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Backing Up Your Course

WebCT Course instructors are responsible for making a backup of your course to retain student information. You can also use the course backup feature during the semester to keep a record of different stages of your course. It is best to backup your course and then download the file to your home or office computer.

(Note: this backup procedure will produce a zip file which can only be use within WebCT. It is not a traditional zip file that may be unzipped outside of the WebCT environment with Winzip or Zipit).

Backing up a Course

Click on Manage Course under the Control Panel.
In the bottom right hand corner, under Course Functions, click on Backup Course.
Under Backup Course, select Create backup and click on Go.
Enter a description of the backup that will help you to identify it (i.e. Fall 2002) and click on Create.
When the system has completed the backup, it will return a "Success" message. Click on the Continue button.
Select the newly created backup file by clicking in the circle to the left of the file name.
Under Backup File Functions, select Download and click on Go.
Click on Save File.
Select a folder on your hard drive (or network drive) in which to save the file. Change the file name if necessary. Click on Save.

Downloading the Gradebook (to easily archive grades)

Click on Manage Course under the Control Panel.
Click on Manage Students.
Make sure that you are viewing all of the columns that you want to download (note: hidden column will not download). If you do not see a column that you want to download, under Advanced Options, select Modify columns and click on Go. Select the additional columns that you would like to see by checking the box at the top of the column. Under Modify Columns, select Hide Columns and No. Click on Update. Click on Return to Manage Students to return to the Gradebook.
Click on the Download button.
For record separator, select Comma. Click on the Download button.
Click on Save File.
Select a folder on your hard drive (or network) in which to save the file. Change the file name if necessary. Click on Save.

Note: you can open this file using Microsoft Excel.

Downloading Mail Messages (optional)

Click on your Mail tool.
Click on the folder for which you would like to download messages. (Note: from the All folder, you can download messages from All folders.)
Click on Select All or select the messages which you would like to download by checking the box to the left of the message.
For the "Apply to selected message(s) below" field, select Compile and click on Go.
Click on the Download button.
Click on Save File.
Select a folder on your hard drive (or network) in which to save the file. Change the file name if necessary. Click on Save.
Repeat for additional folders if necessary.

Note: Downloaded mail messages will not include attachments. You may want to download WebCT e-mail attachments, if you have not done so during the course of the semester. To download an attachment, open the e-mail with the attachment, click on See Attached, select the file, click on Download, click on Save File, select an appropriate folder for the file on your computer or network and click on Save.

Downloading Discussion Messages (optional)

Click on your Discussions tool.
Click on the folder for which you would like to download messages. (Note: from the All folder, you can download messages from All folders.)
Click on Select All or select the messages which you would like to download by checking the box to the left of the message.
For the "Apply to selected message(s) below" field, select Compile and click on Go.
Click on the Download button.
Click on Save File.
Select a folder on your hard drive (or network) in which to save the file. Change the file name if necessary. Click on Save.
Repeat for additional folders if necessary

Note: Downloaded discussion messages will not include attachments. You may want to download discussion message attachments, if you have not done so during the course of the semester. To download an attachment, open the discussion message with the attachment, click on See Attached, select the file, click on Download, click on Save File, select an appropriate folder for the file on your computer or network and click on Save.

Note: Resetting the Discussions Tool will remove all Discussion topics. If you want to keep your Discussion topics, you should manually delete your discussion messages. (To manually delete your messages, open the discussions tool, select Manage Messages, select the messages that you would like to delete, select "Delete the selected messages," and click on Go.

Downloading Chat Logs (optional)

Click on Manage Files under Control Panel.
Under My-Files, click on the chat folder to open it.
Each room that has a chat log will be listed.
Select a chat log by checking the box to the left of the file.
For the "Select file(s) below, select an action, and click on Go" field, select Download and click on Go.
Click on the Download button.
Click on Save File.
Select a folder on your hard drive (or network) in which to save the file. Click on Save.

Downloading Student Presentations (optional)

Click on Manage Files under Control Panel.
Student presentation files are under the My-Files folder, in a folder called student_pres. Each group has its own folder.
Click on a group's presentation folder to open it.
Select all of the files in a folder by checking the box to the left of each file name.
For the "Select file(s) below, select an action, and click on Go" field, select Zip and click on Go.
For the "Zip the selected files to" field, select the group's presentation folder. (Note: do not select a "_vti_cnf" folder.
For the "Filename" field enter an appropriate filename and click on Zip.
Select the newly created zip file in the group's presentation folder.
For the "Select file(s) below, select an action, and click on Go" field, select Download and click on Go.
Click on the Download button.
Click on Save File.
Select a folder on your hard drive (or network) in which to save the file. Click on Save.

Note: To open this zipped file, use a program like PKZip or WinZip.

Download Assignment Submissions (optional)

Note: if you downloaded and saved all assignments while you were grading them, you can skip this step.

Click on your Assignments tool.
Click on Designer Options.
For the Assignment that you would like to download submissions, click on Submissions.
Under Status, click on Graded for the first student.
Click on the View Files button.
Select a file and click on the Download button.
Click on Save File.
Select a folder on your hard drive (or network) in which to save the file. Change the file name if necessary. Click on Save.
Repeat for additional students and assignments as necessary.