Is it possible to create a link to a folder (that contains files) so that a visitor (in this case students in a workshop) could download the all the files. I need to have several folders with different sets of files for different groups of students.

I guess I'm looking for a built in FTP something or other - is there a widget I can use? If there isn't anything then I'll have to resort to having them use something like Dropbox.

Thanks for your help.

why not create a post for each group, zip the folder they need, upload the files as media files and add it into the post. Then the students can go to the post they need and download the zipped folder.

Did you search wordpress.org for a plugin. A quick search brought up several hits for me.