How do I prepare my course for a new academic year?

Every instance of a course gets its own course shell. So if a course is offered in the fall semester and again in the winter semester, there will be separate Moodle sections. However, materials can be imported from course to course.

Before the start of an academic year we recommend you review this checklist:

1. Links
   • Check for broken links
2. Dates
   • Update course and activity dates – If you are using the weekly format please ensure that you set the correct course start date.  You will also need to update dates in activities such as ‘Assignments’.
3. Your homepage
   • Make sure your homepage is clearly organised – you can use the summary at the start of each section, text labels and indents.
4. Finally
   • Send a message to your students and let them know that your course is ready for them. If you want to keep students from seeing your course, you can make it hidden.

How can I copy content from an existing Moodle course to a new Moodle course shell?

There are two different ways of doing this.  Which one you use will depend on where you have the courses - if both are in New Moodle you will perform an import. If one in is in Old Moodle and is to be moved to one in New Moodle you will perform a backup and restore.

Import 

Follow this procedure if you are moving course content  from New Moodle to another course that is also in New Moodle.

First, from the course that you want to import to, go to ‘Course administration’ in the ‘Administration’ block of your course and click on ‘Import’.

In the ‘Search’ box type the name of your course that you want to import from and click ‘Search’.

Now select your course and click ‘Continue’.

You will most likely want to leave everything checked on this screen.  Click ‘Next’ if you want to continue to monitor the settings of what will and won’t be imported. Click ‘Jump to final step’ if you are want Moodle to simply move everything from the current course into the new course.

On this screen, you’ll want to deselect ‘Announcements’ as you will already have an ‘Announcements’ in your new course and moving this one over will mean you’ll have two.

Next, Moodle confirms for you what it will be importing before performing the import.

Once you have clicked ‘Perform import’ and assuming the import was successful, you will then see this screen.  You can now return to your course.

Backup and Restore

Follow this procedure if  you are moving course content from a course in Old Moodle to a course in New Moodle.

First, make sure that the course you want to copy is backed up. To do this, go to the ‘Administration’ block and click on ‘Backup’.

Next you will see Backup settings. As part of the default mode, many of these boxes will automatically be checked off for you. Check a box to add it or uncheck a box to remove it from the backup. When you are done click ‘Next’.

Next you can choose what components of your course you want to include in the backup and if you want the existing student data already submitted to the course to be backed up along with it. When finished, click the ‘Next’ button to move on or the ‘Previous’ button to go back a screen.

Now you can review the settings in your course to be backed up and the ones that won’t be backed up. Scroll down the screen to see the complete list.

If everything looks good, then click ‘Perform backup’.

Then click ‘Continue’.

You should now download your backup and save it to your UPEI Google Drive or Dropbox account, or external storage device. 

Now you can restore your old course into your new course. Exit your old course and enter the current or new course into which you want to bring the content of the old course. Under the ‘Administration’ block click on ‘Restore’.

Next find on your computer the backup file you created of your course from Old Moodle and upload it by selecting it from the file menu or dragging and dropping it into the rectangular drag and drop area.

Now you will be asked to confirm what will be restored. Scroll to the bottom and click ‘Continue’. 

Next choose your destination. Go down to the area titled ‘Restore into this course’ and make sure the ‘Merge the backup course into this course’ button is selected.  Then click ‘Continue’.

Now your settings are confirmed. You do not need to make any changes here. Click ‘Next’.

Next choose what specific items from your course you want to restore.  Everything is selected by default. Click ‘Previous’ to go back a screen or click ‘Next’ to move to the next step of the restore.

Moodle will now ask you to review your choices. Once complete, click ‘Perform restore’ at the bottom of the screen.

You will now see a screen with a progress bar of the restore. If successfully completed, you will then see this screen.  Click ‘Continue’ to return to your course home page.

How do I copy course content from one semester to another?

When you want to move the content of a past course in New Moodle to a future instance of the same course in New Moodle you will need to perform an import. When you want to move the content of a past course in Old Moodle to a future instance in New Moodle you will need to perform a backup and restore.