"cloning" parts or a whole course

"cloning" parts or a whole course

by Mary Kaplan -
Number of replies: 12
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Re: Alg 1-2/splitting courses in two
by vAHSy Kaplan - Friday, May 28 2004, 10:08 PM

 

<Can we somhow copy paste entire modules? Math Tech 1 and 2 together make up Algebra 1. >

Edna would be greatly aided by this as well, because about half the information (scientific method stuff) is in both the biology and physical science courses. This would mean that her work on Biology 1 end-of-course could give physical science end-of-course a boost.

How exactly does this cloning or splitting courses work?

--Mary

We are creating a couple of courses this summer where parts of the course will be exactly the same. In the case of one Math course, there is one course which covers the material for two other courses combined. Is there a way to "clone" parts of a course?

I hope this question is clear. I'm also not sure I have put it in the right place. If not, please forgive me. I am not an administrator, just a teacher who really loves moodle.

--Mary

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In reply to Mary Kaplan

Re: "cloning" parts or a whole course

by Przemyslaw Stencel -
If I understand what you're trying to achieve correctly, you can create a backup of the course from which you want to "copy" activities. Then you can restore this backup into another course. If you only want to copy some activities, you can then delete the ones you don't need.
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In reply to Przemyslaw Stencel

Re: "cloning" parts or a whole course

by Mary Kaplan -

Of course! This should be fairly easy from the sounds of it! This will solve most of our issues. Thanks!

From within a course, however, one block (module, I think they are called) cannot be copied into another course, I take it?

--Mary

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In reply to Mary Kaplan

Re: "cloning" parts or a whole course. Moodle terms.

by Tom Murdock -
Modules refer to the different activities (journal vs forum vs workshop, etc..) in Moodle.

Mary, you might mean the blocks under a course topic (if your course is arranged by topics), or weekly blocks (if your course is arranged by weeks). Nope, no quick drag and drop trick to copy those, yet... Drat. thoughtful

The word "blocks," at least in Moodle, now refer to the boxes in the margin (like recent activity, like participants, like upcoming events, etc.), that help the student and teacher organize the course work.

all best,

Tom

(DO copy those courses of yours! When I peeked in, I thought they were terrific!)
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In reply to Tom Murdock

Re: "cloning" parts or a whole course. Moodle terms.

by Mary Kaplan -

Tom,

That is the problem for me: the terminology. I knew the side boxes were called blocks. Are the other "boxes" also called blocks?

Which course have you been peeking at? I love positive comments, but I like to know specifics. Feel free to poke around any time, of course!

We are really growing at Aiken High. We are about to "clone" our math courses so that each math teacher will each have his/her own, so that they can more easily manage their logs and participant profiles. (This summer we should complete the basic course and then split them right before school re-starts).

We will get this figured out. Art is good at all sorts of deviations, and the suggestions I have gotten already will probably work. I was just hoping for an easier way to copy whole blocks into another course. mixed

--Mary

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In reply to Mary Kaplan

Re: "cloning" parts or a whole course. Moodle terms.

by Roger Leitch -

Hi,

I have been following this discussion with interest as I am setting up some courses and each week / topic takes the same structure.  Some work would be saved if I could copy set of activities from one week to the next then edit the content.

Perhaps a simpler answer would be a "merge" function so that a backup of a course can be merged into a new course.  e.g. restore course A, merge/restore course B, delete unwanted parts of the new combined course.

Good luck with your courses.

Roger

 

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In reply to Roger Leitch

Re: "cloning" parts or a whole course. Moodle terms.

by Ray Lawrence -

Coincidentaly, this subject is just being discussed elsewhere and I've knocked up a quick guide to what to do. Hope this helps.

  1. Create your course.
  2. From the course Admin menu Click on Backup.
  3. Choose the applicable options. The most common mistake seems to be including users when not required.
  4. Click through the screens and eventually you will be presented with a backup Zip file for your course.
  5. Click on the file name to download it to somewhere you have access to in order that it can be uploaded into the new course or FTP'd to your webhost (if over the upload limit of the new course). The second option will probably require Administrator assess.
  6. For the course to which you are restoring to, click on Restore from the course Admin section.
  7. Click Upload a file and upload in the normal way. If too large, the file will need to be FTP'd to the backupdata file of the course you are restoring to.
  8. Click on the Restore link to the right of the file.
  9. Select the appropriate options from those shown on the following screens Take care to select the correct options for adding or deleting information. Also note that topic activities will be restored to the corresponding  topic in the restored course - they can be moved afterwards.
  10. Finished.
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In reply to Ray Lawrence

Re: "cloning" parts or a whole course. Moodle terms.

by Mary Kaplan -

Ray,

Thanks for the info. This will help!

I'd like to see the other discussion, too. Can you tell me where it is? I searched around a bit but didn't see it.

Thanks!

--Mary

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In reply to Mary Kaplan

Re: "cloning" parts or a whole course. Moodle terms.

by Ray Lawrence -

Apologies Mary, I didn't mean to send you on a wild goose chase. The discussion I referred to was not taking place at Moodle.org, its in a separate course.

Ray

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In reply to Ray Lawrence

Re: "cloning" parts or a whole course. Moodle terms.

by Mary Kaplan -

Thanks Ray. I didn't mind the wild goose chase--I read some interesting things. I will check out the course.

In my process, I did find this http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=8468 which will help my process considerably! So not a totally wild goose chase!

--Mary

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In reply to Mary Kaplan

Re: "cloning" parts or a whole course. Moodle terms.

by Tom Murdock -
Hey Mary,

I was referring, again, to your French IB course and the way that I admire that your resources (in the "un peu plus" section seem to be available to a variety of different students at different levels (differentiated learning, anyone?).

As for your summer task, I think the basic trick is to create (and backup) simple courses made up of the activities that you want duplicated, and then to practice restoring them into existing courses. It should work pretty smoothly.

If you need another pair of eyes as you work, feel free to email me.

best,
Tom
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In reply to Tom Murdock

Re: "cloning" parts or a whole course. Moodle terms.

by Mary Kaplan -

Tom,

Thanks for your help, and suggestions. I will certainly call on you if I can't get this worked out!

I will be glad to share with anyone who is interested in this sort of course, as well. Thanks again for the compliment! As the summer marches on, please feel free to make other suggestions for improvements!

--Mary

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