My college is using Moodle, and I would like to export all the resources from the courses, since I'm about to graduate, and I will no longer have access to this data. Is there an easy way to do it? I would like not only to keep the files, but also the structure they were displayed (such as sections, the label of the link, description, etc). If it's possible, to also save the content from assignments (the assignment box data, the files, description, and the files I've uploaded there), and other data, like forums, announcements, etc.
Contact your site Admin and ask if server has GDPR set up. If it is, you could make a request to the GDPR admin of the site for all your data.
You'll have to test that to see if the data would be useful or not ... last I checked, one could get all the data, but it was sent in json format ... not html or other one could use without much muss/fuss. Don't imagine json format would be of use to you without a lot of muss and fuss.
'SoS', Ken
This is not the case. I can't ask the admin to export my data. Is there another solution. I saw some script which are built to do it, but I'm afraid they just won't work in my case, since my college uses an SSO. Only a solution with a full browser environment may able to do it. Other solutions I found was Chrome extensions, but they do nothing but just grabbing all the links on the page. The are other solutions to do the exact same task, which don't claim to be fitted for Moodle. I thought also about just using a site downloader - if it can crawl and go deep enough, and has a full browser, it should be able to download my contents. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any which goes beyond just downloading the current page, not even the links within the page. If anyone knows of any such solution, I'd be happy to hear about. Although, there's another problem here too - it probably will download a lot of things I don't need, just because links to such things are spread over the page, for example participant list, the main page, full list of courses, etc. I'm guessing there probably should be a way to filter URLs in such softwares. But I don't get why isn't this option available for students. This is quite a common need for students.
"This is not the case. I can't ask the admin ..."
What's stopping you from asking? It's a valid question/request ... especially if you are from a EU nation!
You mean your site doesn't have GDPR configured and turned on? Clue would be at the bottom left of Moodle screen ... link to 'Data retention summary'.
Even if that's not there, if a plugin exist for moodle to allow students to acquire all of their content would have to be installed and turned on by admin folks.
https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/Portfolios
Web whacking software from a client will probably meet with failure .. obviously .. if you were able to use such software other students info could be in your hands then.
https://docs.moodle.org/38/en/GDPR_FAQ
You are gonna have to talk to your admins!
'SoS', Ken
How do you plan on using the data if you have it? What format do you expect it to be in? A forum (for example) would have data for other people in it.
As Ken points out - Moodle can support exporting personal data as part of its privacy / GDPR support. However, it's a technicality - the data is useless in real life (IMO).
As you say, you could just use a scraper.
As Ken points out - Moodle can support exporting personal data as part of its privacy / GDPR support. However, it's a technicality - the data is useless in real life (IMO).
As you say, you could just use a scraper.
Sorry, but I didn't really understand. Why is the data useless? Do you refer to the format it will be represented in? I just guessed an export will be a tar.gz with the files and data formatted as XML, which can be human-readable as well. I don't intend to publish any of it, so copyrights issues are not a concern. The forums don't really have publications in it - it's mainly things published by the instructor. Course resources are the main issue for me. Many here pointed it, so I'll respond - I'm not at the EU. I never heard about anyone from the college who asked to do it before, but some has backed up the resources from the courses while taking them, usually in Google Drive. Now, obviously, it's not an easy task. As I mentioned earlier, I couldn't find a proper solution to scrape the contents. None of the softwares which I tried couldn't go deep enough, or not equipped with a full browser, which make it not possible to download the contents off any website which requires a login. Still, I find it odd that this option isn't widely available.
Data exported (when I tested last) was in a json file. Google that! See if you can find some sort of json exported file and see what you can do with it.
"I don't intend to publish any of it, so copyrights issues are not a concern."
Copyright issues may not be an issue to you, but you didn't author some of those, right? Wow! Ya promise ... 'x-your heart and hope to die' ... kinda promise? Just teasing but ...
Well, you are not from an EU nation ... so if from US, does your state have anything similar to GDPR?
You can argue all you like ... logical ... good reasons ... etc. but you need to do so with those that admin your moodle or with teachers that taught courses you took.
Best of luck!
'SoS', Ken
You can do screenshots of anything that you see in your browser.
Some resources might be copyrighted. Have you asked the instructor which resources you can have?
Don't you have copies of the assignments that you submitted?
This is for my personal use. Why do I need any approval in this case? It's no different that downloading a single file from the course, as was during taking these classes.
I don't have local copies of all of the assignment, since I didn't keep content going back 4 years. Some of it, I might want to keep, but I prefer to have it all, rather than discovering later I didn't copy some content I would like to have after getting locked outside.
I don't have local copies of all of the assignment, since I didn't keep content going back 4 years. Some of it, I might want to keep, but I prefer to have it all, rather than discovering later I didn't copy some content I would like to have after getting locked outside.
It might be that some resources were allowed to be put behind a system with a login. Once they are removed from this secure area, it is no longer honoring the copyright. However, you are probably correct that it is just you making a copy for your own use, no one will ever know. Have you asked the instructor if it is okay to download what you want?
If some of what you want is four years old, does your Moodle administrator still have it available to you? (Are these four-year old courses still "on?")
I seem to recall that there is a Moodle add-in that allows course content to be downloaded. I am not sure if it can do it student-by-student, but you might want to research this a bit and then suggest a solution to your Moodle administrator.
In the future, also consider developing a system whereby you keep copies of everything that you do. Have a good archive and backup system. I am an old-timer, and I can go back to around 1994 or so and get files that I created back then. This is because I had been doing backups all along. Storage space is cheap.
If some of what you want is four years old, does your Moodle administrator still have it available to you? (Are these four-year old courses still "on?")
I seem to recall that there is a Moodle add-in that allows course content to be downloaded. I am not sure if it can do it student-by-student, but you might want to research this a bit and then suggest a solution to your Moodle administrator.
In the future, also consider developing a system whereby you keep copies of everything that you do. Have a good archive and backup system. I am an old-timer, and I can go back to around 1994 or so and get files that I created back then. This is because I had been doing backups all along. Storage space is cheap.