Last updated on March 20, 2013 Page 1 of 8

Migration checklist for Moodle users

Moving from one system to another is not easy. We understand that quite a number of teachers rely

on course migration to create course websites for new academic year based on the work they have

done to their course website of previous year. We have therefore decided that we will help you

migrate your course websites created under 2010-11, 2011-12 and 2012-13 (Moodle and CUForum

only) gradually to the new system so that you can still reuse old course materials when you build new

course websites on the new CU eLearning System (Blackboard Learn).

To ensure your course website has been migrated successfully, we need your help to review your

migrated course website in the new system. The content checking exercise is also a good start for

those of you who want to get started learning about the new system (its user interface, features, etc.).

Please spend some time to read this checklist before you proceed to check your migrated course. This

migration checklist provides essential information for you to check your migrated course website and

start planning your course website to be set up for the new academic year (especially for those of you

who plan to reuse contents in your migrated course).

This migration checklist is structured as follows to guide you through the process:

A. The new course homepage in CU eLearning System (Blackboard Learn)

This section briefly introduces the course homepage of a course website migrated from

Moodle to you.

B. Feature comparison table

This section briefly shows you how the features of the new system compare to those of

Moodle.

C. Reviewing your migrated course

This section guides you through items which you have to pay attention to when you

check your migrated course.

D. Learn more about CU eLearning System

This section provides you information on the new system and arrangement on how

course websites will be created on the new system according to information in CUSIS

starting 2013-14.

E. Updating your migrated course (Optional)

This section is targeted for those of you who would like to build your new course

websites based on your migrated course. It guides you through how to update your

migrated course so that we can copy contents from it when we create the new course

websites for you.

Please contact us at http://helpdesk.itsc.cuhk.edu.hk/group/eLearn-help/ or

elearning@cuhk.edu.hk if you encounter any problems with your migrated course websites.

eLearning Team, ITSC, CUHK

March 2013

Last updated on March 20, 2013 Page 2 of 8

A. The new course homepage in CU eLearning System (Blackboard Learn)

Once your course has been migrated to CU eLearning System, you will see the course listed under My

Courses after successful logon to the system through http://elearn.cuhk.edu.hk.

If you prefer to locate your course through Course Catalog on Courses tab, your migrated course is

categorized under CUForum (Content Checking), Moodle (Content Checking) or WebCT (Content

Checking). You can also try to search for your migrated course using the tool Course Search. Once you

have located your migrated course, clicking on the course link will bring you into the course homepage.

During course migration, the content converter only brought over the course contents but not the student

activities. Thus, the content converter only re-assigned staff instructors of the original course to be the

course instructors of the migrated course. Contact us if you need help to locate your migrated course.

Although most of the features in a Moodle course website are available in CU eLearning System

(Blackboard Learn), the user interfaces of the two systems look quite different at first glance.

Pay attention to the following when you first enter your migrated course on CU eLearning System:

1. There are two menus on the left: Course Menu (Top) and Control Panel (Bottom).

2. By default, the course home page displays Notifications which allows students to check updated

course activities and due date of their course work.

Last updated on March 20, 2013 Page 3 of 8

3. During content migration, contents in different content blocks in a Moodle website have been

re-assigned to different folders inside Topics. Content Block “0” has been re-assigned to “Chapter

1”, Content Block “1” has been re-assigned to “Chapter 2”, and so forth.

4. All functions and customization settings can be accessed under Control Panel.

Last updated on March 20, 2013 Page 4 of 8

B. Feature comparison table

Most of the features in a Moodle course website are available in CU eLearning System (Blackboard Learn).

Moodle 1.9 CU eLearning System

(Blackboard Learn) Remarks

Resources and Activities

Insert a label Content Area Build Content

Item

Compose a text page /

Compose a web page

Content Area Build Content

Blank Page

Link to a file or web site Content Area Build Content

Item / File / URL

Display a directory / You may create a folders inside

content areas and add items/files

into them

Assignments Content Area Create Assessment

Assignment

Choice / You may use “Assessment ->

Survey” and include 1 question in

the survey

News Forum Control Panel Course Tools

Announcement

Forum Content Area Add Interactive

Tool Discussion Board

Quiz Content Area Create Assessment

Test

Survey Content Area Create Assessment

Survey

Administration block

Turn editing ON/OFF Edit Mode ON/OFF

Settings Control Panel Customization

Properties / Style

You can set the Course Availability

under “Control Panel

Customization Properties”

Assign roles Control Panel Users and Groups

Users

You can check the user list through

Control Panel Users and Groups

Users. Contact us if you want

to add/remove users from your

course

Last updated on March 20, 2013 Page 5 of 8

Groups Control Panel Users and Groups

Groups

Group members are provided with

Group Tools for on collaborations

Grades Control Panel Grade Center

Backup / Restore Control Panel Package and

Utilities Export / Archive Course

Import Control Panel Package and

Utilities Import Package / View

Logs

Reports Control Panel Evaluation

Course Reports / Performance

Dashboard

Questions Control Panel Course Tools

Tests, Surveys and Pools Pools

Files Control Panel Content Collection The name of the course content

collection folder is the course id

Profile My Places Personal Information

C. Reviewing your migrated course

When you check your migrated course, we suggest you to open another browser to open your original

course website on Moodle as well. This allows you to compare the two websites side by side. This is

especially useful when you check the course content items one by one.

