Moodle Course | Create | Delete

Moodle Course: Creating and Deleting

Courses are the central organizational unit in Moodle. This guide explains, step by step, how to create a Moodle course, which settings are important, and how to delete courses and restore them from the Recycle Bin if necessary.

Topics covered in this post

• What is a Moodle course?
• Create aCreate a Moodle course
• Deleting a Moodle Course
• Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is a Moodle course?

A Moodle course is a self-contained area within the Learning Management System where learning content, activities, and participants are brought together. Courses are organized into course areas (categories), can be nested to any depth, and are accessible through enrollment methods. Each course has:

• a full name and a unique nickname
• one or more enrollment methods (e.g., manual enrollment, self-enrollment, cohort synchronization)
• a course format (e.g., topic-based, weekly, social, or activity-based)
• Custom role assignments (instructor, participant, guest, etc.)
• a separate evaluation overview and activity reports

Creating a Moodle Course

Requirements and Rights

To create a course in Moodle, a user must have a role with the capability moodle/course:create. By default, this applies to the following roles:

• Administrator – can create courses system-wide
• Manager – can create courses in assigned categories
• Course Creator – may create courses in assigned categories; is automatically enrolled as an instructor in the newly created course (provided that the setting creatornewroleid at the default value Teacher (remains)

By default, the "Instructor" role is not sufficient to create new courses—it can only edit existing courses.

Step-by-Step Instructions

The Most Important Course Settings

When creating a new course, several settings groups are populated. The following overview lists the most important fields.

General Information

• Full course name – displayed throughout Moodle; duplicate names are allowed.
• Short name – must be unique across the entire Moodle instance. Recommended: Do not use spaces or special characters, as some plugins and enrollment procedures use them for identification.
• Course Category – specifies the category in which the course appears.
• Visibility – controls whether the course is visible to participants. Newly created courses are often set to " hidden " at first.
• Course start and end dates —affect reports, activity completions, and, in the weekly view, the display of sections.
• Course ID number – optional; used for identification in external systems (e.g., for LDAP or cohort synchronization).

Description

• Course Description – A summary that appears in course listings and on the registration page.
• Course Image – an optional teaser image that appears on the dashboard and in course lists.

Course Format

The course format determines the basic structure of the course page. By default, Moodle includes the following formats, among others:

• Topic-based format – the course is divided into sections with customizable names; this is the standard for many use cases.
• Weekly format —each section corresponds to a calendar week, starting from the first day of class; suitable for schedule-based courses.
• Single-activity format – the course contains only a single activity (e.g., a SCORM package or a test).
• Social Format – The course is structured around a central forum, designed to facilitate open discussion.

Additional formats such as Flexible Sections, Tiles, and Grid are available through the plugin directory, enabling further structuring options (tiled views, hierarchies, expandable sections).

After creation: Set up the course

After saving, Moodle opens the new course. The usual next steps are:

1. Configure Enrollment Methods (Participants → Enrollment Methods).
2. Manually enroll participants or enable self-enrollment using an enrollment key.
3. Add content and activities (materials, assignments, quizzes, forums, etc.).
4. Toggle visibility as soon as the course is ready.

Additional options such as " Duplicate Course," " Import Course " (to transfer content from an existing course), or " Restore from Backup " are available under Course Administration → More → Reuse Course.

Deleting a Moodle Course

Requirements and Rights

To delete a course, the capability moodle/course:delete required. By default, this role is assigned to administrators and managers.

Step-by-Step Instructions

1. Go to Website Administration → Courses → Manage Courses and Course Sections.
2. Go to the desired course section.
3. Click next to the course on the Actions menu and select Delete.
4. Confirm the deletion.

Alternatively, an instructor with the necessary permissions can also delete the course via Course Administration → More → Delete Course.

The Recycle Bin: Restoring Files

Since Moodle 3.1, there has been a Recycle Bin at the course and category levels. Deleted courses are first moved to the Recycle Bin of the respective course area for a configurable period (default: 7 days; often adjusted to up to several weeks on instances) and can be restored from there.

Restore a course from the Recycle Bin:

1. Go to Website Administration → Courses → Manage Courses and Course Sections.
2. Open the course section where the course was originally located.
3. Open the Recycle Bin from the Actions menu (three dots) in the course area.
4. Click " Restore " next to the desired course.

Important:

• Once the retention period has expired, the course will be permanently removed.
• Administrators can globally disable the Recycle Bin or adjust the retention period.
• In some MoodleCloud instances, different rules apply—in these cases, restoration without a backup is often not possible.

Back up before deleting

Deleting a course is generally permanent once the trash has been emptied. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that you back up the course before deleting it:

• Course Administration → More → Course Backup creates a .mbz-File containing all course content.
• Optionally, user data, ratings, and logs can be included in the backup.
• Automated Backups (Automated course backup) can be configured system-wide so that backups of all courses are created daily or weekly.
• For large-scale "end-of-term" cleanups, the Moodle community recommends scheduling a full site backup or a manual backup of all courses in advance.

What happens to the course data?

When a course is permanently deleted, Moodle removes:

• All course activities and materials
• All course files in moodledata (including uploaded participant files)
• Assessments, assessment components, and activity completions for this course
• Enrollment of participants in this course (the user accounts themselves remain active)
• Groups, groupings, and course-specific role assignments

Global user data (profiles, system-wide roles) and content outside of this course (e.g., in cohorts or question collections at the category level) will not be deleted.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)