This article will not cover the step-by-step procedure for importing course content. Rather, it will help you make informed decisions around selecting which content from a 'source' (a previous Canvas course, a development site, or a file exported from another learning management system) to import into your 'destination' (the course you're prepping).
Before You Begin
Set Up the Import
Select Suitable Content
Run the Import and Adjust Content
Deal With Kaltura Content
Before You Begin
Scan Your Course Shell
Click through your destination course and note what's already in place. It may be blank or, if your college uses course templates, some things may be done for you, such as:
- course navigation order set
- third-party tools enabled
- foundational content loaded
Create Group Sets
If you assign group work, create Group Sets using the same Group Set names of the source course. You don't need to create the Groups or assign students at this point. Just create Group Sets and Canvas will accurately handle assignments assigned to groups.
Note Term Start Dates
Look up the start date for the terms of both your source and destination courses. The date range displayed above course navigation in Canvas will not help you because it is padded to cover all campuses. You want the actual first day of classes on your campus. Write it down and set it aside.
Pro Tip: Before importing, open two windows side-by-side – one with the source course and one with the destination course. As you select things to import you may come across an item you don't recall. Use the window with the source course to look up what you don't remember.
Set Up the Import
Regardless of the source, importing content leads to the same decision point: select all or specific content?
Choose Select specific content which allows you to pick only the items you want. If you're in doubt whether to import something, leave it behind. You can always run the import process again and again.
Understand the Warning
Each time you import you will see a warning about importing the same content more than once. This should only concern you if you have content in your destination course that you edited and improved. That improved version will be overwritten if you re-import the original item.
Adjust Dates
Canvas does a good job recasting dates onto a new timeline as long as you provide at least two inputs.
- Under Options, select Adjust events and due dates.
- Under Date adjustment, select Shift dates.
- For Beginning date, enter the first day of classes of the source course. For change to, enter the first day of classes of the destination course.
- Optionally, enter the last day of classes of the source and destination courses in the Ending date fields. This is only necessary if the duration of source and destination courses is significantly different.
Canvas will use the dates to distribute assignments as evenly as possible and keep them due on the same day of the week as the source course.
There's an area to specify shifts in days of the week. Experiment if you wish but in our academic environment where terms consistently begin on the same day of the week, there's little need for these controls.
Select Suitable Content
Course Settings
Do not select Course Settings if your college uses templates to initialize things like course navigation or Grade Posting Policies. Otherwise, do select Course Settings as a good way to repeat course navigation, grading scale, language, and participation settings.
Discussion Topics
Imported Discussions are stripped of the name of the user who posted the topic – even if it is you and you are a teacher in both the source and destination courses. There is no way to edit an imported discussion to add a user as the poster. If it's important that discussion topics bear the name of the user who introduced it, omit Discussions from the import and create them from scratch in the destination course.
External Tools
As a rule, do not import external tools you added at the course level. It may be that simple tools like the Redirect Tool work fine after import but other tools like Flip and publisher tools are predicated on a unique context and may not function in the destination course.
Announcements
Announcements with delayed posting dates will advance in the calendar according to the Date adjustment you entered above. However, instructors often create announcements for immediate release and do not enter a delayed posting date. Announcements that do not have a delayed posting date in the source course will not have a date associated with them in the destination course. As a result, they will be available to students the moment you publish your course. Announcements will not be pushed to students by email notification but they will see a badge on the Course Card in their Dashboard and in their Course Activity Stream. If you have a lot of announcements that do not have a delayed posting date, you may wish to omit Announcements from the import.
Imported announcements are also stripped of the name of the user who posted it. There is no way to edit an imported announcement to add a user as the author. If it's important that announcements bear the name of the user who wrote it, omit Announcements from the import and create them from scratch in the destination course.
Pro Tip: Keep a Google Doc with all your announcements and copy/paste announcements from Google to Canvas each week.
