If you’ve used Moodle for the same course (or a very similar one) before, you may want to copy your old Moodle course page and edit it for the new students. Moodle has 2 ways to do this: Backup and Restore, and Import.

Note: Neither of these options copies data from the course Settings page, which includes your number of weeks or topics, your visual theme (if you changed from the default white and purple), the Moodle page's availability to students, and the course Summary text. Before continuing, go to the Moodle page you wish to reuse, and make a note of all of this information.

• Backing up an existing Moodle course page
• Restoring your backed-up data
• Importing individual resources or activities
• Important copyright considerations

Backup and Restore can capture everything in your course – including blocks, labels, and HTML designs.

Backing up your old course

1. Go to the Moodle page you wish to use again.
2. Go to the Administration block and click Backup.
   
3. You will get a list of the Activities and Resources for your course, with a checkbox for each one. By default, everything is selected to be included with the backup. Anything you don’t want to include, you can uncheck.
4. For moving course material to a new semester, you’ll usually want to back up the old course without student data. You can uncheck individual resources or click None at the head of that column to uncheck them all at once. The pulldown menus for Users, User Files, and Grade histories should be set to No (or None). Remember that students may have reasonable expectations that you will notify them before reusing their work or making it available to people outside their class.
5. The pulldown menus for Course files and Site files used in this course should be set to Yes. Logs are optional.
6. Unless you have changed the default student privileges within your course, Backup role assignments can all be unchecked.
7. Click Continue.
8. You will go to a confirmation screen where you can change the name of the backup .zip file, or accept the default. Review the backup data and click Continue if you have what you want.
   • This screen may warn you that the Exercise and Workshop modules cannot be backed up unless you include the user data for those modules. If you are using these, you’ll know – they are complex collaborative activities.
9. You will go to a screen showing progress as Moodle writes the .zip backup file for your course. This may take a while for very large courses, or be instant for smaller ones. Click Continue.

You will be taken to the backupdata folder in the Files list for the old version of your course. Click the title of your backup file to download a copy to your computer. Note where you save it!

Restoring the course onto the new semester

1. Go to the new version of the course.
2. In the Administration block, click Settings, and set the Number of Weeks/Topics to be the same as in the previous version of the course. Make any other desired changes, and click Save Changes. You will be taken back to the course page.
3. In the Administration block, click Restore.
   
4. Click Upload a file.
   
5. Click Browse… and find the .zip file you downloaded (above). Click Upload this file.
   
6. You’ll be taken back to the Files list. To the right of the backup .zip file, click Restore.
   
7. You will go to a screen saying “you are about to start the restore process”. Under “Do you want to continue,” click Yes.
8. You’ll get a confirmation screen. Click Continue.
9. You’ll get a screen of options for your restore, similar to the one you got while making the backup.
   
   1. In the pulldown menu at the top, it’s usually easiest to choose Restore to: Existing course, deleting it first. If you have already worked on the new Moodle page and don’t want to lose your work, choose Existing course, adding data to it.
   2. If you have backed up any resources or activities which you won’t use in the new semester, you can uncheck them here. If you backed up student data, you can uncheck it here so it is not added to the new version of the Moodle page.
10. Click Continue.
11. You’ll get a reminder: Please note that this process can take a long time. Click Restore this course now.
12. You will go to a screen showing progress as Moodle restores the information from the backup file to your new page. This may take a while for very large courses, or be quick for smaller ones. Click Continue.

You will return to the new course’s page. You can now begin editing!

You may need to check the Settings for the course generally and for individual assignments to make sure due dates and instructions are current.

Importing individual resources and activities

You can also reuse only some of the content you’ve used before on Moodle. Maybe you wrote a good quiz for an intro section and want to give it to upper-level students as a refresher, for example. This is easier to do with the Import feature.

You may also find Import easier than Backup and Restore if you only want to move course activities and files between Moodle pages, but you haven’t done (or want to redo) much work with section headings, Labels, graphics, or HTML Blocks on the course page.

1. Go to the new semester version of the course.
2. In the Administration block, click Settings, and set the Number of Weeks/Topics to be the same as in the previous version of the course. Make any other desired changes, and click Save Changes. You will be taken back to the course page.
3. In the Administration block, click Import.
4. You’ll get a list of courses you’ve taught before in a pulldown menu; choose the one you want. Click on Use This Course.
5. By default, all material from the previous version of the course will be selected. Uncheck any material you do not want to bring over to the new semester. Click Continue at the bottom of the page.
6. You’ll get a confirmation page; click Continue at the bottom of the page.
7. You’ll get a screen showing Moodle’s progress; click Continue again at the bottom of the page.
8. You will briefly see a page which says “do not click the continue link”.  The “Continue” link will be in text, not as a button. Don’t click it!
9. That page should automatically reload to a confirmation page. Click Continue again to go back to your Moodle page.

Copyright Note

You can use either of these features to move course readings between Moodle course pages. Remember, though, that reusing the same scanned or downloaded document for the same course decreases your fair use argument.

However:

• Links to articles in JSTOR or the OhioLINK EJC are always free of copyright fees under our license.
• Links to most articles in most other library databases are also covered by our licenses.
• Links to the public Internet are usually considered fair use, as long as the material is legally posted in the first place.

Please contact Meghan Frazer, Digital Resources Librarian, frazerm@kenyon.edu, to arrange for copyright clearance for your Moodle site.