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Tutorials

Moving Content Between Courses - Backup and Restore Your WebCT Course

So, you used WebCT last semester. You took loads of time adding all the content, creating all the quizzes and getting the gradebook just the way you like it. This semester, you open up your new WebCT courses and all you see is a generic template that states that you aret even using WebCT this semester!

What's up with that?!?

Well, with the connection to our SIS, each course has a WebCT shell automatically created. Since most faculty aren't going to use WebCT we had to populate the courses with a template that made it clear to students that their faculty member isn't using WebCT. Thus the odd statement in a class that you know is a live WebCT course.

Fear not however!

Just as in the past, all your content from old WebCT courses can be moved into your new WebCT course. The only difference is that you are now able to do it yourself instead of waiting on the WebCT admin to create them. It's really quite easy and is all done using the backup/restore tools provide in WebCT.

Creating a Course Backup

You can back up your course at any stage of development. After you create a backup, we recommend that you download it to your computer for safekeeping. If you don't like the changes you've made to the course or if you need to move the course to a different WebCT server, you can upload and restore the backup.

The time required to back up a course depends on both the size of the course and the speed of the server. Large courses may take more than 10 minutes to back up. If backups seem to take a long time, consult with your system administrator.

NOTE: If you back up a cross-listed course, it is backup of the master course, which contains all of the course content and users from the cross-listed set. The backup's filename will contain the Course ID of the master course. For more information, see Cross-listed courses.

  1. From the Control Panel, click Manage Course. The Manage Course screen appears.
  2. Click Backup Course. The Backup Courses screen appears.
  3. Under Options: Backup Files, click Create backup. The Create Backup screen appears.
  4. In the text box, enter a brief description for the backup course. This description will appear in the Backup Filename table.
    NOTE:     The backup course's filename is created automatically.
  5. Click Create. A confirmation screen appears.
    NOTE: The backup is automatically saved as a zip file.
  6. Click Continue. The Backup Course screen appears with the backup course listed.

Restoring a Course Backup

Restoring a course backup allows you to overwrite the existing course. Quiz and Assignment grades, Discussions topics, Mail messages, and content files are deleted from the restored course. When you restore a course backup, you have the following options:

  • Replace users: This option replaces the users who are in the existing course with the users from the backup file. The restored course includes Discussions topics, Mail messages, and course content from the backup.
    NOTE: Do note use this feature. It will destroy student access to your course due to our SIS integration.
  • Update users: This option keeps the users, their status (active or inactive), and their access (allowed or denied access) in the existing course but updates other data for those users from the backup file. The restored course includes Discussions topics, Mail messages, and course content from the backup.
    NOTE: Choose this if you are restoring a backup of a course on top of itself. (ex: restoring a backup of "COURSE A" over "COURSE A").
  • Keep users: This option keeps the users, their status (active or inactive), and their access (allowed or denied access) in the existing course. The restored course includes Discussions topics, Mail messages, and course content from the backup. This option ignores any users from the backup file.
    NOTE:  Choose this if you are restoring a backup of one course on top of another course. (ex: restoring a backup of "COURSE A" over "COURSE B".)
  • Reset course: This option restores course content but not users from the backup file.
    NOTE: This feature will not be available on a SIS generated course.

Before you restore a backup, we recommend that you back up the existing course and download it to your computer for safekeeping. If you don't like the changes in the restored course, you can upload and restore the existing course. The time needed to restore a course depends on the course file size and the speed of the server. Important: If you want to restore a cross-listed course over another cross-listed course, contact your WebCT administrator.

To Restore a Course Backup:

  1. From the Control Panel, click Manage Course. The Manage Course screen appears.
  2. Click Backup Course. The Backup Courses screen appears.
  3. From the Backup Filename table, select the backup that you want to restore.
  4. Under Options: Restore, click an option. A warning message appears.
  5. Click OK. The course backup is restored to the selected courses.
  6. Click Continue. The Backup Courses screen appears.

Deleting a Course Backup

Course backups can take up a significant amount of disk space on the server, especially if the course contains a large number of images or multimedia elements. Therefore, some WebCT administrators limit the number of backups you can store on the WebCT server. Please consult your WebCT administrator to determine the maximum course file size should be and how many backups you can store. If you have reached your backup limit, you can download the backups to your computer and delete the backups on the WebCT server. You can then back up your course again.

  1. From the Control Panel, click Manage Course. The Manage Course screen appears.
  2. Click Backup Course. The Backup Courses screen appears.
  3. From the Backup Filename table, select the course backup that you want to delete.
  4. Under Options: Backup Files, click Delete. A warning message appears.
  5. Click OK. The backup is deleted.

Downloading a Course Backup

We recommend that you download course backups to your computer instead of only keeping the backups on the WebCT server. If server problems occur, you will have backups of your courses. You can download only one course backup at a time.

  1. From the Control Panel, click Manage Course. The Manage Course screen appears.
  2. Click Backup Course. The Backup Courses screen appears.
  3. From the Backup Filename table, select the course backup that you want to download.
  4. Under Options: Backup Files, click Download. Your computer's file download window appears.
  5. Follow the on-screen instructions.

Uploading a Course Backup

You can upload a course backup only after it has been downloaded to your computer. Do not unzip the backup file before uploading it. The time required to upload a course backup depends on the course file size and on the speed of the server.

  1. From the Control Panel, click Manage Course. The Manage Course screen appears.
  2. Click Backup Course. The Backup Courses screen appears.
  3. Under Options: Backup Files, click Upload backup. The Upload Backup File screen appears.
  4. Next to the Filename text box, click Browse. Your computer's file browser appears.
  5. Select the file that you want to upload. The path and filename of your backup appears in the Filename text box.
  6. Click Upload. The backup is uploaded.

Finishing Touches

Resetting the Course: When you roll over a course there are a few things that may stay in the course such as old calendar entries, old discussions, and old email. You will want to reset the course to clear out the old entries.

  1. Click on the Control Panel then on Manage Students
  2. Click on Reset Course
  3. A list of items to reset will appear. Click the checkboxes next to the items you wish to reset.
  4. Click Reset

Adding the Midterm/Final Grade Columns: The generic template already has the Midterm Grade and Final Grade columns in the gradebook and is ready for the grades to be submitted. If you load an old backup (from the old version), these columns will be erased.

Dot worry! You can add them back.

  1. Go to the gradebook area, Manage Course > Manage Students
  2. Under the Advanced Option dropdown choose Modify Columns then click Go
  3. From the menu to the right choose Add Colmn
  4. Make sure the columns are labeled Midterm Grade and Final Grade
    NOTE: The columns must be named EXACTLY the way they are shown above for the grade submission to work properly.

Interesting Tidbit

  • Restoring a backup from the Course Functions area will NOT overwrite the current student information with old student information
  • Restoring a backup from within a course (Manage Course > Backup Course) will allow you the option to overwrite your student information from the old backup
  • You can submit your grades directly to SIS from WebCT but your columns must be labeled Midterm Grade and Final Grade
  • If you upload a backup from the old (3.1) version the Midterm Grade and Final Grade columns will be removed. You can add them back by going into the Manage Course > Manage Students > Modify Columns > Add Column