Archiving and Importing Your Blackboard 9 Course This tutorial provides instructions for how to move the content of a Blackboard course into a new course shell for use in the upcoming semester on Blackboard 9 version. If you have any questions with this process, please call CTELT at (785) 628-4194. The information below is an overview of the archive and import process. Detailed instructions for archiving and importing your course starting on next page. Enter Your Exsiting Course Shell Archive the Course and Download the Archived File on Your Computer Enter Your New Course Shell Import the Archive into Your New Course Shell 1 STEP 1: Enter Your Existing Course Log in to Blackboard at: http://blackboard.fhsu.edu, and find the course you wish to move the content under My Course. Enter the course by clicking on it. STEP 2: Archive the Course and Download the Archived File on Your Computer a. In Control Panel, Click on Export/Archive Course under Packages and Utilities. b. In Export/Archive Course page, click on the Archive button. c. You will be taken to the Archive Course page where you will choose whether to include Grade Center history. Click Submit. Note: If the Grade Center History is extensive, the file size of the archive will increase as well as the processing time. 2 d. After clicking Submit, you will see a green bar at the top of the page explaining to you that the confirmation email from the system will be sent to your email account after the archive action has complete. e. Minimize Blackboard site and wait for the confirmation to be sent to your FHSU email or other email account you use for your Blackboard course. The email sent by Blackboard Administrator will contain the subject: Archive: Course ID. f. After receiving the email that the archive action has completed, you can return to Blackboard – Control Panel. Click on the Export/Archive Course under Packages and Utilities g. You will find the archived course file is there. The name ends in .zip. h. Right-click on the blue link and choose Save Target As (IE users). If you are using Mozilla Firefox web browser, choose Save Link As. Continue to save the file to the computer desktop or other location where it can easily be found later. Right-Click here 3 Note: Do NOT try to open or change any of the files in the archived zip file. It will result in unstable and unpredictable behavior when a course is imported. STEP 3: Enter Your New Semester Course Shell a. On the Blackboard 9 Welcome page, find your course shell that you want to import the content into under My Courses - Courses you are teaching section. b. Enter the course shell by clicking on it. STEP 4: Import the Archive into Your New Shell a. Go to Control Panel inside the course that you are trying to import your content into, and Click on Import Package/View Logs under Packages and Utilities. b. IMPORTMANT: In the Import Package page, please look at the “breadcrumb trail” at the top of the page to insure that you are in the correct course before importing! This should be the course that you are trying to import your content into. 4 c. Click on the Browser or Choose File button. Browse to the file you archived on your computer previously. Highlight this file and click Open. d. Select the boxes and click the Submit button. Note: Be sure to select Gradebook Items and Settings if you have any items under Content or Discussion Board linked to the Gradebook. Without checking Gradebook Items and Settings during a course copy or import, it may cause you receive an error message when modifying the imported item options. After clicking Submit, you will receive the following message: e. After receiving the email, return to Blackboard to check your course that you just imported the content into. 5 Tips on How to Organize Course Materials after Course Import (Setting up or Cleaning up Your New Course after Importing) Duplicate Menu Buttons Some of the course menu items may be in a different order and you may find a few duplicates. The import process adds to the course menu, it does not remove any of the items that were in the course before the import. You can reorder and remove items as needed. To reorder course menu items: Use the up/down arrow to drag and drop the link. To remove a duplicate course menu item: Click the double arrow on the menu button to open the drop down menu and select Delete. CAUTION: Do NOT remove any course menu item that contains course content, as this will delete the content! In Blackboard 9 a gray square icon to the right of the link name indicated a content area without content. This is a way to distinguish between menu item with content and those without content. Discussion Board: If you have imported discussion boards in your new course, the postings will show as being authored by anonymous. You will need to repost if you want forums to display that you are the author. You will also need to clean out the student postings by opening each forum links and removing all student threads in each forum. Grade Center: After course imported, check your categories and remove categories that you aren't using other than the default categories that can't be removed. (Click on Manage and then Categories within the Grade Center.) Double check assigned column categories and points possible by going to Manage and then Column Organization. Remove columns that you are not using. To remove a Grade Center column, you can follow these steps: 1. 2. 3. 4. Click on the double arrow icon in the column header. Choose Remove Column in the drop-down menu. Select OK to confirm the changes. Click Submit to save changes. 6 Note: The Remove Column option is displayed in the drop-down menu only when a column has been added manually. If a column has been created automatically as part of a Test, Assignment created with the Assignment Manager, Survey, and Discussion assessment, remove first the assessment from a Content Area; then remove a column from the Grade Center. If you have any questions with this process, please call CTELT at (785) 628-4194. 7