Export, Import, or Copy Blackboard Ultra Courses
- Heather Ulrich
- Ellen Rogers-Roy
Copy a Blackboard Course or Specific Course Content
Follow these steps to copy a Blackboard course, or just certain course content, to a destination course. This is useful when teaching a new section of a past course, several sections of the same course, or if course content overlaps between multiple courses.
If you are teaching multiple sections of the same course simultaneously, you may want to consider a Course Merge instead of a Course Copy. Please contact academiccomputing@fairfield.edu if you are unsure which would fit your situation better.
Log into Blackboard and navigate to your Courses page.
Find your course and confirm it is Locked. This is indicated by a lock and the text “Locked” next to your name.
If the course is not locked, click on the three dots to the far right and choose Close or Complete Course, and then Make Course Private.
Next, click on the course and navigate to the Content page (this is the landing page when you first access any course).
Hover your mouse over the Content area and select the Add Content button.
For New Courses: It is recommended you click Add Content below the Course Introduction folder included in your template.
For Courses with Content Already: If you want to copy content into a specific folder or module, expand the folder or module and click Add Content within this area.
Choose Copy Content from the menu
Search for the source course by name or Course ID (eg ENGL1101_01_202409) and click on the course link. Do NOT click the check box next to the course name.
Check the box next to content you want to copy over.
In most cases, you will exclude the following items from the course copy:
BNC Course Materials link
Additional Resources and Tools folder
Graduate Student Orientation link (graduate courses only)
Announcements - unless you plan to reuse them. These will copy over as a draft and you will be able to edit and publish them as needed.
Discussions. In most cases, discussions are linked on the Content page in Ultra so copying over the Content will bring over the discussions as well. If you copy Discussions, you may end up with duplicates.
Click Submit to initiate the Copy. It will take a few minutes to run and you will receive an automated email once complete.
Once content is ready for students, be sure to open the course so it is available for viewing.
Export a Course
Exporting a Blackboard Course preserves all instructor-generated course content for use in a future course. Exports are necessary only when dealing with seldom-taught courses. At any given point, you only have access to the past two years of your Fairfield Blackboard courses. If you anticipate two years passing before you teach a course again, you may want to Export it for a potential future Import.
In most cases, you will be looking to copy the content of an old section of a course to a new one. As long as you still have access to the old course and the new one exists already, please use the Copy a Course or Course Content.
Log into Blackboard and navigate to your Courses page.
Open the course you wish to export.
On the content page, choose More options for course content
Select Export Course Package from the dropdown menu
Choose Add Export Package, then decide whether to include student data in the export
You will receive an email when the exported course package is ready to download. You can also find the file by following steps 1-5 and selecting the archive from the Manual tab. Select the export file name and the file will automatically download to your device.
Import a Course
These steps show how to Import a Blackboard course that has previously been Exported to a local file directory. You should have a .zip file ready for Importing.
Log into Blackboard and navigate to your Courses page.
Open the course you wish to export.
On the content page, choose More options for course content
Select Import Content from the dropdown menu
Choose Import Course Content from the menu and select the .zip file from your computer
Please be patient after submitting. The Import will take a few minutes to run. When finished, the package's content will exist in the destination course as it once did in the previously Exported source course.
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Contact the ITS Help Desk in the Library Room 230 or at (203) 254-4069 for assistance.