Course administration - Archiving & Reports

What is the course archive?

Why is a course archive needed?
If, for example, the results of participants have to be kept for 10 years for legal reasons, the course itself can be deleted while the participant data is kept separately in a course archive.

What does an archive file include?
You can create course archive files in the course administration as well as in the authoring area. A course archive file is a ZIP file and mainly contains Excel files that list the results of the course participants in tabular form. If the archiving includes other files, such as submissions, they are stored in subfolders of the ZIP file.

Complete archive - partial archive
Partial archives can also be created on request, e.g. if only the results of a particular course element are to be archived. (E.g. the final test and practice tests should not be included in the archive).

Such a course archive must be distinguished from the “Export content” option in the course administration.

`Course > Administration > Export content`	`Course > Administration > Archiving & Reporting > Course archiving`	`Course > Administration > Archiving & Reporting > Reports`
Archive course structure and archive	Archive participant results	Report with statistical analysis for a specific course element
Empty course without participant data	pure participant data for documentation (proof)	Report Excel contains more than the participant data in the Excel of the course archive
for transfer to another LMS	not re-importable	Report for certain modules, e.g. forum, as well as the memberships of the course
especially html and xml-files	especially Excel-files	Course element-specific Excel files

The menu item "Archiving & Reporting" is visible to the owners of the course as well as to administrators and learning resource managers of the organisation the course belongs to. You give other persons access with the right "Archive tool" in the "Rights" section of the members management.

If you delete a course, OpenOlat automatically saves all course data (not the course elements) in your personal files. This archive does not contain the file "Memberships". If you want to keep a record of who had which role in the course, create a complete archive before deleting or download the file under "Reports", see Memberships.

Where can I find course archive files?

In the top button line of the author area, you will find an icon with 3 dots on the far right. Below this you will find the course archive, in which all existing course archive files are listed and can be downloaded.

Finding the course archive: in the authoring area the open 3-dot menu on the far right of the top button row with the entry Course archive highlighted

Important

All the archives you have created are listed in the course archive.
Administrators and learning resource managers only see the archives they have created themselves or courses they own in the "Course archives" tab.
In the "Course archive management" tab, on the other hand, OpenOlat lists the archives of all authors for administrators and learning resource managers.

In the "Course archives" tab, you filter the list with "All archives", "Complete archives" and "Partial archives". Each archive created offers the buttons "Info", "Copy to", "Delete" and "Download". "Info" shows the metadata of the archive. With "Copy to", you place a copy of the ZIP file in a folder in the File Hub.

All your course archives at a glance: highlighted tabs Course archives and Course archive management above the list of ZIP files with Info, Copy to, Delete and Download

Create course archive

Archive a single course

Open the authoring area
Select the desired course
Click on the "Archiving & Reporting" option in the "Administration" area
Then, select one of the two buttons "Create archive" in the "Course archiving" area.

Finding Archiving & Reporting: in the open Administration menu of a course the entry Archiving & Reporting is highlighted

Starting an archive: on the left the highlighted menu entry Course archiving, on the right the highlighted Create archive buttons above and inside the empty archive list

Create a partial archive

You need a partial archive if only part of the course data is to be kept, for example the results of a single course element. When you create an archive in the course administration, the wizard first asks for the archive type: "Complete archive" or "Partial archive". The steps that follow depend on the archive type:

Complete archive: "Settings" and "Overview". The wizard shows the step "Settings" only to administrators and learning resource managers of the course's organisation, or if the course contains a test. Otherwise "Overview" follows directly.
Partial archive: "Select course elements", "Settings", "Other objects" and "Overview". Here the wizard shows the step "Settings" only if you select a test as a course element.

Choosing the archive type: wizard step Archive type with Complete archive selected next to Partial archive, at the top the steps Settings and Overview follow in this view

For a partial archive, you first select the course elements. In the wizard step "Other objects", you define under "Other archive objects" what is added to the archive: "Memberships", "Log files", "Course results" and "Course chat". All four checkboxes are preselected. A complete archive always contains the file "Memberships", in the ZIP file as course_memberships.xlsx. What the file shows is described under Memberships.

