How do I backup and/or restore a course in Moodle?

The easiest way to take a course from a previous semester and copy it into a new course is through Moodles Backup and Restore feature.

First, you will want to make sure that you backup your old course.
We highly recommend that you backup both courses before you start this process, that way you have a backup in case you don't like the results of the "restore" process. 

Here are the written instructions for backing up your course:
1. Select the course you want to backup. 
2. Under the "Administration Menu", click "Backup" 
3. Review the Backup List which comes up, disregard the "Notice," and click "Continue" 
4. Your content is backed up as a file in your “User private backup area.”

To restore this back up to the new course (transfer the same information from one course to a new course) please use the following steps:
1. Enter your new course (the course you want to bring content into) 
2. Navigate to the Course Administration Block 
3. Click on "Restore." 
4. Look through the backup files under your “user private backup area.” (Your most recent backup will be located first.)
5. Click “restore” next to the file you wish to restore.
6. Look through the information contained in the file and click “continue.”
7. On the following page, you will have a number of options on where you would like the backup restored to. 

If the course you are copying to is empty, you may use either the "Existing course, deleting it first" or the "Existing course, adding data to it" options. The main difference comes when you are trying to copy over to a course that already has information in it. Here is a description of each "Restore to" option: 

a. Current Course, Deleting it first: This will delete and replace the course you are currently in. 
b. Current course, adding data to it: This will keep the existing information in the course, and add to it. (Note: This may cause duplicate entries if there are items in the backup that are already in the existing course). 
c. New Course: This will transfer the information into a brand new course (For your purposes, you won't want to use this option. You'll want to use either the Existing course, deleting first" option or the "Existing course, adding data to it" option). 
d. Existing course, deleting it first: This will delete any information in an existing course (that you will choose in a later step) and replace it with the information in the backup file. 
e. Existing course, adding data to it: This will keep the existing information in an existing course (that you will choose in a later step) and add to it. (Note: This may cause duplicate entries if there are items in the backup that are already in the existing course).

6. Click "Continue" once you have made a selection. (Most commonly you will select “restore into this course” and “Delete the contents of this course and then restore.” 
7. Look through the “restore settings” and click “next”
8. The course settings on the next page will contain your backup course information. You will need to change this information to reflect your current course information.
9. Scroll down and click “next.”
10. The final page contains all the restored information. Make sure it is correct and click “perform restore.”
11. You will receive a message stating the process was successful. Click “Continue” to see your new course. 

Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns regarding Moodle and we will be happy to assist you!