by Ken Task.
You have options ...
https://www.google.com/search?q=moodle+plugin+bulk+archive+courses+in+a+category
A plugin: https://moodle.org/plugins/tool_coursearchiver
Command line
in admin/cli/ there is a backup.php script that could be looped through a course ID list (text/ascii) with nothing but the course ID (that list made via DB query from CLI to produce the CID list desired).
The backup.php script does have an option for destination directory - where the backups are to be saved ... highly recommended to prevent getting lost in the sea of files in moodledata and makes it easier to transfer off the Moodle server onto device/shared drive/bucket/mountpoint, etc.
Might also check into the use of 'moosh' - CLI only.
and https://moosh-online.com/commands/
for some example commands.
Using CLI takes apache out of the loop.
'spirit of sharing', Ken