Manage Course - Backup Course

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Creating a course backup | Top

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 | Top

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: Depending on administrator settings, this option may not be available.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Reset course: This option restores course content but not users from the backup file.

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 | Top

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 | Top

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 | Top

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.

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