ITRC

Instructional Technology Resource Center

Moodle ISU – Start of Semester Checklist


Faculty members are responsible for restoring their own course materials at the beginning of each semester. Content can be brought into the course using the backup and restore tools. Handouts that outline each process are listed below:

Using Previous Course Materials


Clean up course files. When restoring course backups into your new course, only select those files required for a new course offering. Saving video and narrated presentations in your course may cause problems when backing up and restoring course materials. Media files should be stored on separate servers (i.e., ISU Real server or Adobe Presenter server). Contact the ITRC if you need assistance with backups or restores of course materials.

Archive Your Course Files


Keep a backup copy of the course files with student data. This step is highly recommended. The backup copy will have .zip format and can be downloaded and saved on your computer to be accessed at a later date. This is particularly helpful when a student wishes to contest a course grade (for more information, see the Backing up your Moodle Course handout). The instructor is responsible for all Moodle backup files.

Create a backup to transfer content to another semester. If the backup will be used in a different semester, it is important that student data is not included in the backup option.

Start of Term Course Availability

  1. Remember to make your course available to students at the start of the semester.  Instructions can be found in the Making your Moodle Course Available to Students handout.
  2. Students are enrolled into Moodle the week prior to the start of the semester.
  3. All academic courses are created in Moodle each semester.  New courses are created as the Registrar’s office data is updated. If you will be teaching multiple sections of the same course and would like one Moodle course for all of your sections, you will need to request a multi-section or meta course to manage your materials. Only the courses for individual sections are automatically created.
  4. If an instructor does not see his/her course listed in Moodle, he/she should contact the ITRC to attain access.
  5. If you do not want to see older courses you may unenroll from the course. Select the "Unenroll me” listing in the Administration block in your course and remove yourself from the course. Make sure you have made a backup of your course prior to unenrolling.
Term Date for automatic creation
Spring 2010 Nov 16, 2009
Summer 2010 Feb 15, 2010
Fall 2010 To be Determined

 

Courses with Multimedia Content

  1. Video files placed in courses will need to be backed up for future use.
  2. For encoded classes, the link will be saved in your course backup, however, we will be deleting video files at the end of each semester unless a request is sent to the ITRC to keep specific files.
  3. To request encoded videos (not encoded classes) to be linked in your Moodle ISU course, complete the Video Encoding/Posting Request Form.
  4. Adobe Presentations
    1. If presentation files have been stored on the Adobe Presenter (Breeze) Server, the link to these files will be backed up with course data.
    2. If the video files were placed within the Moodle course itself, they should be moved to the Adobe Presenter (Breeze) Server.
    3. Instructors are responsible for the original PowerPoint and the PPC files used to create narrated lectures. These files are necessary for editing purposes. These files should be stored on your computer.
    4. Files more than a year old will be removed. Please contact the ITRC if you would like to continue utilizing these files.

    Term Date for media files deletion
    Fall 2008 to Summer 2009 August 2010
    Fall 2009 to Summer 2010 August 2011
    Fall 2010 to Summer 2011 August 2012

Course Evaluations

Instructors can utilize Moodle for end of semester course evaluations. Please see the Course Evaluations page for more information on this process and contact your department.