Go through all items one by one in the migrated course and check whether all content items have been

properly migrated to the new system. Please note if a content item was hidden in the original course

website, the item will be ignored during content migration.

Although it should be rare, if you are prompted with “Fatal Errors” when you enter your migrated course

website, please report the case to us for our immediate follow-up. You are also welcome to contact us if

you have any questions regarding your migrated course.

Last updated on March 20, 2013 Page 6 of 8

Content / Tool What to check

Check the Content Check all links in Course Menu

Check all files and URL links in Content Area

Check all course Assignments

Check all course Quizzes

Check Files in

Content Collection

Under Control Panel Content Collection Course Code.

Open folders and check if documents in Files (Moodle) are migrated

Remarks: you should notice that your files have been re-arranged. Linked

files in the course website have been re-organized under folders named

media, images, docs. Files which have not been re-linked have been

re-organized under the folder named other.

Last updated on March 20, 2013 Page 7 of 8

C. Learn more about CU eLearning System

After you have reviewed your migrated course, you may have more ideas on how you would like to set up

your new course site for 2013-14.

1) You would like to set up your course site on CU eLearning System and you plan to

- (a) build your new course site from scratch

- (b) build your new course site based on your migrated course

We highly recommend you to begin learning how to use the system and don’t wait until beginning of the

new academic year.

- Join the Blackboard Learn training workshops to learn how to use the new system and

explore new features for possible course enhancements.

- Quick reference and self-learning videos are available at

http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/eLearning/c_systems/elearn/quickref.html.

With the implementation of the new system, all new course sites are created automatically before the

beginning of each semester by importing course information from CUSIS into CU eLearning System. This

takes place approximately 1 week after course information is made available on CUSIS.

For academic year 2013-14, it is expected that course information will be available around July 2013 on

CUSIS. New course sites will therefore be created according to CUSIS data and ready for teacher access

around mid-July.

For those of you who want to build your new course site from scratch, you can start working on your

course sites around that time. However, if you would like to work on your course site earlier than that,

you can request for a development sandbox (a.k.a. course template) that can be used as a course

placeholder. Once you have finished setting up the course template, you can submit a copy course request

to copy materials from the course template to your new semester course site when they are auto-created

following the schedule.

For those of you who plan to build your course site based on your migrated course, you can start updating

your migrated course following Section E of this document and use your migrated course as the course

template. Once you have finished setting up the course template, you can submit a copy course request

to copy materials from the course template to your new semester course site when they are auto-created

following the schedule.

Last updated on March 20, 2013 Page 8 of 8

E. Updating your migrated course (Optional)

Go through the following items to review and update your course if you plan to use it as the course

template.

Check the content under Course Menu

Course Menu Check all links on the left Course Menu

Rename/Reorder the menu items as needed

Check hidden / blank menu links after migration,

remove unwanted menu links

Warning: Be careful when deleting any course menu items, it will be remove

permanently. If in doubt, you are advised to hide those items instead.

Check the content under Content Areas

Course Content (pdf, Word

doc, ppt, web link etc.)

Check all of the files and content links after migration. Hidden

Items in Moodle will not be migrated to the new system.

Remove content items or set available as needed

Check each link to verify that it still functions

Organize the links by create folders

Assignments Check all the course assignments

Check the file attachments and descriptions in assignments are still

present

Check the properties of each assignment (e.g. due dates,

availability, and other settings)

Tests Review all test questions - pay particular attention to

fill-in-the-blanks, jumbled sentence, and short answer questions

Check Tests Options (e.g. number of attempt, display after / until)

Contextual Menu Edit the Test Options

Check point values for questions, and Question sets in your Tests

Contextual Menu Edit the Test

Check the tools under Control Panel

Content Collection Assess Content Collection under Control Panel Content

Collection Course Code. Open folders and check if documents

in Files (Moodle) are migrated

Tests, Surveys, and Pools Check Tests under Control Panel Course Tools Tests, Surveys,

and Pools Tests

Check Surveys under Control Panel Course Tools Tests,

Surveys, and Pools Surveys

Check Questions under Control Panel Course Tools Tests,

Surveys, and Pools Pools

~ END ~