New Moodle Rollover and Archiving Process - FAQ

From June 2024, we’re changing the way the new academic year is handled in Moodle. The old ‘refresh’ process and archive snapshots are being retired. Instead, we will be creating new copies of course pages for each academic year and storing the old ones in a special archive section within the main moodle.lse.ac.uk site.

Please read through our FAQ for further details. If you have any questions that aren’t covered, reach out to eden.digital@lse.ac.uk

Key Dates & Information

Review our infographic for essential dates and details about the new Moodle rollover and archive process.

Infographic- Key Dates & Information

 

Open

 

What will the new process look like and How can I navigate it?

A video resource has been created which provides a comprehensive overview of the new Moodle and archiving process. We've included numerous interface shots to give a clear understanding of what the new system looks like and how it functions.

Why is the process for handling the new academic year in Moodle changing?

The process is being updated to better reflect the needs of the School. Under the new system:

• Editors will have a longer window to work on pages for the next academic year.

• Student work and activities during the summer months will not be lost.

• Reusing material from old courses will be easier.

• Managers will no longer need to manually refresh any courses.

• Moodle will not need to be taken offline as in previous years.

From a technical point of view, there are also security benefits to no longer maintaining separate archives, and performance improvements to creating new pages rather than repeatedly refreshing old ones.

What changes can we expect in the new process?

Users will see two major changes:

1. Instead of refreshing existing pages in September, new copies of course pages will be created in June and can then be edited at any time ahead of the new academic year.

2. Instead of creating a separate archive site as we have previously done, the 2023/24 archive (and all subsequent years) will be housed in a special archive section of the main Moodle site.

From mid-June, users will see two top-level sections in Moodle ‘2023/24’ containing the current versions of courses and ‘2024/25’ containing the copies that will be used in the new academic year.

When will new courses be available to edit and who can edit them?

The process of copying courses will run in the background on Moodle from June 17 2024 and all courses will be ready by June 19.

Those who had Manager or Teacher (Editor) roles in a course this year will also have them on the new copy.

What will the new courses contain?

The new courses will be exact duplicates of the copied course (as they appear on June 17) except for student data.

They will contain all files, activities, and resources from the previous version. They will not contain student contributions, assignment submissions, forum posts, or logs.

Will all courses be duplicated?

All courses will be duplicated unless they have been opted out by your department. Examples of courses which have been opted out include:

• Old courses no longer in use. These will be archived one last time but not copied.

• Permanent courses where enrolment data does not change, such as staff resource pages. These will be moved with all their existing data to the 2024/25 section.

• 2024/25 courses that have already been created by special request before June.

The Digital Education team is working with all departments to identify such courses. If you are unsure about any of your courses, please reach out to eden.digital@lse.ac.uk

Will the new courses be visible to students?

No. On creation, the new courses will be hidden. No students will be enrolled and the course will not appear in search until an editor unhides it.

Will Lecture Recordings and Reading Lists be affected?

Many Moodle pages contain links to Echo360 Lecture Recordings and Leganto Reading lists. The new process affects each slightly differently:

Lecture Recording links will be copied exactly from the previous version of the course. You will need to replace these in the same way as previous years.

Reading Lists will automatically update to link to the correct year for your course as long as that reading list exists in Leganto. This year, the library will be creating pages for the new academic year in late June.

I want to start editing my course before June 17. Can I do that?

Yes. If you want to prepare material early, you can do this in the existing course and it will be copied to the new 2024/25 version of the course on June 17. However, please bear in mind that any changes you make will affect existing students who may request access to the 2023/24 version of the course for future resits or revision. Please do not delete any material these students may need. You may wish to hide any new resources you make before duplication, and then unhide them in the 2024/25 page once it is available.

This year, June 17 is the schoolwide date for creation of new courses. In future years, there will be the option of an early or late rollover date if requested by departments.

Do we still need to use the ‘Do Not Refresh’ tag?

