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About Backups:
Backups are used for moving a course from the Development server to the Instructional server for student access at anytime you want students to view the course materials. Until that time, students only see an empty course shell.
It is also advisable to create a backup of your course several times during the semester, especially prior to working with the Student Database, after midterms, and at the end of the semester.
Backups are stored on the WebCT server. You are limited to 2 backups per course. Backups can be downloaded and archived in order to make room for additional backups in your course.
The process of creating a backup is the same no matter what server you are wanting to backup your course on (Development or Instructional).
To Create a Backup:
Log into the course and select the “Control Panel” button (located in the upper left corner).
Select the "Manage Course" button.
Click the text link for "Create backup".
Enter a description of the backup and click the "Create" button.
WAIT till the progression bar is blue and WebCT informs you the backup was successful/completed (corruption may occur if you do not wait for the entire process to finish).
To Download a backup:
Confirm the radio button for the backup file has been selected, over on the right click the "Download" button.
Select to "Save this file to disk", locate an area on your computer to download to and click "Save" (if need be you can alter the file name of the backup to anything you would like, making sure to KEEP the .zip extension name).
Backup files are not to be edited on a local computer it is a snap shot of the course and are used for Restoring back to WebCT only.
To upload and restore:
Log OUT of the course.
Log into the course you want to restore the backup to and select the “Control Panel” button (if this is a NEW course you may need to turn off the Course Design Center first by selecting the link for "Use Course Design Center Later").
Select the "Manage Course" button.
Select the link for "Upload backup".
Select the "Browse" button.
Locate the file on your local computer, click once to select, click "Open" and click the "Upload" button.
Confirm the radio button is selected next to the desired backup file, over on the right select the button for "KEEP Users" (you MUST select KEEP USERS in order to maintain registered students in the course). Click "Ok" if prompted.
WAIT till the progression bar is blue and WebCT informs you the restoration was successful/completed (corruption may occur if you do not wait for the entire process to finish) and click "Continue".
NOTE: if the backup is being restored to the Development server you can select to "Reset Course" which will zero out all student data, including Mail and Discussion.
