If your domain has Apache with SSL running on the LON-CAPA server where you access your Authoring Space (i.e., URLs begin https://) and your Domain Coordinator has enabled webDAV access for users with author or co-author roles, then you will be able to connect to an Authoring Space using webDAV.
A webDAV connection allows you to mount the Authoring Space directory tree as an external volume. You can then use your own laptop/desktop computer's file management tools and applications to copy, move, edit and delete files (including dragging and dropping folders, etc.).
The requirement to obsolete published files before moving or deleting them, which applies to the regular web browser-based management of Authoring Space, also applies in the webDAV environment. Moving and deleting directories in the webDAV environment is prohibited if the directory, or any (nested) subdirectory contains a non-obsolete published resource.
Given the ability to easily delete unpublished content in webDAV (without a mechanism to reverse the deletion), it is important that you are especially careful when working in the webDAV environment with this type of content.
When you display the contents of a directory in Authoring Space using webDAV you may see additional files, with extensions .log, .save, .bak etc. for each LON-CAPA .problem file. You can view the contents of these files but you will not be able to modify or delete them. These files are created by LON-CAPA when using the web GUI. For example, a .log file, which records publication history, is updated whenever you use "Publish" to copy a file from Authoring Space to Resource Space, and .bak files enable use of the LON-CAPA "Undo" button in regular web browser-based editing in Authoring Space.