Why use it?

Each year, a brand new copy is made of almost every Moodle course ahead of the new academic year. However, there is a small number of cases where the same course is used year on year instead. This includes some programme-level information pages, staff resource pages etc. Owners of these pages may occasionally wish to reset these courses, removing all enrolments and user data for a clean slate.

The Reset option allows editors to empty a course of user data while retaining the course content, activities, resources and other settings.

Step 1: Reset a course

Go to the course page you would like to reset. From the Quick Navigation Menu click on MORE, then COURSE REUSE

Open

On the Course reuse page, choose RESET.

Open

The next page will present you with the options and settings you can choose.

Step 2: Settings

The reset page gives you many options for granular control of what data is removed and what is retained. Here are the most relevant settings you to consider. At the bottom of the page you’ll find a quick guide to the right settings for a full reset.

General

• Change the start or end date of your course. Option to delete any events scheduled in the course calendar, and to remove any notes or comments added to user accounts in the context of this course.

Roles

• Allows you to choose which roles will be removed from the course. You may, for example, wish to remove all students but leave the teachers' accounts in place.

Gradebook

• Option to remove any gradebook items that you manually added to your course (as opposed to grade items associated with activities like assignments etc, which are handled separately).

Groups

• When users are removed, you can choose to retain any groups or groupings (groups of groups) so that you can reuse them.

Assignments

• Choose whether or not to remove student submissions. If you leave this unticked then the submissions remain in the course. They will not be accessible if the students who submitted them are removed from the course, but re-adding a student will cause their assignments to reappear.

Other Activities

• Many other activities (such as ‘Forums’, ‘Boards’, etc have their own reset options. Expand the relevant section to choose how they are to be treated.

“Reset not Implemented”

• Some activities, such as the reading list and lecture capture link cannot be reset in this process. This section can be safely ignored.

Once done, click Reset course. Confirm your options and click Continue to finalise.

Click the Reset course button at the bottom of the page and wait for the process to complete.

Quick guide to settings for a standard refresh

The settings below will replicate what happens when a new course copy is created. In most cases, these settings are what you need for removing all user data and keeping all files and activities.

1. Under General set a new Course start date and optionally a Course end date. Remember, the end date of a course will begin a six-week countdown after which the course will be archived! Leave the end date unchecked for perpetual courses that never need to be archived.

2. Tick the following:

   1. Delete events,

   2. Delete all notes,

   3. Delete all comments,

   4. Delete completion data,

   5. Delete blog associations,

   6. Delete competency ratings.

3. Under Roles, select the following:

   1. Teacher,

   2. Student,

   3. Auditing - student

4. Ensure Delete all overrides in course and Delete all local role assignments are ticked.

5. Under Gradebook, ensure Delete all items and categories and Delete all grades are ticked

6. Under Groups, ensure Delete all groups and Remove all group members are ticked. However, ensure Delete all groupings is NOT ticked, or you will find resources and activities that are restricted to group members will cease to function.

7. Under Forums, ensure Delete all posts is ticked. Ensure Delete all per-user forum digest preferences and Delete all forum subscriptions are NOT ticked, to retain the preferences of those who will remain enrolled after the reset.

8. Under Assignments, ensure Delete all submissions, Delete all user overrides and Delete all group overrides are ticked.

9. If you are using Turnitin Assignments (V2), ensure you select Replace Turnitin Assignments (Replace Assignment Parts, Reuse Turnitin Class) from the drop-down list. Please also see the note on that page regarding the Use new assignment dates option.