Tip

If administrators or learning resource managers create a complete archive, they can decide in the wizard step "Settings" under "Log files of participants" whether participants appear "Anonymised" or "Personalised" in the log files. (Depending on data protection requirements.) Archives with personalised log files are then only accessible to administrative roles.

Archive multiple courses in the authoring area

Open the authoring area
Select all the courses you want to archive in the 1st column
As soon as at least one course is selected, a button line appears above the list
Select the “Archive course” button

Archiving several courses at once: two selected courses in the first column, above them the button row with Archive course highlighted

Important

If several archives are created with this bulk action, only complete archives can be created, not partial archives.

As in the course, each of these complete archives also contains the file "Memberships".

Course archive management

Important

This tab is only available for OpenOlat administrators and learning resource managers, not for authors.

All course archives are listed in the "Course archive management" tab.

They can be preselected by further tabs: "All", "Complete archives", "Partial archives", "Ongoing archiving" and "Only for administrative roles".
Under the icon with the 3 dots at the end of a line, you find "Show metadata", "Download" and "Delete". The course archives can be downloaded here for a certain period of time (default setting 10 days).

Managing the archives of all authors: highlighted are the tab Course archive management, the filter tabs and the open 3-dot menu of a row with Show metadata, Download and Delete

What is archived from the individual elements?

Surveys

All surveys of the course are displayed according to their integration in the course structure. The desired surveys to be archived can be selected and saved as a ZIP file.

Tests

All tests of the course are displayed. Course elements "Self-test" are not included in the course archiving. The desired elements to be archived can be selected and saved as a ZIP file. The individual selected tests are then stored in a separate folder in the ZIP file.

Archived tests are saved on a personalized basis and contain all test results. Every Excel file with test results in the archive contains the sheet "Export information" with course, course element, time and the person who created the archive, see Export tests.

The archive contains test results as PDF files if you select "Customised" for "Course elements" in the wizard step "Settings" and "Advanced – with PDF" for the course element Test. The selection only appears if the PDF service is switched on in the system administration under Administration > External tools > PDF generator. The option "All PDF files in one folder" is only offered by the export in the course element Test via the button "Export results". More on this under Archiving test results and Export tests.

Finding the export of test results: course element Test in the course menu, tab Participants and button Export results marked

Course results

The final results of all assessment modules integrated in the course, such as tests, assessments, portfolio tasks, checklists, tasks, etc., are archived here as a ZIP file for all course participants. The ZIP file can be downloaded and saved directly. In addition, OpenOlat stores it in the personal files of the person who creates it, in the folder private > archive > "Course title".

The ZIP file contains an xlsx file with information on the course participants and any documents submitted by the participants. These documents are bundled per course element and contain subfolders with the names of the participants who have submitted documents.

Course results contain the summarized overall assessment of a course, not individual elements.

Memberships

If you evaluate result exports of a course outside OpenOlat or settle the work of the coaches, you need an overview of who has which role in which group. The Excel file "Memberships" provides this overview for the whole course in one file: all participants, coaches and owners with their role in the course, in each group of the course and in each element of the Course Planner the course is linked to. You can filter it directly and combine it with other exports.

You download the file directly, with the button "Start" under:
Course > Administration > Archiving & Reporting > Reports > Memberships

Download the file Memberships: in the expanded Reports menu the entry Memberships is highlighted, on the right the hint text and the highlighted Start button

The file name consists of the course title, the word "Memberships" and the date and time of the download. OpenOlat does not store this file in the course archive. In addition, the file is part of every complete archive, and it can be selected as an archive object for a partial archive, see Create a partial archive.

Structure of the file
The file has four sheets:

Participants: all persons who are a participant in at least one place
Coaches: all persons who are a coach in at least one place
Owners: all persons who are an owner in at least one place
Export information: URL of the course, OpenOlat Version, course title, course reference, export language, the time "Exported" and the person under "Exported by"

The sheets "Participants", "Coaches" and "Owners" have the same columns, in this order:

the details of the person, by default "Username", "First name" and "Last name"
"Course" for the role directly in the course
one column per group of the course, alphabetically by group name
one column per element of the Course Planner the course is linked to, alphabetically by name of the element

There are columns for groups only if the course has groups. There are columns for Course Planner elements only if the course is linked to such elements. The rows are sorted by last name and first name.

