How do you do it?

How do you do it?

by Ro Eng -
Number of replies: 2

I have been working with MOODLE for about a year now.  I love it.  i am responsible for ensuring it runs well, create course shells, train instructors etc.  My question is, I am not totally sold on the process my school uses to create courses for new terms.  Our current process is..keep the old course with the former students in it.  Backup and restore the old course without the students in it.  Store the old course in the archives.  To a certain degree this sounds good..but most of our students are gone (and out of MOODLE) within 20 or 22 months.  I am wondering if this is the process everyone follows?  My concerns are 1.  our archives are getting huge   2.  Wouldn't it be easier to take the former students out and leave the old course in place and add the new students?

All thoughts are appreciated.

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In reply to Ro Eng

Re: How do you do it?

by Gareth Barnard -
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Dear Rhonda,

I think that it depends on what information your school wishes to keep.  If all the assessment and assignment submission files have been kept / printed out then I would take the view of just un-enrolling the students from the course.

But if you need to keep the information, then I would backup the course with the student data etc. at the end of the academic year and then remove the old students.  Courses evolve too, so you might find yourself adapting the material too, in which case a backup every year will store the resources as well as the student work associated for that 'time window'.

As regards space, I not sure if Moodle 2.0 suffers from a problem I raised on Moodle 1.9 (MDL-23160) where student data was not removed from the course when the student was deleted.  So you could see if Moodle 2.0 has the same issue by following the steps to replicate that I listed.  If so, then you may have to do the backup twice, one with and one without the student data, then delete the course and restore the one without the students.

I hope that this all helps, cheers,

Gareth

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In reply to Ro Eng

Re: How do you do it?

by Teresa Gibbison -

Hi Rhonda

I have to agree with Gareth that your decision will be entirely based on what information your school wants to or is required to keep.

At our University we copy our regular automated backups to DVD at the end of each semester for archive purposes.  This include all course information, student data and logs.

We also keep courses in the system with but hidden from students. When a teacher needs a new course an empty shell is provided and the teacher is responsible for copying the relevant resources/activities into the new shell (they do this via the Course Import process).  This is their opportunity to review the course and enhance it each semester/year.

We have a large server so space is not an issue for us, we have three years courses in our site at present.  Moodle 2.0 will help reduce server space requirements as files are not duplicated if used in several courses but only stored once.

If server space is an issue for you an alternative could be to use the Course Reset feature.  I suggest you backup your courses and store them to disk for archive then reset the course.

I hope this information helps smile
Cheers
Teresa

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