Hello,
I want to update a course and make changes in it, while not disturbing students currently enrolled in the course.
Therefore, I think it is most practical to copy the complete course and settings, and work on this course while it is set on inactive, so it is not visible for students.
Is it possible to copy a complete course, or does anyone have another suggestion?
Version of Moodle: 3.1.1+
Use backup and restore
I do this all the time whenever I am getting ready for a new semester.
Go to the course, then click on Backup. Uncheck "Users" from what to copy. Once Moodle backs up the course, I normally will download it to my computer. Then I do a Restore, and at one point you can give it the Course Category, and a new name. Restoring a course can take a little while, so be patient.
Maybe I really don't need to save the backup to my computer, but this is probably what I do from my habits.
Of if you have several courses, way faster to do with the new upload courses feature where you can use your existing course as a template - I think that one feature has saved me a good two days worth of work every semester!
I read the docs about this, but I am still unsure. How does one create a course template?
Emma got my attention to this process, too.
You don't create a template - the course itself is the template - that is the wonderful thing about it!
You just create a csv file with your new course long name, short name, start date etc (follow documentation on that) and then have a template column where you reference the short name of the course that you want to copy. Moodle then copies all the course content to your new courses in the background while you drink coffee. I used to copy manually about 30 courses per semester and it took me at least a day's worth of work. Now I create one csv file, upload it to the course upload feature, and moodle does it all for me. It is a truly beautiful thing - best feature to come out since I started!
Okay Emma, I did a little experimenting and I think that I am figuring out this feature. Really cool. I only duplicate around 6 courses every semester, so I am not sure if this tool will help. But I am going to give it a try.
I wonder if this is the tool that big schools can use when they need to duplicate hundreds of courses? Or do they do it differently?
I do see that this feature has been around for quite some time (at least back to 2.9). Somehow I never noticed it. Thanks for the tip.
I would think anyone would that duplicates sections or courses each semester. Even with six courses, it will save you a lot of time Rick plus the boring part of wading through the backup and restore process.
The other advantage I have found is that you can set the courseid field. For those of us that use LDAP enrolment or external database enrolment, this part is vital as it used to have to be set after the restore process prior.
Hi Emma,
Thank you indeed for this nice thread.
Would you please add for us the different column that we must add in the CSV file to make the process of copying old course content to new templates using the upload feature please.
Would you please give example.
Thank you.
Salim
Just add a column called templatecourse and then use the shortname for the course that you are copying.
Thank you Emma.
It works.
But what if I want at the same time add an existing user as a teacher to the new course?
Thank you
You cannot do that in this file. You need to use the user upload feature for that.
Thank you Emma. That's very helpful.