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Moodle Help

This guide is designed to assist with Moodle 3.11 questions.

Reuse Content from a Separate Course

To reuse course content, there are two main options:

  1. You can Import content to use content from a current Moodle server. 
  2. You can backup and restore content to use content from older versions of Moodle.  (Examples: Moodle 2013-18 or Seminaries Moodle 2006-2021)

Import Course Content from a Previous Semester

Import: for reusing content from current Moodle sever. (If you are interested in reusing content from older versions of Moodle, use the Backup + Restore function instead.)

For copyright reasons, students cannot access previous semesters' content. Students seeking access to content or assignments from past semesters should contact their professor to see if they can send them the material.

  1. In the Top Right corner of your course, click the gear symbol to access administrative settings. Click Import. 
  2. Select the course that you want to import from and click Continue. (If you do not see your course in the list, then you can search for a course in the search bar.)
  3. Next, you will see Backup settings. Select the options you want to import. Click Next. 
  4. Next, choose where you want the selections to import to in your course. Click Next. 
  5. Review the settings, and click "Perform import."
  6. You should see a message that reads: "Import complete. Click continue to return to the course." You can select Continue. If you do not see this message, then you will see an error message.

Backup + Restore Content

To backup and restore content, do the following: 

Note that backing up and restoring content is for reusing content from older Moodle servers. (If you are interested in reusing content from current version of Moodle, use the Import function instead.) For copyright reasons, students cannot access previous semesters' content. Students seeking access to content or assignments from past semesters should contact their professor to see if they can send them the material. After understanding this, do the following: 

  1. Go the the previous version of Moodle and the course you want. Examples: Moodle 2013-18. For security reasons, older versions of Moodle must be accessed either on campus or while connected to the VPN.
  2. In the top right corner of your course, click the gear symbol to access administrative settings. (In older versions of Moodle, this can be found under course administration.) Select backup.
  3. Under backup settings, uncheck "Include enrolled users" if you are using content from a previous semester. If you want to bring over all course content, you can scroll down and click jump to final step.  To customize which items are included, click next and check/uncheck to select and then click next again.
  4. Click perform backup.
  5. Click continue.
  6. From the user private backup area, click download by your backup file.
  7. Note: Moodle will not allow course restores that are larger than 250 MB. Contact moodlehelp@earlham.edu if you need advice on restoring a large course backup file.
  8. Go to the current Moodle and locate the course into which you want to restore. (Note: if you are restoring a special type of course such as "Viking Club" or "Viking Studies Dept", and you don't see the course in new Moodle, you will need to contact moodlehelp@earlham.edu to have the course shell built for you in new Moodle.)
  9. In the top right corner of your course, click the gear symbol to access administrative settings. Click restore. 
  10. Drag and drop the file that you downloaded into the import backup file  or click choose a file to navigate to where it is saved.
  11. Click restore.
  12. Scroll down and click continue.
  13. Under restore into this course select merge the backup course into this course and click continue.
  14. Next, you will see restore settings. Select the options you want to import. Click  next. 
  15. Next, choose where you want the selections to import to in your course. Click next. 
  16. Review the settings, and click perform restore.
  17. You should see a message that reads: "Restore complete. Click continue to return to the course." You can select continue. If you do not see this message, then you will see an error message.

Update Dates

To update dates, do the following:

Note that the edit dates report lets an instructor review and change due dates, access dates, cut-off dates, etc., for multiple activities or resources at once. This feature is especially useful for instructors who are reusing a previous course.

After understanding this, do the following: 
  1. Log in to Moodle and select course management (black gear icon, top right).
  2. On the course management panel, under course settings select edit dates. The edit dates page will open.
  3. On the  edit dates page, from the choose an activity type drop-down menu, you can either select all or a specific activity type to edit.
  4. Select a section to expand and view the date settings in that section or click expand all to open all the sections containing the selected activity type.
  5. Change the date settings for the items you wish to edit, then scroll to the bottom of the page and click save changes.  For date changes to stick, you must save changes before selecting a new activity type. If you try to change activity types without first saving, a confirmation window will open to alert you that you are leaving the page without saving the changes you have made.

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