If you would like to copy a Blackboard course's content into a Canvas course, you can do so using Canvas' Course Import Tool. This will allow you to import any or all areas within Blackboard to your Canvas course. Since the UW is now making the transition to Canvas, this method is highly recommended when migrating all of your course materials from Blackboard to Canvas.
If you only need to import Course Files from a Blackboard to Canvas course, we recommend that you do this directly through the Files area of Canvas. Please see our tutorial page on this topic, available here.
Contents
Exporting a Blackboard Course
Importing a Blackboard Course into Canvas
Known Issues
Because there are differences in the way Blackboard and Canvas courses are organized, as well as the tools they offer, there can be some complications with importing a course. Through our testing, we have found that certain areas of a Blackboard course import better than others. Please see the following pages for more information before deciding if importing your course is best for you.
- Best Practices - A list of Blackboard course features and how well they import into a new Canvas course.
- What to Expect - An overview of what to expect upon importing your course and how features translate from Blackboard to Canvas.
Exporting a Blackboard Course
- Log into Blackboard (bb.uwb.edu) and go to the course you wish to export.
- From the control panel, click the tab reading Packages and Utilities. This should reveal a menu underneath. From this menu, choose Export/Archive Course.
- From the Export/Archive page you are redirected to, click the button at the top of the page that says Export Package.
- You will be redirected to the Export Course page.
- Under step 1, your Blackboard course ID should be already selected.
- Under step 2, you can calculate the size of your course to make sure it doesn't exceed limits.
- Under step 3, you can choose which content from your course you would like to export. Please make sure you choose Select All to ensure that you are exporting your course in its entirety. For a list of these areas, please see our page on best practices regarding course imports from Blackboard.
- Once you have completed or reviewed all three steps, click Submit at the bottom of the page.
- At the top of the Export/Archive Course page, you will see a notification reading "Success: this action has been queued. An email will be sent when the process is complete".
- Once complete, the exported course will appear in the main area of the Export/Archive Course page. To download it to your computer, click the name of the file.
- A pop-up window will appear. Choose Save File and click OK.
- Choose where you would like to have the file saved on your computer. We recommend saving to the desktop so that the file may be found easier.
- Once the file is saved to your computer, you are ready to import it into Canvas.
Importing a Blackboard Course into Canvas
- Log into UW Canvas at uw.instructure.com.
- From the Courses tab, choose the course you would like to import content into.
- From the course menu on the left side of the page, choose Settings.
- On the right side of the settings page, click the button that reads Import Content into this Course.
- Since you will be importing your Blackboard course, choose the button reading Import content from a content package or from another system.
- You will be redirected to the Import Wizard. Because we are importing from Blackboard 9.1, click the button that says import content from a content package or from another system.
- From the drop-down menu that you are redirected to, choose Blackboard 6/7/8/9 export .zip file.
- A new set of options will appear. Under choose a .zip file to import, click Browse. This will bring up a window in which you can locate and select the .zip file on your computer.
- After selecting your .zip file, make sure to leave the Choose which parts of the course to migrate box unchecked in order to import all of your course material.
- Once you have completed all of the steps, click the Import Course button.
- You will receive a message of success and will be notified via email once your course has finished importing. You can log out of Canvas at this point, if you wish.
- To finish the import process, log back into your Canvas course, go back to Settings > Import Content into this Course > Import content from a content package or from another system. This time, however, click the View migrations link above the drop-down menu.
- Your recently imported file will appear under Migrations Needing Action. Click the link next to the file name that reads Click here to choose content to import.
- You will be redirected to a list of the areas within the course file. Check the boxes next to the areas you'd like to import, or Copy Everything. Click Import Course Content when you are ready to import.
- A status bar will appear above the button you just clicked. This will show the progress of your course's import. You can leave the page at this point, as the course content will import on its own.
- You will receive a notification of success once your course has been fully imported. The content should appear within your course immediately upon completion.