Course Copy, Exporting and Importing Blackboard Course Shells

Whole course copy

On the Course Content page, select the More options menu. Select Copy Items.

Image of the More options menu on the Course Content page with Copy Items highlighted

You can now access a list of your courses. If the course you’re searching for isn’t on the first page, use the arrows to navigate or use the search bar. You can also search for organizations by selecting the Organizations tab. 

Select the name of the course to do a full course copy.

Image of the Copy Items page, with the checkbox beside one course selected

When you perform a full course copy, all settings are preserved (including due dates, visibility states, and release conditions). 

Select Start Copy. 

Copying individual course items

On the Course Content page, select the More options menu. Select Copy Items.

Image of the More options menu on the Course Content page with Copy Items highlighted

You can now access a list of your courses. Select the name of a course to access its available items to copy.

The following categories are available: 

  • Content: Items that are listed on the Content page for that course.
  • Discussions: Items that are listed on the Discussions page for that course.
  • Question Banks: All available question banks for that course.
  • Rubrics: All available rubrics for that course.
  • Grade Schemes: All available grade schemes for that course.

Even if you select everything, this is still an individual item copy. Copying individual items doesn’t preserve release conditions and visibility states. If you want to preserve those settings, go back to the list of courses and select the name of the course, and then Start Copy to do a full course copy.

Select a category to access available items to copy. Then, select the items you'd like to copy. Content is automatically set to Hidden from students if you copy individual items into your course.

Image of the Copy Items page, with several categories of course item selected whereas others are not

Select Start Copy, then review all copied items are correct and that due dates are correct. 

Export and archive your course

On the Course Content page, open the menu on the right side above the content list. Select Export Course Package.

The system asks if you want to include student activity data in your export, which is an archive. Student activity data includes assignment submissions, grades, attendance data, and discussion posts. Select Yes if you want to include the student enrollment and student data. Select No if you only want to copy the content without the student enrollment and data.

When the export or archive package is ready, the ZIP file appears. Select the file name to download the package to your computer.

Export and archive packages are downloaded as compressed ZIP files and are imported or restored in the same format. Don't unzip a package or delete files from the package, as then the contents can't be imported correctly. Do not try to open this ZIP file on your computer, it will not open correctly and compromise the file. 

You can export your course content for use in the future. This content is included in an export/archive package:

  • Course content
  • Rubrics associated to assignments
  • Calendar events, including office hours and course schedule
  • Discussions
  • Gradebook settings
  • Manual gradebook items
  • Goals alignments
  • Attendance for archives only
  • Course announcements

Import content

On the Course Content page, open the menu on the right side above the content list. Select Import Content > Import Course Content and choose the course package to upload from your computer. All of the content from the package imports to your course. The new content appears at the end of the content list. 

As the content imports, a message appears in the content list.

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