The Category Course Reset plugin streamlines the process of preparing courses for a new academic term by allowing administrators to reset entire categories of courses in a single operation.

NOTE: Reset can timeout if doing an entire site (or very large category)

Key Features:

• Bulk Course Reset: Reset all courses within a category and its subcategories at once
• Intelligent Group Management: Configurable patterns to automatically delete system-generated groups while preserving special purpose groups (IEP, 504, Gifted, etc.)
• Comprehensive Reset Options:
  • Removes all student enrollments
  • Deletes grades and submissions
  • Clears events and notes
  • Resets course completion
  • Removes local role assignments
  • Clears grouping memberships
• Flexible Configuration: Set custom patterns for which groups to delete and which to always keep
• Set New Start Date: Apply a new start date to all courses during the reset process
• Safe Operation: Requires explicit confirmation before executing the reset
• Easy Access: Direct links from category management pages and accessible plugin settings

Perfect for:

• Schools transitioning between academic terms
• Districts managing multiple courses across categories
• Institutions needing to preserve special education or intervention groups
• Administrators who want to automate course preparation workflows

How It Works:

1. Navigate to any category in course management
2. Click "Reset all courses"
3. Review the courses to be reset and configure the start date
4. Confirm the operation
5. The plugin resets all courses, removing student data while keeping your specified groups intact

Configuration Options:

• Group Deletion Pattern: Define which groups to delete using wildcards (e.g., NT-- deletes NT-1-1, NT-2-1, etc.)
• Groups to Keep: Specify comma-separated list of groups that should never be deleted (e.g., NT-504, NT-IEP, NT-GIFTED)

This plugin is ideal for educational institutions that need to efficiently prepare courses for new terms while maintaining important organizational structures like intervention groups.

Requirements

• Moodle 4.0 or higher
• PHP 7.4 or higher

Installation

1. Download the plugin and extract it to /path/to/moodle/local/category_reset
2. Log in as an administrator
3. Navigate to Site administration > Notifications
4. Follow the on-screen instructions to complete the installation

Configuration

1. Navigate to Site administration > Plugins > Local plugins > Category Course Reset
2. Configure the following settings:
   • Group deletion pattern: Pattern for groups to delete (use * as wildcard)
     • Default: NT-*-* (deletes groups like NT-1-1, NT-2-1, NT-3-2, etc.)
     • Use just * to delete all groups not in the keep list
   • Groups to keep: Comma-separated list of group names to preserve
     • Default: NT-504, NT-IEP, NT-GIFTED
     • These groups will never be deleted regardless of the deletion pattern

Usage

Resetting Courses in a Category

1. Navigate to Site administration > Courses > Manage courses and categories
2. Click on a category
3. Click the "Reset all courses" tab
4. Review the warning message and list of courses to be reset
5. Select the new course start date
6. Click "Reset course" to confirm

What Gets Reset

When you reset courses, the following actions are performed:

• Student Enrollments: All student role enrollments are removed
• Grades: All grades and gradebook items are deleted
• Submissions: All assignment submissions and activity attempts are removed
• Groups: System-generated groups matching the deletion pattern are removed
• Group Memberships: All remaining groups have their memberships cleared
• Events: Calendar events are removed
• Notes: User notes are deleted
• Completion: Course completion data is reset
• Local Roles: Local role assignments are removed
• Start Date: Course start date is updated to the selected date

What Is Preserved

• Course structure and activities
• Course content and resources
• Teacher enrollments
• Special groups (as configured in settings)
• Course settings and configuration

Examples

Example 1: Standard School Setup

Configuration:

• Delete pattern: NT-*-*
• Keep groups: NT-504, NT-IEP, NT-GIFTED

Result: Deletes groups like NT-1-1, NT-1-2, NT-2-1, NT-3-2, etc., but keeps NT-504, NT-IEP, and NT-GIFTED groups intact.

Example 2: Delete All Except Specific Groups

Configuration:

• Delete pattern: *
• Keep groups: Special Education, Intervention, Advanced Placement

Result: Deletes all groups except those specifically named in the keep list.

Example 3: Only Delete Period-Based Groups

Configuration:

• Delete pattern: Period-*
• Keep groups: Honors, AP, IEP

Result: Deletes groups like Period-1, Period-2, Period-3, etc., but keeps all other groups including those in the keep list.

Permissions

The plugin adds the following capability:

• local/category_reset:reset - Allows user to reset all courses in a category

By default, this capability is assigned to the Manager and Course Creator roles at the category context.

Credits

Author: Brian Pool, National Trail Local Schools Copyright: 2026 Brian Pool License: GNU GPL v3 or later

Privacy

This plugin does not store any personal user data. It performs operations on existing Moodle course data according to administrator instructions.

License

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program. If not, see http://www.gnu.org/licenses/.