end of year moodle course rollovers

@lewiscarr #moodlerollovers

Moodle End-of-Year Course Rollovers

Who is this presentation aimed at?

● Those without a rollover procedure.

● Those without the skills or resources to hack databases and write web services.

● Those looking for a low cost core solution.

What is a Moodle rollover?

A process where we prepare Moodle for the next academic term.

Building a strategy

● What are your business objectives?

● How much does it cost? - time/hardware/storage

● Does it form part of a wider IT strategy?

● Which stakeholders need to be involved?

Defining a process

● Which method works best for you?

● How will you identify rollover courses?

● Which courses still need access?

● Will there be downtime?

What organisations currently do?

Clone a new Moodle instance each year

Backup a course then reset

Clone a course and archive

Cloned Moodle

Advantages● An exact replica● A live environment● Can be done relatively

quickly ● No tutor involvement

Disadvantages● Another server to

maintain● Another Moodle to

upgrade, patch & backup

● Requires another URL ● Requires a server for

each year (3yr+ server cycle)

● Requires downtime

Backup a course and reset

Advantages● Can be done by tutors.● Single course instance.● Can be done ad-hoc.● No downtime.

Disadvantages● Old instance is not live.● Courses need

individually restoring for access.

● Linear & Manual Process.

● Backup courses may fall behind Moodle version upgrades.

Clone a course and archive

Advantages● Legacy course is

archived yet still accessible.

● New course is populated for the start of term.

● Requires one Moodle server instance.

● No downtime.● No restore process when

access is required.

Disadvantages● Linear & Manual

Process.● Makes existing Moodle

site (slightly) larger.

How to automate the “Clone a course and archive” procedure with CSV files

Before you start

● You must be able to identify which courses you are rolling over.

● Work closely with your MIS team.● Export as much data from MIS as

possible. ● Create your course archive folders in

advance.

Step 1Archive your legacy courses to a new folder

Step 2Suspend current users on legacy course

Step 3Create new courses and restore content

Step 4Enrol your new users onto the new courses

4-step process

Step 1 - Archive legacy courses

Move the course to an archived category

(WARNING: Category must already exist)

Old Category Structure

- Science - Maths- English

New Category Structure

- Science - Maths- English- 2015 Courses

- Science- Maths- English

Create a CSV File - category must exist!

shortname rename fullname category_path

algebra algebra2015 Algebra 2015 Courses / Maths

statistics statistics2015 Statistics 2015 Courses / Maths

geometry geometry2015 Geometry 2015 Courses / Maths

biology biology2015 Biology 2015 Courses / Science

physics physics2015 Physics 2015 Courses / Science

Upload it via: Site administration > Courses > Upload Courses

Upload it via: Site administration > Courses > Upload Courses

For help with uploading courses: https://docs.moodle.org/29/en/Upload_courses

For help with uploading courses: https://docs.moodle.org/29/en/Upload_courses

Congratulations!

You have successfully moved your legacy courses to an archive folder

Note: It is also possible to use the command-line

tool

admin/tool/uploadcourse/cli/uploadcourse.php.

Step 1Archive your legacy courses to a new folder

Step 2Suspend current users on legacy course

Step 3Create new courses and restore content

Step 4Enrol your new users onto the new courses

Step 2

Create a User CSV file

username course1 enrolstatus1

wc@myschool.ac.uk physics2015 1

tl@myschool.ac.uk statistics2015 1

jb@myschool.ac.uk biology2015 1

lb@myschool.ac.uk geometry2015 1

vh@myschool.ac.uk algebra2015 1

Upload it via: Site administration > Users > Accounts > Upload Users

For help with uploading users: https://docs.moodle.org/29/en/Upload_users

Congratulations!

You have successfully archived your legacy courses and user accounts

Step 1Archive your legacy courses to a new folder

Step 2Suspend current users on legacy course

Step 3Create new courses and restore content

Step 4Enrol your new users onto the new courses

Step 3

Create a course CSV

shortname fullname category_path templatecourse

algebra Algebra Maths algebra2015

statistics Statistics Maths statistics2015

geometry Geometry Maths geometry2015

biology Biology Science biology2015

physics Physics Science physics2015

Upload it via: Site administration > Courses > Upload Courses

For help with uploading courses: https://docs.moodle.org/29/en/Upload_courses

Congratulations!

You have successfully created your new courses with pre-populated template content

Step 1Archive your legacy courses to a new folder

Step 2Suspend current users on legacy course

Step 3Create new courses and restore content

Step 4Enrol your new users onto the new courses

Step 4

Enrol your new learners

● Continue to use you existing enrolment methods (Manual/Self-enrolment/CSV/Database)

● Or use this as an opportunity to devise a new enrollment procedure

For help with uploading users: https://docs.moodle.org/29/en/Upload_users

Step 1Archive your legacy courses to a new folder

Step 2Suspend current users on legacy course

Step 3Create new courses and restore content

Step 4Enrol your new users onto the new courses

Review of the 4-step process

Pitfalls

Pitfalls

● Your success is dependent on the quality of your data

● Course Categories must be created prior● It is still a large undertaking that requires

planning● The Moodle part is easy - getting the

course data is difficult● The smaller the organisation the easier

this is

Tips

● Tackle this in smaller stages● Consider one department at a time● Plan it first (map out the process)● Pull the data from a central source

(MIS)● Can be a staggered approach and last

minute changes can be accommodated also.

Bribe with biscuits

Some guidelines

● The task is easier if Moodle matches your current MIS data (i.e course codes)

● Create a checklist to ensure you know what data to ask for prior

● Do the heavy lifting in MIS and export as CSV files.

● Flowchart your procedure

Room for improvement (wishlist)

● Role replacement via CSV● Automatic Category Creation from CSV

Storage Space

Some useful links

http://www.somerandomthoughts.com/blog/2012/09/14/end-of-year-rollover/

https://docs.moodle.org/29/en/Year-end_procedures

Questions?@lewiscarr #moodlerollovers