directions of classroom files
Teaching involves files flowing both ways, and they have different needs.
Out to students: recordings, slide decks, reading packs, sample projects, datasets. Large, shared with everyone, needed all term.
In from students: coursework, portfolios, video projects, audio recordings. One per student, often large, needing to arrive in one place before a deadline.
Most frustration comes from forcing both through the same channel — usually email or the learning platform's upload box, which was designed for essays, not a 3 GB film project.
Course material: one place for the term
Students lose links. A term's material scattered across twelve announcement emails means twelve chances to lose it, and a steady trickle of "can you send the week 4 slides again".
Put it all in one place, organised by week or topic, and share that single address at the start of term:
Week 01 — Introduction/Week 02 — Methods/Datasets/Recordings/
On Yungle that is a collection: the folders stay as you built them, students open it on any device without an account, video and PDF play in the browser, and nothing expires unless you set an end date — the end of term is a sensible one.
Coursework: one upload link per assignment
For submissions, reverse the flow. Create an upload link for the assignment, post it where students will see it, and every submission lands in that assignment's folder.
Students need no account, which matters when a class includes guest students or external participants. Every upload is checked for viruses before it reaches you. And because it is one folder per assignment, marking starts with everything in one place rather than with an inbox search.
Ask students to put their name or student number in the filename — Jansen_Portfolio.pdf — so the folder sorts itself.
Big projects: video, audio and design work
Creative and technical subjects produce big files: a short film can be several gigabytes, a design portfolio with source files not much less. Two things make these submissions reliable:
Uploads that resume. A student uploading 4 GB over a flat's shared connection will be interrupted. An upload that picks up where it stopped arrives; one that restarts may never arrive before the deadline.
No re-encoding. Tell students to submit the real file, not a compressed copy squeezed under a limit. How to send large video files is a good link to give them.
When a learning platform is the better answer
Be honest about fit. A learning management system does things a file service does not: grades, rubrics, plagiarism checks, per-student feedback threads, integration with the student record. If you need those, use it for the assessment itself.
Where a file service earns its place is alongside it: the material too big for the platform's limits, the recordings, the project files, the external participants who have no platform account.
Privacy, with young people especially
Student work can include personal data, and with younger students it deserves extra care. Some sensible defaults:
- Set an expiry on submission folders once marking and moderation are done.
- Avoid sharing identifiable student work in public-facing links.
- Know where the files are stored, and check your school's own policy before relying on any tool.
Yungle stores files on servers in Germany, run by a European company, and publishes a data processing agreement. Whether it fits your institution's policy is your institution's call. The page for education sets out what it does and does not do.
A term that runs smoothly
- One collection per course, organised by week.
- One upload link per assignment, landing in its own folder.
- Filenames with student names or numbers.
- Real files, not compressed ones, for project work.
- Expiry dates once marking is done.
If you are also sending material to colleagues or external examiners, how to send a folder of files covers keeping the structure intact.