Calendar Events
When you create meetings using the Zoom integration it spawns corresponding events in the course calendar. Those calendar events will import to the destination course, but the Zoom meeting links within the events are stale. Do not import Calendar Events generated by the Zoom LTI. If you do, watch this short video (5:11) for how to delete them.
Imported Calendar Events are stripped of their location values. If you designated a spot for office hours, for example, that location will not be part of the imported event.
Run the Import and Adjust Content
Once you've selected content to import, click Select Content. Canvas may take a few minutes to process. When it's complete, check the status of the import for failures. Canvas will tell you if something is unsupported or otherwise cannot be imported. If you chose to import the following types of content, you still need to make adjustments.
Course Settings
Some settings will honor the defaults for the account and ignore the course settings you imported. In course Settings:
- Review the values for Default due time, Large course, Format, Mastery Paths, and Description on the Course Details tab.
- Enable or disable features on the Feature Options tab.
Assignments and Quizzes
Assignment availability and due dates will have scaled to the new term. If you're not satisfied with the result, edit assignment dates in bulk.
Pages
Confirm your Front Page.
Announcements
To prevent announcements from being available to students the moment you publish, edit each announcement to delay posting until an appropriate date.
Calendar Events
Add a location to imported Calendar Events. If you imported Calendar Events generated by the Zoom LTI, watch this short video (5:11) and delete them.
Files
If you set visibility dates on a file, those dates were not updated to the new time frame. Edit file visibility dates to match the new term.
Zoom
Meetings created in the source course using the Zoom integration will not import. The Zoom tab in the destination course will not list any Upcoming Meetings, Previous Meetings, or Cloud Recordings. Create Zoom meetings from scratch in the destination course.
External Tools: Confirm Them
Use the following graduated approach to confirm the external tools function in the destination course.
Interact with it: Click items that were added to course navigation and load modules, pages, and assignments that leverage external tools. This is a good way to validate that Redirect Tool links, Flip assignments, SCORM packages, TurnItIn, and textbook publisher links work in the destination course.
Reselect it: For assignments that have an external tool as the Submission Type, re-establish a connection between the destination course and the tool.
- Navigate to the assignment > Edit Assignment Settings.
- Under Submission Type, select Find and re-select the external tool in the Configure External Tool modal window.
- Click Select and Save the assignment.
You may need to do this for assignments leveraging VitalSource, VoiceThread, and others.
External Tools: Fix Them
Delete and re-add: If it's a tool added to the course, delete it in Settings > Apps > View App Configurations. Click the gear icon and select Delete from the drop-down menu. Note: only Teachers and Designers can delete apps; others should contact Technology Help.
Get help: Depending on the external tool, it may be supported by your college, the vendor, or centrally by IT. If you're not sure, reach out to Technology Help and they can either fix it or direct you to the right support resources.
Deal With Kaltura Content
Pages with Kaltura Media
Pages with Kaltura media embeds will import and play. The same video can be used in many different places in Canvas so you can import pages with Kaltura embeds again and again.
Kaltura Video Quizzes
Kaltura Video Quizzes used in assignments will import, play, and pass grades to the Canvas Gradebook. A Kaltura Video Quiz used in multiple courses will pool analytics resulting in all student responses lumped together. If your quiz has Open-Ended questions, that means digging through lots of data to retrieve a single student's submission. If you want course-specific analytics make a copy of the quiz to use in the destination course.
Media Gallery
Contents of the Media Gallery will not import from the source course through the process outlined above. Follow these steps to import a media gallery from another Canvas course.
Media Gallery Playlists
Media Gallery Playlists will come along when you import a media gallery from another Course unless you have 10 or more playlists, then none of your playlists will import. Contact Technology Help for assistance.
Conclusion
This article only covers importing content. There is more you should do before publishing your course. Use the Start of Semester Checklist to continue the process. Do you have other tips or gotchas you wish to share? Send us an email at extrapoints@umn.edu.
Acknowledgments
Kalli Binkowski in the College of Biological Sciences contributed her knowledge and offered her time to assemble this article. Thanks Kalli!