Changes to Courses - Microsoft are changing how files can be shared

Microsoft have just informed us of a few changes that could affect how you use Courses.

They’ve decided to retire their ‘File Share Embed Dialog’ from Office for the Web. This means that you’ll no longer be able to upload their file formats such as Powerpoint, Word, Forms and Sway in your Courses area.

Microsoft are expected to make these changes in early to mid-July 2021. However, we recommend you prepare for any updates to take affect from July 1st.

Any courses that already contain Microsoft files will continue to work after the change has taken place. Other file embedding options such as Google Docs and H5P won’t be impacted by this update, and you’ll still be able to use them going forward.

We appreciate that this reduces content options within Courses and we’re already investigating if there are any other ways that we can support you adding Microsoft files within a course.

While we’re investigating, we recommend you use the Microsoft tool by the end of June for any new courses you were planning to create from July, you might want to consider using Google Docs to embed your content. It’s a free web-based solution offering documents, spreadsheets, presentations, drawings and forms. It is also possible to convert Powerpoint presentations into images and then upload them into custom pages within a course.

The changes being made my Microsoft impact embedded files into Courses only and files can still be uploaded as normal.

Thanks for your understanding. Please let us know if you have any feedback about this change.