Backup Course


It is required that you create at least one backup of your online course at the end of the semester. It is very important that you do this so that you capture grades, email, discussion, and assignments. You should create your course backup after you have finalized all your grades and completed teaching for the semester. Occasionally you may need to view a backup of a previous semester course so it is your responsibility to keep these backups. Save them onto a CD for safekeeping and/or on the harddrive of your computer.

During the sememster, we recommend bi-weekly backups of your course. It's especially important to export your gradebook frequently.

 
   
 

WebCT Homepage:

1. Click on Manage Course from the control panel.
Figure 1



Figure 1    
     
 

2. From the Manage Course page, find Backup Course on the right side of the screen. Click on Create Backup.


Figure 2

Figure 2  

   

 

  3. Enter a description of your backup and then click on Create.
Figure 3
Figure 3    
     
Figure 4   4. Your course will begin to backup. The progress bar will show you the status of the backup procedure.
Figure 4

Note: Depending on the size of your course the backup time may vary.
   
     


Figure 5

  

5. Upon successful completion, you will receive a success notice. You will also be able to see the filename that was generated. Notice that the filename has a zip extension. This is a zip file of your course. You can only open this zip file in a WebCT course template.

Click on Continue.
Figure 5

   
     
 

6. The backup filename, the file size and the description will appear on the Backup Course page.

Select the file by clicking on the radio button (circle).
Figure 6

Figure 6    
     
 

7. Now you will download your course backup file to your computer or to a CD.

Select Download from the Backup File Functions on the 'Actions' list to the right.
Figure 7

Figure 7    
     
 

8. You will be prompted to save your file.
In your file name inlcude your CRN, the semester, your course name and a date.
Example: 071MATH116CRN12345

Click on Save and locate where you would like to save your backup file, either to your computer or to a CD.
Figure 8

 

Figure 8    
     
How to Restore a Course from Backup Into a Blank Shell
     


Figure 9 		 

9.UPLOAD THE BACKUP from your computer into your new course shell first.

From the Manage Course page, find Backup Course on the right side of the screen. Click on Upload Backup.

You also have four restore options available with regard to who is using the course (enrolled students, instructor(s), course administrators):
You have the option to:
Replace users; Update users; Keep users; Reset Course.
Figure 9

It is best if you select Keep Users. This prevents students and their records from the backed-up course appearing in this new course, yet your discussion topics should all be there if you wanted them from the old course. Please remember to clean out the discussion postings (keeping the topics) and to clean emails that you do not want .


Warning: Using any of these options will overwrite your course content in that new shell which is OK.

Reset Course will allow you to copy your course content only without the discussion topics, postings and emails..