Blocks

John,

   I recommend reading up on the documentation for the file API's

http://docs.moodle.org/dev/File_API

   There is a section called "List area files" that may have what you need.  Although the example is fetching the mod_assignment component and the submissions file area.  You want the component to be course and the filearea to be "any." 

  Hope that helps get your started.

Here is my code

<?php
// This file is part of Moodle - http://moodle.org/
//
// Moodle is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
// it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
// the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
// (at your option) any later version.
//
// Moodle is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
// but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
// MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
// GNU General Public License for more details.
//
// You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
// along with Moodle.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>;.

/**
 * Blog Menu Block page.
 *
 * @package    block
 * @subpackage blog_menu
 * @copyright  2009 Nicolas Connault
 * @license    http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html GNU GPL v3 or later
 */

defined('MOODLE_INTERNAL') || die();
/**
 * The blog menu block class
 */
class block_search_assistant extends block_base {

    function init() {
        $this->title = get_string('pluginname', 'block_search_assistant');
    }

    function instance_allow_multiple() {
        return true;
    }

    function has_config() {
        return false;
    }

    function applicable_formats() {
        return array('all' => true, 'my' => false, 'tag' => false);
    }

    function instance_allow_config() {
        return true;
    }

    function get_content() {
        global $CFG;

        // detect if blog enabled
        if ($this->content !== NULL) {
            return $this->content;
        }

$fs = get_file_storage();
$files = $fs->get_area_files($contextid, 'course', 'any', $submission->id);
foreach ($files as $f) {
    // $f is an instance of stored_file
    echo $f->get_filename();
}


        // Return the content object
        return $this->content;
    }
}

?>