Case Study: Nguyen Tat Thanh University Selective Migration

At FIX Partner, we often work with universities that have grown their digital learning systems over many years. Nguyen Tat Thanh University (NTTU) is a clear example. Its Moodle platform has supported thousands of courses, learning materials, and academic activities across different faculties. Over time, this success created a new challenge: how to move only what is necessary, without disrupting what already works.

Rather than migrating an entire Moodle system, NTTU needed a smarter, lower-risk approach. Our answer was the Selective Migration System, a solution designed to help universities like NTTU migrate Moodle data in a controlled, selective, and reliable way. This case study explains the system’s objectives, scope, core functions, and real-world value in clear, non-technical terms.

1. System Objectives: Migrating with Purpose, Not Guesswork

The Selective Migration System was built around one simple idea: migration should serve academic strategy, not create unnecessary risk.

Instead of copying an entire Moodle instance from one server to another, our system allows NTTU to:

• Select individual courses or groups of courses
• Transfer complete learning content, including documents, images, videos, H5P, and SCORM packages
• Control exactly which data is moved, reducing storage usage, migration time, and operational risk

This approach fits real university scenarios such as infrastructure upgrades, system separation, consolidation, or moving Moodle to a new operating environment. For NTTU, migration became a planned decision, not a technical emergency.

2. Data Scope: What the System Migrates and What It Doesn’t

A key concern for non-IT leaders is clarity. What data is included? What stays behind? The Selective Migration System was designed with transparent boundaries.

2.1 Course Data

The system supports full migration of course-related data, including:

• Course information and descriptions: Essential details such as course names and summaries move with the course, ensuring academic identity remains intact.
• Course structure: sections, lessons, and modules: The learning layout arrives exactly as lecturers designed it, so navigation and teaching flow stay familiar to users.
• Learning activities such as Assignments, Quizzes, Forums, Lessons, SCORM, and H5P: All interactive tasks and activities continue working on the destination server, supporting assessments and communication.
• Learning resources like Files, Pages, URLs, and Books: Attached materials transfer in full, maintaining content access for students and lecturers without re-uploading.

Each migrated course arrives on the destination server fully functional, preserving the academic design intended by lecturers.

2.2 Media and Attached Files

Learning content is more than text. NTTU’s courses include rich media such as:

• PDF, Word, and PowerPoint documents: These core academic documents migrate intact to preserve lesson materials and reference content.
• Images and videos: Visual and audiovisual content, often critical for modern teaching, transfers reliably to the destination system.
• SCORM and H5P interactive content: Complex learning objects continue to operate as intended, supporting dynamic, self-paced learning.
• Files uploaded through Assignments, Forums, and Lessons: Student and lecturer uploads follow the related activity, keeping context intact.
• Media embedded directly in HTML content: Embedded files remain linked correctly, preventing broken visuals or missing learning materials.

Only the media actually used by the selected courses is migrated. This prevents unnecessary file transfers and avoids bloating the destination system with unused data.

2.3 Optional Exclusions

To reduce complexity and risk, the system can exclude:

• Learner accounts: Student identity and login data remain untouched, protecting user security and avoiding enrollment disruption.
• Access logs and activity history: Old tracking data stays behind, removing unnecessary database weight and speeding up migration.
• Grades and learning results: Academic records stay on the original system unless specifically required, minimizing risk to sensitive data.
• Content unrelated to selected courses: Only relevant material is moved, ensuring the destination Moodle is organized and free from clutter.

This flexibility allows NTTU to migrate academic content without affecting student records or ongoing operations.

3. Core Functions: How the Selective Migration System Works

This part explains how FIX Partner built a structured migration workflow for Nguyen Tat Thanh University, ensuring transparency, accuracy, and zero disruption to teaching activities.

3.1 Migration Session Management

Every migration begins with a clearly defined session. For each session, we can:

• Create and name a migration instance: this allows FIX Partner and NTTU to divide a large project into smaller, traceable tasks, making it easier to manage and review progress.
• Define objectives and descriptions: documenting the purpose and scope of each session prevents misunderstandings and helps academic departments see exactly why specific courses or data are being transferred.
• Track status in real time: pending, running, completed, or error: real-time monitoring offers instant visibility, enabling NTTU to follow the migration journey without technical guesswork or manual reporting.

This structure gives NTTU full visibility and accountability throughout the process.

3.2 Course Selection with Preview

The system allows NTTU to select one or multiple courses, with filters such as:

• Category or faculty: enabling academic groups to be organized by department, making it easier to move relevant content together rather than transferring everything at once.
• Creation date: ensuring outdated, unused, or test courses can be excluded, keeping the new Moodle environment clean and efficient.
• Active or inactive status: helping the university prioritize live teaching materials instead of carrying over abandoned or retired content.

