diff --git a/course/delete.php b/course/delete.php
index 053b760e03daa..2a9d0da6340e3 100644
--- a/course/delete.php
+++ b/course/delete.php
@@ -67,17 +67,7 @@
 
     print_heading($strdeletingcourse);
 
-    if (!remove_course_contents($course->id)) {
-        notify("An error occurred while deleting some of the course contents.");
-    }
-
-    if (!delete_records("course", "id", $course->id)) {
-        notify("An error occurred while deleting the main course record.");
-    }
-
-    if (!fulldelete($CFG->dataroot.'/'.$course->id)) {
-        notify("An error occurred while deleting the course files.");
-    }
+    delete_course($course->id);
 
     print_heading( get_string("deletedcourse", "", $course->shortname) );
 
diff --git a/lib/moodlelib.php b/lib/moodlelib.php
index 4a639a5346736..93aca5bf68fdc 100644
--- a/lib/moodlelib.php
+++ b/lib/moodlelib.php
@@ -3057,6 +3057,44 @@ function remove_admin($userid) {
     return delete_records('user_admins', 'userid', $userid);
 }
 
+/**
+ * Delete a course, including all related data from the database,
+ * and any associated files from the moodledata folder.
+ * 
+ * @param int $courseid The id of the course to delete.
+ * @param bool $showfeedback Whether to display notifications of each action the function performs.
+ * @return bool true if all the removals succeeded. false if there were any failures. If this
+ *             method returns false, some of the removals will probably have succeeded, and others
+ *             failed, but you have no way of knowing which.
+ */
+function delete_course($courseid, $showfeedback = true) {
+    global $CFG;
+    $result = true;
+    
+    if (!remove_course_contents($courseid, $showfeedback)) {
+        if ($showfeedback) {
+            notify("An error occurred while deleting some of the course contents.");
+        }
+        $result = false;
+    }
+
+    if (!delete_records("course", "id", $courseid)) {
+        if ($showfeedback) {
+            notify("An error occurred while deleting the main course record.");
+        }
+        $result = false;
+    }
+
+    if (!fulldelete($CFG->dataroot.'/'.$courseid)) {
+        if ($showfeedback) {
+            notify("An error occurred while deleting the course files.");
+        }
+        $result = false;
+    }
+    
+    return $result;
+}
+
 /**
  * Clear a course out completely, deleting all content
  * but don't delete the course itself
@@ -3064,7 +3102,9 @@ function remove_admin($userid) {
  * @uses $CFG
  * @param int $courseid The id of the course that is being deleted
  * @param bool $showfeedback Whether to display notifications of each action the function performs.
- * @return bool
+ * @return bool true if all the removals succeeded. false if there were any failures. If this
+ *             method returns false, some of the removals will probably have succeeded, and others
+ *             failed, but you have no way of knowing which.
  */
 function remove_course_contents($courseid, $showfeedback=true) {
 
@@ -3276,7 +3316,7 @@ function remove_course_contents($courseid, $showfeedback=true) {
  * @param bool $removegroups Whether to remove matching records from the groups table.
  * @param bool $removeevents Whether to remove matching records from the event table.
  * @param bool $removelogs Whether to remove matching records from the log table.
- * @return bool true if all the removals succeeded. talse if there were any failures. If this
+ * @return bool true if all the removals succeeded. false if there were any failures. If this
  *             method returns false, some of the removals will probably have succeeded, and others
  *             failed, but you have no way of knowing which.
  */