Over time, Moodle question banks tend to accumulate old academic years, duplicate categories, and unused quiz questions. If you copy courses forward each term, that clutter comes with you — often unnoticed — until it starts slowing you down or causing mistakes.
This guide shows a safe, repeatable workflow for cleaning up question banks in Moodle 4.5, with a focus on Higher Education teaching workflows. It’s especially useful for faculty preparing courses for a new academic year or reviewing inherited course content.
Video: Step-by-Step Walkthrough
Tip: Watch first, then follow the workflow in your own course while the steps are fresh.
If the video doesn’t load, open it here: https://vimeo.com/1156663037
Why Question Bank Cleanup Matters
In Higher Education, Moodle courses are often reused year after year. Without regular maintenance, question banks can quietly grow to include:
- Questions from previous academic years
- Draft or unused assessment items
- Duplicate or unclear category structures
- Content inherited from other instructors or legacy courses
Cleaning up your question bank before course rollover helps you:
- Avoid copying outdated or incorrect questions
- Reduce confusion when building new quizzes
- Start each academic year with a cleaner, more reliable assessment setup
What This Workflow Does Differently
Instead of deleting questions one by one, this approach uses categories strategically:
- Create a temporary cleanup category (for example, by year or purpose)
- Move old or unwanted categories and questions into it using drag-and-drop
- Review everything in one place
- Permanently remove unused questions in a single, controlled action
Why this is safer
It keeps the process visible and deliberate — so you can confirm what’s safe to remove before you purge anything.
Key Steps Covered in the Video
1) Organising Categories in Moodle 4.5
Moodle 4.5 makes it easier to reorder and organise question bank categories using drag-and-drop. Clear naming (such as academic year or module) makes long-term management much easier.
2) Gathering Old Content for Review
Instead of deleting immediately, outdated categories can be moved into a temporary cleanup area so you can:
- Confirm questions are no longer needed
- Spot duplicates
- Ensure nothing important is still in use
3) Purging Categories Safely
Moodle’s Purge categories option permanently deletes the category, all subcategories, and any unused questions inside them.
⚠️ This action cannot be undone — review first.
Best Time to Do This
- Just before copying a course into a new term
- At the end of an academic year
- When inheriting or co-teaching a course