No. The new process replaces the need to refresh courses. The ‘Do Not Refresh’ tag is no longer necessary and departments will no longer need to manually reset any courses.

What will happen to existing courses?

The existing (2023/24) courses will continue to be available and visible throughout the summer. Once they are no longer active, they will still be accessible in Moodle as an archive with certain restrictions.

Access to these courses will change in the following order:

• From June 17 it will no longer be possible for students to self-enrol in these courses.

• After IRDAP (August 30) courses will reach their end date and will move to the ‘past courses' section of the ‘Course overview’ area on users' Moodle dashboards.

• Six weeks later (October 11) courses will automatically enter ‘read-only’ mode. It will no longer be possible to edit, add, or remove any material.

What is the difference between the ‘end date’ and the ‘read-only’ date?

The end date is the point at which a course moves from ‘In Progress’ to ‘Past’ in a user’s course list in Moodle. Existing students and teachers can still interact fully with the course.

The ‘read-only’ date is calculated based on end date + six weeks, allowing enough time for extensions, marking, and feedback. After this date, interaction with the course beyond basic viewing is heavily restricted. (See below ‘What is ‘read-only’ mode?')

Important: The default end date for all courses is after IRDAP - this year that is August 30. Therefore, the default ‘Read-only’ date is October 11. We are working with departments to identify courses for which these dates are too late or too early. If you have any questions, please get in touch with eden.digital@lse.ac.uk

What is ‘read-only’ mode?

When accessing a course in read-only mode, users still have permission to view anything they could before, but can no longer make any changes. This matches the current restrictions in the existing archives.

Read-only mode is used to ensure course materials remain unchanged for students who need to refer back to them for revision or resits, or for teachers and editors who wish to see how a course looked in a previous year.

A course can be temporarily taken out of read-only mode on request to Digital Education.

Can I change the date on which a course goes into read-only mode?

Yes. The best way to do this for multiple courses is by contacting Digital Education to discuss your needs.

On an individual course basis, changing the course end date will change the date at which it enters read-only mode (as this is always end date + six weeks). Please remember that it is important for the integrity of our archives that editing be disabled on courses in a timely manner. Changes to course end date should never be pushed far into the future.

If you need a course to be placed into read-only mode immediately, without a waiting period, contact Digital Education.

Will archived courses be hidden?

No. Archived courses will not be hidden. This is a change from previous years where all courses in the archive sites were hidden by default.

Editors will still have the ability to hide or unhide courses at any time until the course enters read-only mode.

Once a course enters read-only mode, its visible/hidden status can only be changed by Digital Education or a manager with special permissions.

Important: Departments that wish to have all courses hidden by a certain date should contact Digital Education before September to make arrangements.

Who will be able to access archived courses?

Unhidden archived courses will be accessible to anyone who was actively enrolled in the course at the end of summer term of the year in which the course ran. They will be able to view, but not edit, course contents.

No new students will be able to access the course without permission from the department, who should send a request to eden.digital@lse.ac.uk to manually add the user.

How long will archives be retained?

Archives will be retained for three years after the year in which they are live.

For example, the 2023/24 archive will be decommissioned and removed from the site in September 2027.

Can I reuse material from archived courses?

Yes. Reusing material, activities, or whole sections from old courses is now much simpler as you can use the Import function. Material imported from a read-only course will be fully editable in the course into which it is imported.

Will Lecture Recordings and Reading Lists work in the archive?

Yes. The links to lecture recordings and reading lists in archived courses will continue to work just as they did when the course was live and will continue to point to the correct year.

How can I tell which version of a course I’m viewing?

There are features that should make it very easy to tell which version of a course you are viewing:

• From June 2024, all courses will include the academic year in their title. (This will be retrospectively added to 2023 courses after IRDAP to avoid confusion).

• All archived courses will display a banner at the top telling you which year’s archive you are in.

• You will know you are in an archived course, and not the live version, if your permissions are restricted and you no longer have any options to edit the course.