Import from another course without getting the Question Bank

Import from another course without getting the Question Bank

by Joe Teacher -
Number of replies: 7

I have a few different courses that I teach and I have just learned how to import files to share them between courses.  I have files, URLs, and Labels that I want to move (no quizes or questions).  However, when I preform the import, I get all the categories and questions from the other course.  How do I prevent this?

I just want to import files, labels, or URLs from another course without getting the question banks.  I did check the help files before posting, but could not find an answer. 

(I'm using 2.2 or higher, but I'm not an administrator, so I don't know exactly - MDL-26852)

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In reply to Joe Teacher

Re: Import from another course without getting the Question Bank

by Mary Cooch (personal account) -
Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Testers

Hello there. If you look here http://docs.moodle.org/en/Import_course_data  you should be able to tick just the items you want to import and leave out the items you don't want  -were you able to do that on your import?

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In reply to Mary Cooch (personal account)

Re: Import from another course without getting the Question Bank

by Joe Teacher -

Thank you for replying.  Yes, I was able to check and un-check items.  I selected only files, labels, and URLs, but I also got each question in my question bank.  As far as I know, there are no questions associated with the files I was moving. 

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In reply to Mary Cooch (personal account)

Re: Import from another course without getting the Question Bank

by Lila Whyman -

I have experienced the same thing - imported/exported, deselected all the topics I did not want (a deselect all button would be much appreciated), and yet the import brought in all the questions in the question bank - with no associated quiz in the imported activities.  Any ideas why?  And is there a 'select all' button to get rid of the questions?   Thanks!

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In reply to Mary Cooch (personal account)

Re: Import from another course without getting the Question Bank

by Anna Krassa -
Picture of Moodle HQ

Hello all,

Mary I am afraid that Joe and Lila talk for something different...

When importing a resource (just this) from Course A to Course B, then you take by default the 'course-level customized question categories'  from Course A to Course B.

Specifically:

Course A contains three question categories in course level:

  • The Default for Course A
  • Math questions (teacher added)
  • Literature questions (teacher added)

Now, if you import a resource (not a quiz, just a single resource) in Course B you'll see the following structure in question categories:

  • The Default for Course B
  • Math questions
  • Literature questions

See? Although we don't import a quiz, we do get the quiz categories (of the course level)... For those who work a lot with customised question categories and rely on import facility, the result is a messy question bank.

Although I haven't seen that behaviour prior to Moodle 2.+ (I currently work in 2.2) I am not sure if this can be considered as a bug or it's something "correct" according to the new concept of backup-restore.

Joe and Lila, a way to reuse your resources from one course to the other without carrying the question categories is to take a backup of the specific resource (from the editing page of the resource -> click backup, then restore this backup of the single resource into the course you want). This way you won't carry the question categories.

It's not very helpfull though if you want to take more than one resources... thoughtful

It would be nice to have the control over this (to be able to choose to import the quiz categories or not)... import is great facility...

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In reply to Anna Krassa

Re: Import from another course without getting the Question Bank

by Dave Sherwin -

Mary - as pointed out in the Moodle documentation "Importing a quiz from course A to course B, will also add the questions to the question bank so you can use them in new quizzes." which is useful. However as Anna pointed out, when our teachers are becoming more comfortable with Moodle and sharing activities and resources, their Question Banks become a mess with duplication of duplication of questions. Even when selecting a single resource like a label - the entire question bank is imported.

We are currently using Moodle 2.2.3 (Build: 20120514) is there something we can do administratively to prevent the automatically importing questions banks? Or is there another option like using the Moodle Sharing Cart or updating to 2.3?

Thank...

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In reply to Dave Sherwin

Re: Import from another course without getting the Question Bank

by Scott Miller -

Hi Dave,

I have a few users on my Moodle installation who also are complaining about this.  On one hand it makes sense if you have questions in the question bank that you would like to add to quizzes in the new course, but the Quizzes aren't created yet.

On the other hand, if you want to transfer 30 activities that aren't quizzes from course A to B, it's annoying to have course B duplicate all the questions of course A.

I am wondering if there is a way to have the "Question bank" be a de-selectable item for import or backup.

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In reply to Anna Krassa

Re: Import from another course without getting the Question Bank

by Lael Gordon -

I just experienced this issue using 2.5.

I used the import function to move a single book resource from course A to course B. When the book resource arrived in course B all the questions and categories from course A had been added.

This is a disaster as both courses have thousands of questions in hundreds of categories stored at the course level. Many have similar names which will make it almost impossible to manually delete the accidentally imported questions/categories. I'm now looking into restoring the course from a backup; but since I imported the book resource weeks ago without noticing the error all recent work will be lost.

I really think this is something developers need to look into. The import function seems like a very simple and intuitive tool. But wow -  so easy to totally mess things up.

If it is not viewed as a bug then there should be something to warn you that you are about to import all course-level categories and questions even if you are only importing a single resource that is in no way associated with the question bank.

Or, at the very least, the Moodle Docs page should clearly explain the situation. I carefully reviewed the Moodle Docs before I did the import. It's amazing that nothing is clearly mentioned about this issue. It does say that "Importing a quiz from course A to course B, will also add the questions to the question bank so you can use them in new quizzes." But it seems reasonable to ignore that if you are not importing a quiz.

https://docs.moodle.org/25/en/backup/import

Thanks,

Lael

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