Read carefully before clicking to avoid problems.
Log onto the course.
Open the Control Panel.
Under Manage Course, select Backup Course.
Click the radio button (circle) in front of the existing backup file name if one is there. Example backup file name: CIS110_11325_Aug23_1657.zip. Following the date is the time. Here, 1627 is 4:57 PM. You are limited to one backup per course on the WebCT server.
In the Actions panel on the right, click Delete, and just say yes to the warnings.
In the Actions panel, click Create Backup. Type a description in the text box. WebCT adds the date and time so you can describe what is new or something to remind you what this backup contains. Example: Midterm and final added.
Click Create.
Click the radio button in front of the new backup file name.
Click Download in the Actions panel.
Download it to the desktop and save it to a CD, DVD, or USB flash drive. Two copies of a backup are not too many if you have made several important changes to the course since the last backup.
NOTE: Course backups are stored as .zip files, but must not be opened. You cannot work on individual files in a course backup, and attempting to open one will corrupt the contents. You can zip groups of files in the Manage Files area, download them, unzip them and modify them.
Restoring a WebCT Course
It is important to be careful in choosing the option you use to restore a course from a backup. You can overwrite course content and users (students).
Unless you are restoring a backup to an empty shell with no users, we strongly recommend that you do a backup of the course, download that backup and store it in a safe place before proceeding to restore a course.
Log onto the course.
Open the Control Panel.
Under Manage Course, select Backup Course.
If there is an old backup on the Backup page, click the radio button (circle) in front of the existing backup file name.
In the Actions panel on the right, click Delete, and just say yes to the warnings.
In the Actions panel, under Options: Backup Files, click Upload Backup.
Click the radio button next to the backup file name. In the Actions panel, read the four choices under Options: Restore with care.
Choose the one that fits your needs and click the button:
Replace users: The students and content from the backup file will overwrite everything in the shell. Do NOT use this option if you have your roster loaded for the current semester.
Update users: The content and updates for existing students are written to the shell. This option will not be used often.
Keep users: If you've had a disaster and you need to upload course content into an existing shell, but you want to keep the existing student roster, select this option. This choice uploads content only with no changes to the roster.
Reset course: Use this option at the beginning of the semester when no student rosters have been loaded into the shell. This option overwrites everything in a shell with course content from the backup file. No users are loaded from the backup file.
Read the warning message that appears and make sure you have selected the right option for your purposes.
Click OK, and then click Continue. The Backup Course screen appears, and your course is in the shell.