Synopsis

This is how I see the potential of the Server files repository: It provides access to all files that the current user would have access to, anyway. So if the user has permission to see the attachment in the forum, they should be able to see that attachment via Server files repository, too.

Pedagogical use case

• Students in the course are asked to collect as many pictures/photos of their town as possible. The teacher uses Folder or Database or Glossary modules to support that activity
• Students are asked to prepare an essay/report on some places in their town. The teacher uses Assignment or Forum or Workshop to support that activity.
• It is reasonable to expect that while working on their submission in the second activity, students want to re-use the files from the first activity. Server files repository should allow them to pick files from there easily.

Similar scenario appears everywhere when students are involved in the content collection/creation and then they are supposed to work with the content in consequent activities.

Reasoning

I believe that what makes Moodle the Moodle is that the content has always been seen as something that students are supposed to actively work with. Not as something that is just delivered to students via the LMS. Under that perspective, hiding the Server files repository from students (as planned since 2.3) and/or not having it integrated into activity modules would be a regression/bug and should be fixed.