This guide provides a few options for faculty who wish to keep their own copies of course outlines or content. As mentioned in the course retention overview, faculty will also be able to request content from any archived courses by emailing AskIT@amherst.edu, so these steps are entirely optional.
If you have any questions regarding the below options or would like assistance, please email askIT@amherst.edu.
Options:
Download Course Content
Moodle provides an option for faculty to save a basic outline of their Moodle course, along with any uploaded files.
This option does not save any activity information other than the title and description of the activity - so it will not save any assignment submissions, forum posts, quiz questions, grades, etc, nor will it save any student information.
Please see our note about content from external platforms below.
Enabling "Download Course Content" option
If you are interested in this option, you first need to enable it in the settings for a given course:
1. Click Settings under the course title. Look for the option “Enable download course content” and change it to “Yes”.
2. Click the purple “Save and display” button at the bottom of the page when finished.
Note: If a Moodle course is visible to students, enabling this setting makes a download option available to students as well.
Downloading Course Content
After enabling the option, you can then download the course content:
1. Click "More" under the course title and then select Download Course Content.
2. A window will open stating that “You are about to download a zip file of course content (excluding items which cannot be downloaded and any files larger than 400MB)” - click the purple “Download” button to proceed.
3. Save .zip file and unzip on your computer.
Viewing downloaded course content
Inside the unzipped folder is a file called index.html. Find and open this file.
This file will open in a browser window and provide a replica of the Moodle site with clickable links to each resource and activity.
Clicking on one of these links will display a page like the following:
Print to PDF
Faculty can create PDF files of course pages, by using the “Print” option in a browser. This provides a record of the basic outline and structure of your course.
Download Gradebook Data
If you used the Moodle gradebook, you may want to save your gradebook data.
1. Click Grades under the course title. Then click the drop-down menu and select Export.
2. Select your desired format from the menu. You will see a list of the graded items - you can uncheck any items that you do not want to include in the data export.
3. There are also a few options regarding whether to include feedback and how you would like the grades to be displayed (real, percentage, or letter) - after making your selections, click on the purple “Download” button and save the file to your computer
Moodle Backup
As mentioned in the course retention overview, Amherst IT will keep a Moodle backup file of any archived courses.
These backup files contain any and all Moodle data from the course (resources, activities, students, grades, files, etc) with the exception of integrated content from external platforms (see below).
If you’d like to have your own copy of this backup file, just email askIT@amherst.edu and we can provide it to you.
A Moodle backup file can be uploaded back to a Moodle instance to restore the course. This is really the only way to make use of them, since they are a special type of file and the contents are not easily browsable.
Notes about Content on External Platforms
- The Amherst Moodle makes use of many integrated services and tools such as eReserves, Video Reserves, Kaltura, Gradescope, Perusall, Google Assignment, etc. Resources and activities using these tools don’t actually live in Moodle, but on the platform for that tool.
- Resources and activities on external platforms will remain on that platform.
- A Moodle backup or archive will retain the links and references to what was used where, but the actual reading, video, assignment, etc, will not be included in the Moodle archive or backup (since it doesn’t actually live in Moodle).
- Any grades passed to the Moodle gradebook from an external tool will be saved (since the grades do live in Moodle).
- Don’t hesitate to reach out if you would like to double-check how this applies to your courses.