Moodle - Sandbox or Community of Practice (CoP) sites (Innovate Now)

Below you will find instructions on how to create your own Moodle course site on the Innovate Now RRU Moodle server.

Basic info on the Innovate Now Moodle instance

Anyone with an RRU account, including students, can create their own Moodle site and/or import/export courses and test Moodle features within a course.
Innovate Now is not for testing site-wide settings or plugins. Testing can only be performed within courses.
Innovate Now runs the same version of Moodle as credit (the "main" Moodle instance at RRU).
Innovate Now is backed-up and can be used for courses or long-term course testing.

How to add a course/site

Navigate to the Manage courses and categories page on the Innovate Now server, which is only accessible with this link.
Select the category where you want your course to be, usually sandbox to indicate that it is a test course.
Select Create new course at the top.
Enter the Course full name and Course short name, and then and scroll down and select Save and Display. The other course settings may be changed later.
This will give you a basic 10 unit course/site.
If you're new to Moodle, you may find the following resources helpful:
- RRU Knowledge Base section on Moodle
- RRU OER Moodle course: Moodle: Getting Around (Self Study Resource)
- RRU OER Moodle course: Moodle: Editing & Enhancing (Self Study Resource)

How to add participants to your course/site

You will be automatically added as the instructor of the course. To add additional users, which must have valid RRU accounts, follow the steps below.
Select Participants in the navigation drawer on the top of the course.
At the top right, click on the Enrol users button.

Set Assign role to the role of the user you would like to add.
Next to Select users, search for the user you would like to add and click on the users name when it pops up. It's best to enrol users by RRU email address to ensure that you're enrolling the correct person.
Select the Enrol selected users and cohort button.

How to backup a course/site

From the main course page, click on the More menu option on the top menu and click on Course Reuse.
Select the top dropdown to Backup
Initial settings - Select activities, blocks, filters and other items as required then click the Next button. Users with appropriate permissions, such as administrators and managers, can choose whether to include users, anonymize user information, or include user role assignments, user files, comments, user completion details, course logs and grade history in the backup.
Schema settings - Select/deselect specific items to include in backup, then click the Next button.
If desired, select specific types of activity to be backed up by clicking the link 'Show type options'
Confirmation and review - Check that everything is as required, using the Previous button if necessary, otherwise click the 'Perform backup' button
Complete - Click the Continue button

A backup file (with distinctive .mbz extension to avoid confusion with .zip files) is then saved in the course backup area. Backup file names are of the form backup-moodle2-course-coursename-date-hour.mbz, ending in -nu.mbz when backed up with no users and -an.mbz with anonymized names. You will need to download and save this file prior to the upgrade.

How to restore a course/site

A course backup file (.mbz) may be restored from within any existing course for which you have permission. During the restore process, you will be given the option to restore as a new course or into an existing course.

Create an empty course/site (see above).
From the main course page, click on the More menu option on the top menu and click on Course Reuse (if you have an empty course to restore into).
Upload the backup file or choose a file in the course backup area or user private backup area and click Restore
Confirm - Check that everything is as required then click the Continue button
Destination - Choose whether the course should be restored as a new course or into an existing course then click the Continue button
Settings - Select activities, blocks, filters and possibly other items as required then click the Next button
Schema - Select/deselect specific items and amend the course name, short name and start date if necessary then click the Next button
Review - Check that everything is as required, using the Previous button if necessary, then click the 'Perform restore' button
Complete - Click the continue button

If you require further assistance please contact CTET Studio

IT-Services Knowledge Base