MBZ to SCORM
Convert an .mbz file to SCORM
An .mbz file is a Moodle course backup.
It is made to be restored into Moodle, and only Moodle, or a platform
built on it, can open one.
To use the course anywhere else, it has to become a SCORM package.
mbz2scorm reads your .mbz and builds one: a SCORM 1.2 zip
that runs in any LMS, usually in a few minutes. You can play the
whole converted course, free, before you download it.
What is in an .mbz file?
One Moodle course, compressed into a single file: its sections, activities, quiz questions and files, described in a form only Moodle reads. Moodle makes one when you back up a course. It is not a SCORM package, and renaming it will not make it one.
Don’t have the file yet? The export guide shows how to get it out of Moodle, screen by screen.
Check your file first, free
The MBZ Check reads your backup in your own browser. Nothing is uploaded. It tells you:
- whether the file really is a Moodle course backup
- which Moodle made it
- every activity in the course, and whether it converts
- whether the backup contains learner data
When you are happy with what it shows, Convert this to SCORM takes the same file straight into the converter.
The problems an .mbz can have
Each of these is caught before anything uploads, and none of them is a dead end.
It isn’t a course backup
Moodle can also produce a course export, an IMS Common Cartridge, or a zip of the course’s files. They are different things, and none of them converts. The check says so straight away.
The fix: back the course up in Moodle, which gives you an
.mbz. The export guide
shows the settings.
It contains learner data
A backup made with Include enrolled users ticked carries real people’s records: names, grades, forum posts. Learner records never become part of a SCORM package, but you may not want to send them anywhere at all.
We flag it before anything uploads, and you decide: go on, or back the course up again with that box unticked.
It is very large
Files up to 2 GB convert. Video stored in the course is usually what makes a backup big, and it is bundled into the package, so it plays with no internet at all.
It comes from an older Moodle
Our tests cover backups from Moodle 2.6 to 5.1. The check shows which backup format yours is, and says so if it is one we have not tested. It may well convert anyway, and converting is free, so finding out costs nothing.
From .mbz to your LMS
Drop in the .mbz
It is read on your computer first, and uploaded only when you choose to convert it.
Read the report
Every activity, listed: what converts intact, what converts with something lost, and what cannot come across at all, with the reason for each.
Play the finished course, free
In a stand-in LMS. Click through it, take the quiz, watch the score report.
Download the SCORM zip
Upload it to your LMS as it is, without unzipping it, and choose SCORM or SCORM 1.2 as the content type.
Several .mbz files? The batch
converter takes up to 10 at once, for
$19 per course.
What comes across
Pages, books, files, video, links and quizzes, with quiz scores reported to your LMS. Forums, assignments and anything else that needs a server or another person cannot, because a SCORM package has neither. The full picture →
What happens to your file
- It is read on your computer first. Nothing is uploaded until you choose to convert.
- Your backup and your package are deleted after 7 days, or straight away, with one button, once you have downloaded.
- We never train anything on it.
What it costs
Checking, converting and previewing are free. You pay only to download: $29 a course, or $19 a course when you convert several at once.