Before migration starts, stakeholders can preview the course list. This step ensures alignment between academic leadership and technical execution.

3.3 Course Dependency Analysis

Courses are not isolated units. They rely on activities, embedded content, and linked media. Our system automatically analyzes:

• Learning activities: confirming that quizzes, lessons, assignments, forums, H5P, and SCORM packages remain functional after migration rather than breaking due to missing components.
• Embedded content: detecting media placed inside pages, books, or HTML blocks, preventing broken images or missing lesson files after migration.
• Media file dependencies: identifying every file required for a smooth user experience, ensuring only necessary media is moved, and nothing is forgotten.

This ensures that every required component is identified, nothing essential is missed, and nothing unnecessary is included.

3.4 Media File Extraction

Based on dependency analysis, the system generates a precise list of required media files. This list represents the minimum viable dataset needed for each course to function properly.

Even when dealing with large volumes of files, the system works efficiently without impacting Moodle’s ongoing operations at NTTU.

3.5 Media Migration Execution

Media files are automatically copied from the source server to the destination server with features such as:

• Partial migration support: allowing large datasets to move in staged batches, which lowers risk and improves control during high-volume transfer.
• Resume capability after interruption: preventing data loss and saving time by continuing migration automatically if internet or server interruptions occur.
• No downtime for the active Moodle system: keeping the LMS fully available so teaching, learning, and submissions continue without disruption.

This was especially important for NTTU, where teaching activities continued throughout the migration period.

3.6 Course Data Migration

Once the media is in place, the system migrates course structures and content. NTTU can:

• Preserve original course structures: ensuring lecturers and students see familiar layouts and navigation after migration, reducing training needs and confusion.
• Change destination categories if needed: enabling the university to reorganize courses according to new departments, curriculum pathways, or strategic changes.
• Adjust course metadata during migration: supporting course cleanup, renaming, or labelling improvements while content is being transferred.

The result is a destination Moodle environment that behaves exactly as expected for lecturers and learners.

3.7 Post-Migration Integrity Checks

After migration, the system verifies:

• Media file availability: confirming files exist on the new server and function properly, preventing broken downloads or missing lesson materials.
• Correct content display: ensuring lessons, quizzes, videos, and pages appear correctly, protecting the student learning journey.
• Broken or missing links: helping administrators detect mismatched file paths or damaged connections inherited from the old system.

If issues are detected, the system alerts administrators and allows additional migration of missing files, without restarting the entire process.

4. Destination Server Management: Control and Security

How FIX Partner designed and implemented a secure, flexible server architecture for Nguyen Tat Thanh University. The design ensures that every migration target is validated, protected, and fully traceable, reducing operational risk and increasing institutional confidence.

4.1 Destination Server Configuration

NTTU can define and manage multiple destination servers within the system, giving flexibility to organize testing, staging, and production targets. Before migration begins, connection checks confirm that each server is ready and technically compatible. This setup supports phased migration planning and enables parallel environments, allowing testing to run without disrupting everyday Moodle use.

4.2 Access Control and Auditability

To maintain security and governance:

• Migration is limited to approved destination servers: ensuring data moves only to verified, university-controlled systems.
• Access rights are restricted to necessary roles: protecting course data by allowing only authorized staff to perform migration tasks.
• Every migration action is logged for audit purposes: creating a transparent record for IT governance, review, and accountability.

This aligns technical execution with institutional governance standards.

5. Monitoring and Visibility

Monitoring and visibility refer to how Nguyen Tat Thanh University could see, understand, and evaluate every part of the migration process while it was happening. Through this feature, FIX Partner built tools that displayed real progress, tracked actions, and shared system information in a clear way.

5.1 Progress Tracking

The system provides real-time progress indicators based on:

• Course-level status: NTTU administrators can instantly see which individual courses are pending, in progress, or completed. This level of detail helps academic units plan communication with lecturers and students.
• Number of files processed: The dashboard displays how many files have been migrated versus the remaining total. This helps technical staff assess whether performance is meeting expected timelines.
• Data volume transferred: Live measurements show how much data has been copied to the destination server. This prevents surprises related to storage or network limitations and keeps resource planning accurate.

Clear status updates reduce uncertainty and support decision-making during migration.

