It’s an NMC policy to retain 5 years of gradebook records. Many instructors print off and save their own gradebook records, and we’re going to assist in these efforts by saving the gradebook of any course that currently exists in Moodle. We’re going to export these gradebooks to a searchable database just in case anyone needs to access the records moving forward.
The purpose of this is really twofold. From time to time, in order to keep Moodle running efficiently, it’s important that we remove older courses from the Moodle server. So, in addition to saving and exporting the gradebooks of older Moodle courses, were also going to be deleting some Moodle courses completely. This will help the Moodle dashboard to be a bit more user friendly – really old courses will be removed from the ‘My Courses’ block.
[highlight]Older Moodle courses will be deleted on Monday, January 18th.[/highlight]
Which Moodle Courses will be Removed?
We’re going to remove any course that occurred before or during the Summer semester of 2013. These courses have the semester ID of 1303. Any course with a 1201, 1202, 1203, 1301, 1302, or 1303 semester ID will be removed. Anything after that semester (courses with the semester code of 1401, 1402, 1403, 1501, etc.) will remain in Moodle.
[highlight]Optional – Backup your courses by Friday, January 15th.[/highlight]
Want to Backup a Moodle Course?
Please keep in mind that we’re only going to be saving and exporting gradebooks, not course content. If you’re concerned about losing course content, don’t be. A backup of your course can be created if you think you need to refer to the content in the future. Follow these instructions to learn how to create a backup of your course. After the backup has been created, we strongly suggest that you download and save the backup file to your S drive, your Q drive, or to a safe place on your machine. Submit a ticket to the Tech Help Desk if you’d like us to create and save a course backup for you.
If you have any questions, feel free to comment on this post, submit a ticket, or email/call us directly. We’re always happy to hear from you and we’re definitely here to help.