Online Teaching Resource Library: Keep Class Files Ready to Use

An online teaching resource library is one place where you store the worksheets, slides, images and videos you teach with, so you can find them in seconds and open them in a live class. In Educastic this is My Library: upload a file once, then open it on the whiteboard whenever you need it.

Most online teachers lose time in the same way. The worksheet is in an email, the slides are in a download folder and the video is on another laptop. Five minutes into the lesson, students are watching you search. A library fixes that because every file you teach with lives in one list that the whiteboard can read.

This guide explains what to keep in your library, how to add and organise files, and how to put them on the board during class.

What is an online teaching resource library?

An online teaching resource library is a personal, searchable collection of the files you use to teach, stored online so you can reach them from any lesson. It is different from a shared drive full of folders: the point is speed in class, not long-term archiving.

In Educastic, My Library sits in the teacher dashboard and is connected to the whiteboard. A file you add there can be opened on the board in a live session without downloading it first.

What can you store in Educastic's My Library?

Educastic's My Library stores the kinds of files teachers use every day:

• Documents: PDFs, Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and Excel spreadsheets.
• Images: photos of textbook pages, diagrams, scanned handouts and screenshots.
• Videos: short explainers or clips you want to play in class.

The library page filters by All, Images, Documents and Videos, so mixed file types never get in the way. Your class recordings sit next door, in the My Recordings tab.

How do you add files to My Library?

You add files to My Library from the teacher dashboard, several at a time.

1. Open My Library from the sidebar of your Educastic dashboard.
2. Click Upload Media.
3. In the Add Attachment window, choose files or drag and drop them into the box.
4. Click Save. The files appear in your library list.

There is a second, easier route: when you upload a file to the whiteboard during a class, Educastic also adds the original to your My Library. The worksheet you used on Monday is already waiting for Thursday's group.

How do you find the right file quickly?

Find files quickly by combining a clear file name with My Library's search, filter and sort tools.

Search only works as well as your file names. A simple pattern pays off fast: subject, topic, type and level, for example Maths - Fractions - Worksheet - Year 5.pdf. Rename files before you upload them, because the name you upload is the name you will search for in class.

How do you open a library file on the whiteboard during class?

Open a library file on the board from the whiteboard's file menu, without leaving the lesson.

1. In the whiteboard header, click Load File to Whiteboard (the folder icon).
2. Choose My Library. A window lists your files.
3. Type in Search here or filter by All, Images, Documents or PDF.
4. Tick one or more files and click Open.

Each file opens in its own board tab, ready to annotate. Word and other documents convert to PDF as they open, so a worksheet you wrote in a word processor behaves like any PDF. Videos work differently: use Play Video in the same menu to pick a video from your library and play it for the class.

How should you organise teaching files for online classes?

Organise teaching files around the lessons you actually teach, and clean the library regularly.

• Prepare before class. Upload the files for next week's lessons on the weekend, so class time is spent teaching.
• One file per activity. Split a long booklet into the pages you will really use. Shorter files open faster and keep each board tab readable.
• Keep a clean copy. Keep the blank worksheet in your library and annotate it on the board. You can download the annotated pages from the session afterwards.
• Delete what you no longer use. Tick files and use Delete Selected to remove several at once.

A common mistake is treating the library as a backup of everything you own. Keep it to the files you teach with this term, and it stays fast to search.

Where else can you reuse library files?

Library files are reusable beyond live classes. When you build a course, the materials section and each lesson have an Add from Library option, and when you build a series, each step of the sequence can also use Add from Library. A file you upload once can serve a live lesson, a course and a series.

One limit to know: a file that is part of a series cannot be deleted from My Library while the series uses it, so learners never lose access to a step.

For a step-by-step guide to marking up the files you open, see how to annotate a PDF in an online class.

Frequently asked questions

What files can I keep in My Library? PDFs, Word, PowerPoint and Excel files, images and videos. Class recordings appear in the separate My Recordings tab.

Do files I upload during class go to My Library? Yes. When you upload a file to the Educastic whiteboard during a session, the original is also added to your My Library.

Can I open several library files at once? Yes. Tick several files in the My Library window on the whiteboard and click Open; each one opens in its own board tab.

Can I use library files in courses and series? Yes. The course builder and the series sequence both have an Add from Library option.

Does My Library cost extra? No. Educastic includes all of its teaching features in the free version.

Build your library before your next class

Upload the three files you use most this week to My Library, then open one on the Educastic online whiteboard and see how quickly a lesson starts when nothing needs finding.

Start your library free