5.2 Logs and History

Every migration session records:

• Start and end times: Time-stamped records confirm duration and help evaluate migration performance for future improvements.
• Responsible personnel: Each action is tied to a user, supporting accountability and validating administrative ownership within NTTU’s governance structure.
• Step-by-step results: Every task result, including successes and identified issues, is logged. This enables rapid troubleshooting and helps FIX Partner optimize system settings in later phases.

This history supports audits, troubleshooting, and future planning.

6. Error Handling and Recovery

This capability helped Nguyen Tat Thanh University maintain smooth operations, even when technical issues occurred during migration. Automated checks detected problems early, and fast recovery methods ensured the system continued running without disrupting teaching activities.

6.1 Error Detection

The system proactively detects issues such as:

• Missing files: If a course file referenced inside Moodle does not exist on the source server, the system flags it instantly. This prevents broken content from reaching the destination system.
• Copy failures: When the transfer of any file is interrupted, due to network instability or disk limitations, the system records the exact point of failure. This avoids hidden data loss.
• Data inconsistencies: The system validates structural integrity, ensuring course data formats and media references remain accurate. Inconsistencies are identified before they impact the final results.

Errors are logged at the file or course level for precise diagnosis.

6.2 Recovery and Retry

Rather than restarting entire migrations, the system allows:

• Retrying only failed components: The platform returns directly to the failed items instead of reprocessing completed data. This saves time and reduces workload for NTTU teams.
• Avoiding duplicate data: The system recognizes content that is already migrated and prevents repeated copies. This protects storage capacity and keeps the database clean.
• Faster recovery with minimal disruption: Technical teams can resolve issues quickly without interrupting Moodle usage for lecturers and students. Teaching activities continue, even if recovery tasks are running in the background.

This capability was critical in maintaining operational continuity at NTTU.

7. Typical Use Scenarios at NTTU

These scenarios describe how Nguyen Tat Thanh University applies the Selective Migration System to real operational needs, allowing Moodle to evolve without large-scale disruption.

7.1 Moodle System Separation

NTTU can move selected faculties or academic programs to a new Moodle server while keeping other courses on the original system.

This approach supports academic restructuring. It allows individual departments to manage their own content, permissions, and development roadmaps without affecting other departments. It also creates room for experimentation; NTTU can test new workflows on a separate platform before applying changes across the university. Through selective migration, large system changes become manageable and low-risk.

7.2 Infrastructure Upgrade

High-priority courses can be migrated to upgraded infrastructure, tested, and operated in parallel before full transition.

This strategy provides a safe way to modernize Moodle without shutting down teaching activities. Running both environments at the same time allows the university to compare system performance, validate course stability, and adjust settings if required. Once confidence is established, the remaining courses can be over gradually. This staged upgrade avoids the sudden pressure of a full system cutover.

7.3 System Consolidation or Distribution

Multiple smaller Moodle systems can be merged into one, or a large system can be divided into specialized platforms.

Consolidation supports efficiency by simplifying management, reducing duplicated content, and improving data consistency. On the other hand, distributing a large platform into smaller units prevents overload and delivers better performance for departments with heavy activity, such as online learning programs. Both directions offer flexibility, depending on organizational goals, academic structure, and long-term planning.

8. Business and Academic Benefits

For Nguyen Tat Thanh University, the Selective Migration System delivered clear value:

• Lower risk compared to full-system migration: By moving only selected courses, NTTU avoided the danger of systemwide failure. Teaching continued normally, and any migration issue affected only small, manageable areas.
• Reduced storage and infrastructure costs: Because only necessary files and courses were transferred, the university did not waste storage on unused or outdated material. This led to lighter server loads and long-term cost savings.
• Full control over what data is moved: NTTU could decide exactly which courses, media files, or academic programs to migrate. This selective approach ensured migration aligned with real academic priorities rather than moving everything blindly.
• Compatibility with long-running Moodle environments: Many universities face difficulties updating old Moodle systems. With selective migration, NTTU smoothly transferred active learning content without rebuilding or shutting down its existing platform.
• A scalable foundation for future migration needs: As new programs grow or new servers are added, the same migration framework can continue to support expansion. This prepares NTTU for platform upgrades, system separation, or long-term digital planning.

Conclusion: Migration as a Strategic Capability

At FIX Partner, we believe migration should empower institutions, not overwhelm them. Through the Selective Migration System, we helped Nguyen Tat Thanh University turn a complex technical challenge into a controlled, strategic process.

For universities managing mature Moodle systems, selective migration is not just a technical solution; it is a smarter way to evolve digital learning environments with confidence.

Contact us to explore how this approach can support your institution’s Moodle goals, reduce migration risk, and build a future-ready learning platform.

We are ready to discuss your needs and provide guidance based on real project experience.