End of Semester Housekeeping
From FerrisConnect KnowledgeBase
Archiving Courses and Student Records
Instructors can backup their FerrisConnect courses, creating a point-in-time backup on the server. These are not actual files, but restore points, that can allow for a course to be restored to a specific date and time. The instructor must enlist the help of an administrator to restore a backup. Backup files can be created from the restore points and downloaded for safe-keeping off-line. Although an archive can be stored off-line it cannot be viewed on a personal computer. It must be uploaded to a server and restored by an administrator.
Material that can be viewed off-line includes any course components that can be compiled, printed, or saved as delimited text. These components include the Grade Book, discussion and mail threads, student tracking, and Chat Room logs. In addition, Assignment submissions, these are often word document files or web pages, can also be downloaded and stored offline.
To create a backup file:
Within the BUILD TAB, click on “Manage Course” under “Designer Tools.” Select the Backup link and create a backup of your course. To archive the course off-line, use the ActionLink and select “save as file”. This will create a file in the File Manager area – when the save as file window opens. Be sure to save your file within the course files area, as opposed to the My-Files area, as the My Files area may not permit sufficient storage space for large backup files. You will then need to navigate to the File Manager in order to download the backup file you have placed. The backup file has a “bak” file-extension. Once the backup file has been safely stored off-line, instructors are asked to please delete the file within their File Manager area to avoid excessive and unnecessary storage space usage.
To save a copy of the Grade Book off-line:
Within the TEACH TAB, click on the “Grade Book” under “Instructor Tools”. Click on the “Export to Spreadsheet” button and select which records are to be stored off-line. Options include all members (or only those within a search), and all columns or only those visible in the Grade Book. The options for file format are tab or comma delimited files. (hint – if you used any commas in the grade book file names or data, select tab). Select “save to disk”. Open Excel first, then browse for your file and open to view off-line.
