Written by Berlin Fang

You can use the “export/archive” functions to back up your course data with CourseSites. You will need to do this for a number of reasons:

  1. Creating a copy of the course so that it can be imported into a shell in future semesters;

  2. Restoring a past course to check certain information.

Usually you do this at the end of the semester, but you can do so multiple times during the semester as long as you have space to store such files.

CourseSites gives you the option to “export” or “archive” a course. The former allows you to mainly export the content of the course, while the latter allows you to preserve student activities (especially Grade Center history) as well.

Check this tutorial for instructions on archiving your course.

If you export a particular type of content (such as tests only)  from one course to another, you may want to consider using “export course” function to export the source course first (see tutorial), and then use “import package” to import (see tutorial).

You can also download your Grade Center data for backing up or for offline grading. Check this tutorial for details. If you intend to use this option to grade offline, make sure there is no change in columns or users between the time you download the grades and the time you upload the Excel file back.