Moodle Archives from 2006 – 2013 to be Retired

What is happening?

ITS will be turning off all Moodle Archive server instances that were used during Academic Years 2006-07 through 2012-13. The Moodle Archive for academic year 2013-14 will be retained for one more year, and all Moodle courses taught from 2014-15 to present will remain on our primary Moodle server at https://moodle.carleton.edu until they are 5 years old.

Why is this happening?

Since 2015, it has been our practice to maintain up to 5 years of Moodle courses plus the current academic year on our primary Moodle server, making it easier for faculty to re-use previously taught course materials for a new term.

However, maintaining the older servers has become a greater security risk and the old versions do not function well, making them much less useful.  An analysis of login data on the Moodle Archives show that few faculty access an archived Moodle site for anything other creating a backup of the course materials.  We are also bringing our Moodle data retention policy in line with the broader college policy on student data retention.

How do I get my course materials from the Moodle Archives?

The Moodle Archives have been retired, course materials prior to Summer 2014 are no longer available.

Upon request, ITS will create a Moodle backup file containing your posted course materials for any course.  You can then store these Moodle backup files with your other documents in Google Drive, Dropbox or on your computer. The Moodle backup file can be restored fully or in part to any Moodle course as needed. Complete this form to make a request to receive these backup files.  You will need to provide the exact course number including section and term for each course you wish to have backed up. If you do not have a record of the course numbers (with section and term!) for your previously taught courses, we have created a new report in our data warehouse to help you out! The “What did I teach” report in Carleton’s data warehouse will show you a list of all courses you’ve taught for Carleton. Please login to the data warehouse, powered by Power BI, to use the “What did I teach” report.  Instructions on how to use and download these data are available in Carlpedia.

Timeline

There are 7 instances of Moodle in the Moodle Archives scheduled for retirement this summer. Below is a table showing each year’s instance and the date we plan to retire the server or remove the data.

I still have questions!

If you have any questions about the retirement of the Moodle Archives, please feel free to contact Carly Born, x7010 or cborn@carleton.edu.  If you have questions about FERPA or related college policies regarding student data retention, please contact Emy Farley, Registrar, x4290 or efarley@carleton.edu.