Sheet Coaches, one row per person: the highlighted columns Course, two groups and one Course Planner element show the role, for example Group coach; the four sheets highlighted at the bottom

How to read the file
On a sheet, each person appears exactly once, in one row. The cells show the role the person has in that place:

in the column "Course": "Participant", "Coach" or "Owner"
in the column of a group: "Group participant" or "Group coach"
in the column of a Course Planner element: "CPL participant", "CPL coach" or "CPL owner"

An empty cell means that the person does not have the role of the sheet in that place. If a person has several roles, they appear on several sheets. For example, someone who is a participant in the course and also coaches group A appears on the sheet "Participants" with "Participant" in the column "Course" and on the sheet "Coaches" with "Group coach" in the column of group A.

Persons on the waiting list and deleted users are not included in the file.

Which details of the person appear as columns is defined by the system administration under Administration > Customizing > User Properties, tab "Contexts". The administration manual explains what a context is under Customizing.

The member list of the members management shows the same persons with one row per person. Its Excel export lists all groups and Course Planner elements of a person comma-separated in the column "Origin", without the role per group. More on this under Excel export of the origin.

Task and group tasks

All tasks and group tasks of the course are displayed. The desired tasks or group tasks to be archived can be selected and saved as a ZIP file.

The ZIP file then contains the individual selected tasks/group tasks, each in a separate folder. This folder then contains the results of the individual learners as well as the overall overview as an Excel file. The Excel file is only created if the step "Grading" is activated in the course element. It contains the sheet "Export information". There, "Exported by" shows the person who created the archive, see Excel report of the results.

Topic assignment

All topics assigned to the course are displayed. The desired elements to be archived can be selected and saved as a ZIP file. The individual selected elements are then stored in a separate folder in the ZIP file.

Log files

The personalized log files of course owners and the pseudonymized log files of course participants can be saved here for a selected period of time. Depending on the scope, the creation may take some time. You will then find the log files as a ZIP file with an Excel table in your personal files, in the folder private > archive > "Course title".

Forums

All forums of the course are displayed. The desired forums to be archived can be selected and saved as a ZIP file. In the ZIP file, the individual selected forums are then each in a separate folder with a DOCX file containing all the forum posts.

In addition to archiving, a report in xlsx format can also be generated for the desired forums. Each posting is noted in the report as a line entry and contains information on the creation date, last change, number of words, number of characters, etc.

File discussion

All file discussions of the course are displayed. The desired elements to be archived can be selected and saved as a ZIP file.

Participant folder

All "Participants folder" course elements are displayed. The desired elements to be archived can be selected and saved as a ZIP file. The ZIP file then contains the individual elements, each with a folder for each participant with a submission and return folder.

Wikis

All wikis in the course are listed. The desired wikis to be archived can be selected and saved as a ZIP file. The ZIP file then contains one folder for each wiki and a folder with metadata for each saved wiki.

In the wiki, all pages and all uploaded files are packed into a ZIP file.

SCORM results

All SCORM course elements of the course are listed. The desired SCORM course elements to be archived can be selected and the results saved as a ZIP file.

Checklists

All checklists for the course are listed. The desired checklists to be archived can be selected and saved as a ZIP file. The ZIP file contains a folder for each checklist. Inside is an xlsx file containing the results of the people who completed the checklist.

Forms

All forms of the course are listed. The desired forms can be selected and saved as a ZIP file. The ZIP file contains a folder for each form. This contains an xlsx file with the form responses of the people who have completed the form.

Video task

All of the course elements integrated in the course Video task are listed, regardless of the mode selected. The desired modules can be selected and the results saved as a ZIP file. The ZIP file contains an xlsx file with the results of the individual participants.

Course chat

Here the chat history can be exported as an xlsx file and also deleted.

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Further information

Further reading
Record of Course Activities >
Delete (a course or learning resource) >
Assessment tool - overview >

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