WebCT Backups

Backup: Entire Course | Gradebook | Bulletin Board | Mail | Course Files

Backup a Course

The WebCT course backup provides a quick way to backup an entire course into one file that you can then download to your own hard drive or removable storage. This backup file is for emergency purposes only. Should you ever need to restore a course from a backup, please consult with the WebCT Administrator first.

To make a WebCT course backup:

1. Click the Control Panel button and then click Manage Course.
2. Click Create backup under Backup Course.
3. Enter a short description of the backup file (e.g., end of fall semester 2004), then click Create.
4. After the backup file has been created, click Continue. 
5. On the Backup Courses page, click the radio button (round button) to the left of the new backup filename.
6. Under Options: Backup Files, click the Download button. 
7. After a few seconds, you should see a File Download dialog box. Select the option to save/download the file to disk. 
8. Browse to find a location to save the file on your hard drive or other storage medium (most WebCT backup files are too large for a floppy disk).
9. To delete the backup file, click the Delete button (under Options: Backup Files). Click OK to delete the file.

System backups: All courses are automatically backed up each morning and are saved for one week. Please contact the WebCT Administrator immediately if you need to retrieve information (grades, files, etc.) from a course backup file. 

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Backup Your Gradebook

1. Click the Control Panel button and then click Manage Course.
2. Click Manage students at the top of the left column. Your course gradebook should be displayed.
3. Click the first drop-down menu, under Options: Records, and select Download. Click the Go button just to the right of this menu.
4. Select Comma for the record separator, then click the Download button.
5. Select the option to save the file to disk and click OK. 
6. Rename the file something like acc211 gradebook.csv (the .csv will allow you to open this file directly in Excel). Navigate to the disk/folder where you would like to save the file, then click Save.

To open the gradebook file in Excel, locate the file on your computer and double-click it. A file with the extension .csv should open in Excel unless another program has been assigned to open files with that extension. You may also start Microsoft Excel and use File > Open to open the file.

If your gradebook file has the default .txt extension, then you will need to follow these instructions:

1. Start Microsoft Excel.
2. Click the File menu and select Open. 
3. Locate the gradebook file you downloaded from WebCT and open it. Note: You will probably have to change the Files of type option to All Files or Text in order to see the file.
4. In step 1 of the Text Import Wizard, select Delimited in the Original Data Type section, then click Next. 
5. In step 2, click the checkbox for Comma and deselect any other boxes that are checked. Click Next. 
6. In step 3, check your data to see if there are columns that should be categorized as Text. Examples might include social security numbers, section numbers, zip codes, birthdays, etc. To change a column type, click General at the top of the column, then select the appropriate type under Column data format. 
7. Click Finish. 
8. Save the file as a normal Excel workbook. Use File > Save As, then select Microsoft Excel Workbook (*.xls) from the Save as type selection box.

Backup Your Bulletin Board

1. Go to the main Bulletin Board page in your course. This is the page that lists all of the "Topics" in the bulletin board. Switch to Designer Options view.
2. Click the All link at the bottom of the topics list.
3. On the Display panel click All. This should display all bulletin board messages from all topics. You may also choose between listing the messages in a Threaded (by subject) or Unthreaded (chronological) view.
4. Click the check box to the left of the Subject column label. This will select all of the messages listed.
5. Scroll to the bottom of the message list window...OR...click the Designer message options link at the top of the message list.
6. Click the Compile button. A new window will open that displays all of the selected messages. At this point you may print this window or save the messages into a file. In most browsers you will be able to choose File > Save As and then save the file in a text or HTML (web page) format. The HTML format should preserve formatting and may be easier to read.

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Backup Your Course Mail

In general, you can follow the instructions for backing up bulletin board messages (see above). You may also choose to backup selected folders individually. If you wish to backup a single folder (Inbox, Outbox, etc.) click the folder name on the main mail page instead of clicking All.

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Backup Your Course Files

You can create a backup of the files that you have uploaded in the Manage Files area. These are files that you typically make available to students via Single Page links (such as Word, PowerPoint, Excel, PDF, or other files). To create a backup of your course files:

1. Click the Control Panel button and then click Manage Files.
2. Click the check box to the left of My-Files to select this folder (and all of the files/folders within My-Files).
3. In the Actions frame to the right, under Options: Folders, click the Zip button.
4. Enter a name for the zip file and select a folder where you would like to save it; then click the Zip button. This will compile and compress all of the files/folders in My-Files into a single Zip-format file. The new file should appear in the location you specified. NOTE: This could take several seconds to a minute or so depending on the number and sizes of your files.
5. To download the file to your computer, click the check box to the left of the name of the zip file. Then click the Download button in the Actions frame.
6. To open the zip file on your computer, you will need a Zip utility such as WinZip (shareware), EasyZip (freeware), or others. Links to a few of these programs are available on our Downloads page.