Peter Ruthven-Stuart

Tom,

Both Gordon and Mawuli's advice is sound. I have the same problem with backing up my moodle courses. The bigger they are (the more data), the more likely it is that the backup process will hang.

I have increased the maximum execution time as Gordon suggests. This helps, but only up to a point. My problem is that I am running moodle on the cheap; my moodle is on a shared server, so the hosting company has to put limits on users so they do not use up all the server's resources and so deny other users access to their sites. Unfortunately, the best solution is to move to a dedicated server. Perhaps you are also on a shared server?

The workaround that I use at the moment is, as suggested above, identify the 'heavy modules' (heavy because they have lots of user data associated with them), backup everything except these large modules, and then back them up separately.

Bob,

As far as I know, there is only one way to know who has done a questionnaire: don't make it anonymous. Of course this is not a viable option in most situations. There is a new 'Feedback Module', which may suit your needs better than the Questionnaire module:

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=27556

As for manually inputting scores, I use the assignment module, and set up an 'offline' assignment.

It may interest you to know that people are working on manual inputting of grades within the gradebook:

http://moodle.org/mod/forum/discuss.php?d=24881

Finally, you wrote; "the rather weak teacher manual, etc. (sorry buy any 170+ page manual that is not crosslinked in acrobat and has no visible page numbers, is pretty useless and there is no index reference to entering grades. Kinda important to what we do and student expectations.)"

Are you volunteering?

Ali,

Perhaps you could explain your situation in more detail. In particular;

"We wish for the lecturers to see the questionnaire as soon as they login." Does this mean you are sending teachers the URL for the questionnaire?

"I have tried this myself by signing as a lecturer and can't see the the questionnaire anywhere at all." Does this mean you can't even find the title of the questionnaire to click on, or when you click on the title you are 'told' that you can't do the questionnaire?

One possible cause of the problem is that the teachers you have asked to do the questionnaire, are not actually registered teachers of the moodle course in which the questionnaire has been made.

Aseet,

You asked:

I wish to understand that if I want to have 2 entirely seprate group of students/trainees on a single instal of Moodle, then

a. Is it possible?

Yes - if I understand you correctly

b. If yes,then how?

Create two courses; one for each 'entirely separate group of students. Or create two categories for each separate group of students. Within each category you can create courses for sub-groups of your two main groups.

Gordon, thank you very much.

I just had a quick look at some hotpot quizzes that I had uploaded to my moodle, and yes, as you describe above, the ones that I remember having problems with have apostrophes in their names.