We've added a parent metacourse with the idea that we could upload all resources to this course, then allow child courses to access them from there, rather than have to upload resources to each child course individually. When I enter a child course and try to access a resource I've loaded onto the parent metacourse, I can't find it. Why not??? Help and thanks in advance. Joan
It's a common misconception that metacourses work the way you that expected. Personally, I wish they did! Unfortunately, they don't 
Metacourses give you automatic enrollment, nothing more. That is, students who enroll in a child course are automatically enrolled in the metacourse. To access the metacourse resources, students must navigate to the metacourse page.
You can create links in the child course to resources in the metacourse, but if you have N metacourse resources and M child courses, you'll have to create N x M links. This is tedious and error prone.
Metacourses give you automatic enrollment, nothing more. That is, students who enroll in a child course are automatically enrolled in the metacourse. To access the metacourse resources, students must navigate to the metacourse page.You can create links in the child course to resources in the metacourse, but if you have N metacourse resources and M child courses, you'll have to create N x M links. This is tedious and error prone.
So there is no way to create a main holding area from which common materials may be linked? For example, resource materials on myocardial infarction might be used in 4 different courses, so those exact same resource materials have to be uploaded into each course as a separate resource? Very time and space consuming - is there no work-around? Thanks, Joan
So there is no way to create a main holding area from which common materials may be linked?
That's a different question from the one you originally asked. A metacourse is such a "main holding area from which common materials can be linked." But a metacourse doesn't provide transparent access to the resources, which is what you want.
Unfortunately there is at the moment no single user-friendly solution for the transparent sharing of resources across courses in Moodle. Please vote for MDL-9134
MDL-9134 summarizes the various workarounds that have been used for sharing. In my opinion, making copies is an even worse solution than metacourses.
That's a different question from the one you originally asked. A metacourse is such a "main holding area from which common materials can be linked." But a metacourse doesn't provide transparent access to the resources, which is what you want.
Unfortunately there is at the moment no single user-friendly solution for the transparent sharing of resources across courses in Moodle. Please vote for MDL-9134
MDL-9134 summarizes the various workarounds that have been used for sharing. In my opinion, making copies is an even worse solution than metacourses.
I voted! Now let's hope that my vote in Moodle has more impact than my vote in American politics. I can't seem to get those people to do anything!