The document discusses automating the process of rolling over Moodle courses from one academic term to the next. It proposes a 4-step process: 1) Archiving legacy courses to a new folder, 2) Suspending current user accounts on legacy courses, 3) Creating new courses and populating them with content from the archived templates, and 4) Enrolling new users onto the new courses. The document provides guidance on executing each step, such as using CSV files to archive courses and users, create new courses, and enroll students. It also notes potential pitfalls and offers tips for planning the rollover process.

1. @lewiscarr #moodlerollovers
Moodle End-of-Year
Course Rollovers

2. 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.

3. What is a Moodle rollover?
A process where we prepare Moodle for the
next academic term.

5. 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?

6. Defining a process
● Which method works best for you?
● How will you identify rollover courses?
● Which courses still need access?
● Will there be downtime?

7. What organisations currently do?
Clone a new Moodle
instance each year
Backup a course then
reset
Clone a course and
archive

8. 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

9. 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.

10. 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.

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

12. 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.

13. Step 1
Archive your legacy courses
to a new folder
Step 2
Suspend
current users
on legacy
course
Step 3
Create new
courses and
restore content
Step 4
Enrol your new
users onto the
new courses
4-step process

14. Step 1 - Archive legacy courses
Move the course to an archived category
(WARNING: Category must already exist)

15. Old Category Structure
- Science
- Maths
- English
New Category Structure
- Science
- Maths
- English
- 2015 Courses
- Science
- Maths
- English

16. 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

17. Upload it via: Site administration > Courses > Upload Courses
For help with uploading courses: https://docs.moodle.org/29/en/Upload_courses

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

21. Congratulations!
You have successfully moved your
legacy courses to an archive folder

22. Note: It is also possible to use the command-line tool
admin/tool/uploadcourse/cli/uploadcourse.php.

23. Step 1
Archive your legacy courses
to a new folder
Step 2
Suspend
current users
on legacy
course
Step 3
Create new
courses and
restore content
Step 4
Enrol your new
users onto the
new courses
Step 2

24. 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

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

28. Congratulations!
You have successfully archived your
legacy courses and user accounts

29. Step 1
Archive your legacy courses
to a new folder
Step 2
Suspend
current users
on legacy
course
Step 3
Create new
courses and
restore content
Step 4
Enrol your new
users onto the
new courses
Step 3

30. 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

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

33. Congratulations!
You have successfully created your
new courses with pre-populated
template content

34. Step 1
Archive your legacy courses
to a new folder
Step 2
Suspend
current users
on legacy
course
Step 3
Create new
courses and
restore content
Step 4
Enrol your new
users onto the
new courses
Step 4

35. 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

36. Step 1
Archive your legacy courses
to a new folder
Step 2
Suspend
current users
on legacy
course
Step 3
Create new
courses and
restore content
Step 4
Enrol your new
users onto the
new courses
Review of the 4-step process

37. Pitfalls

38. 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

39. 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.

40. Bribe with biscuits

41. 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

42. Room for improvement (wishlist)
● Role replacement via CSV
● Automatic Category Creation from CSV

43. Storage
Space

44. Some useful links
http://www.somerandomthoughts.com/blog/201
2/09/14/end-of-year-rollover/
https://docs.moodle.org/29/en/Year-
end_procedures

45. Questions?
@lewiscarr #moodlerollovers