Moodle: Course Reuse Overview

Backing Up, Restoring, and Importing Content in Moodle

Moodle allows all teaching roles (including TAs) except the Non-Editing Instructor to back up Moodle courses, restore Moodle course backup files into any of their courses, and import content from one Moodle course into another. When using any of these methods, it is strongly recommended that instructors request and use a blueprint course.

Using a Blueprint Course for Content Management

A blueprint course is used to build content and that can then be restored or imported from the blueprint course into teaching course(s). In the blueprint course, instructors can create and store content for use in any course taught in a future semester. Students are never enrolled in blueprint courses. For help, see Moodle: How to Request a Blueprint Course.

Ways to Back Up Moodle Course Content

• How to Back Up a Course (GROK 20165): Create a backup file of the current state of a course. The backup file can also be downloaded and saved to a computer or cloud storage. The backup file type is .mbz, which can only be opened and used within a Moodle site. To import a previously created backup file into Moodle, it must be smaller than 500 MB in size.
• Weekly Automated Backups: Each Saturday, all courses that are visible to students and that have been modified within the last 2 weeks are automatically backed up. These backup files include student data and are intended to be used as a safety net during the active term. The most recent two backup files are kept, and after 180 days these files are deleted. With site-wide backups, there is always a risk that not all courses will back up successfully, especially if the course exceeds 500 MB in size.
• Semester Course Backups: At the end of each semester, the Moodle Administrator runs a bulk backup of that semester's courses. These backup files do not include student data and are intended to be restored into a blueprint or teaching course for future course development. With site-wide backups, there is always a risk that not all courses will back up successfully, especially if the course exceeds 500 MB in size.
   

Ways to Restore or Import Content into a Moodle Course

There are several ways to bring content into a course shell:

1. Simple restore (GROK 20291) allows instructors to restore an entire backup file—ideal for initially populating a course. Due dates are also automatically adjusted to match the new course’s start date. This import method is not available if there are student grades in the existing course gradebook. This function is located in the Simple Restore block, where there are two options:

• Import all materials into current course allows instructors to import a backup course file into a course without affecting the existing course content. The content of the backup file is added to the current course.
• Overwrite current course allows instructors to overwrite everything in a course with course content from a backup file. This will delete any content in the current course before adding the content from the backup file.

2. Selective import (GROK 20209) allows instructors to select which item(s) to import into a course directly from another course where they are the primary instructor. This process works like copying and pasting—no backup file is created. This will not erase or overwrite any existing course material. This feature is available even if there are student grades in the existing course gradebook. Due dates are the same as the original course.

3. Import materials from another instructor's course (GROK 20181) using selective import or simple restore.

4. Restore a weekly automated backup file: If you need to restore a previous weekly automated backup into your course, contact the Faculty Technology Center for assistance.

5. Restore any Moodle backup file: If you have a backup file (.mbz) that you need restored into Moodle, contact the Faculty Technology Center for assistance.