Moodle: Export files and coursework

LITS strongly recommends that instructors export copies of files they wish to keep long-term. This provides a long-term backup of materials like papers, projects, and syllabi, which professors may want to use for future courses. The "Why should I do this?" section has more information on why storing backups is important.

Moodle has a feature for creating backups: Download Center for downloading course files that can be stored outside of Moodle.

Before you begin, you may need:

To be enrolled as a participant in a Bryn Mawr Moodle course

Download course content

On the course main menu, click More button.
From the drop-down menu that opens, select Download Course Content.
Click Download to save a .zip file to your hard drive of everything you have submitted to the course. Please note that the zip file will not contain any files that are larger than 250 MB.
Move this .zip folder to your long-term storage location, such as a folder on your hard drive, an external drive, a network drive (H:// or S:// drive), or a cloud-storage platform other than your Bryn Mawr OneDrive account.
Unzip the folder if you want to use and organize the files or upload them to a bibliographic tool like Zotero.

Attention: Instructors may prevent students from downloading course content as part of Course Settings. If your professor has done this but you still want to access your course submissions, please contact them directly.

Why should I do this?

You will not have access to Moodle content forever: Instructors will lose access to course materials when old courses are removed from Moodle (see Bryn Mawr's Moodle retention policy ) or they leave the college.
Moodle is not designed for file storage: Using a bibliographic tool like Zotero or nested folders on a file storage drive (e.g., OneDrive or your H:// drive) generally makes it easier to find and re-use files.
Backing up important files is a critical component of personal data security: Although LITS makes every effort to ensure Moodle content is backed up and can be restored in case of disaster, keeping your own back-up copies provides another layer of insurance against data loss.

Please note that downloading, use, and storage of Moodle content is subject to the College’s Acceptable Use, Copyright, and Data Handling policies. If you have any questions about these policies or how they apply, please contact the Help Desk.