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Blackboard Faculty Manual

5.0 Course Rollovers

5.1 Copying a Course

If you will be teaching the same course again the next term, you can easily copy the materials from your current course directly to the new course shell before the start of the term.  Be sure to read the 'Troubleshooting Hints' at the end of these instructions before attempting to copy your course.

1. Open the course that you want to copy from and from the Control Panel, click Packages and Utilities and then choose Course Copy.

2. In Section 1, click on Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course.

3. In Section 2, next to the destination course ID textbox, click Browse.

• Click the Courses ID radio button to search for the new course shell using its course ID. Type in the Course ID of the new course. (Be sure to use an underscore symbol between the department name and course number.)

• You can also search by Instructor Name or Course Name/Description.
• Click the Search button. (Only courses for which you are listed as an instructor will appear.)

4. Click the radio button next to the course that you are going to copy into. Click Submit.

5. Under Select Course Materials, check ALL the boxes so that everything will be copied. Click Submit.

6. Wait until Blackboard emails you that the copying is complete. (This will not be instantaneous. The time to copy depends on the amount and type of content you are copying.)

7. Open the new course and review the content. Delete any copied content that you may not want students in the new term to view. Update any adaptive release rules.

 Troubleshooting Hints:

This most recent version of Blackboard has experienced some issues with course copy. Please note the following:

1.  Be sure you don't have any hidden columns in your Grade Center before you copy your course.  Check for hidden columns by looking in the Grade Center and choosing Manage > Column Organization.  Be sure all columns are set to 'show' before doing a course copy or you risk corrupting the new Grade Center.

2. If you receive the email alert and it appears that not all content has copied successfully, don't attempt to re-copy!  Occasionally the email alert has been sent too early.  Wait a few hours and if you are still missing content, contact Ecampus or support@my.oregonstate.edu.

3. If your destination course now has duplicate buttons in the main menu, delete the empty buttons.  The buttons that have content contain the copied material.

4. If your source site was set to be available to students and you don't want the destination site to be available yet, you'll need to make the destination site unavailable after the course is rolled.  The availability setting rolls with the course.

5.2 Exporting/Archiving a Course

If you choose to export/archive a course you will make a package file (compressed .ZIP file) of the course that can later be imported into another course. You choose whether to include any user interactions with the course - or only content and tools in the export.

Note: Do not unzip an Export package or remove files from it, otherwise it cannot be imported correctly.

1. Open the course that you want to export and from the Control Panel, click Packages and Utilities, and choose Export/Archive Course.

2. Click the Export button from the Action Bar on the Export / Archive Course page.

4. Choose the areas to export.

5. Click Submit. Wait to receive an email indicating that the Export process was successful. The exported course is placed in the Export/Archive Course page in Blackboard. You can save the course package from here to your local computer, if desired.

5.3 Importing a Course

Use these instructions to import a course (or selected parts of a course) from a package (.zip) file that was created from an export. Never upload an exported course package that has been modified since it was downloaded. This makes the resulting course very unstable.

1. In your new course, enter the Control Panel, click Packages and Utilities, and choose Import Package / View Logs.

2. In the Import Package window:

• Section 1: The destination course ID is already set to the course you are working in.
• Section 2: Browse to locate the desired course package (.zip file).
• Section 3: Indicate if there are any content collection files to include.
• Section 4: Indicate which materials to include in the import.
  • If a course area in the package doesn't exist in the destination course - one will be created.
  • If a course area in the package have the same name and are of the same type - the content from the package will be added but will not replace any content already present.
  • If a course area in the package and in the new course have the same name but are of different types - the course area from the package will be added under a different name.
  • Note: Links to parts of a course that are not included in the import will break when they appear in the destination course.
• Click Submit.

3. Clean up the imported materials:

• Verify the correct home page banner is being used.
• Adjust the course menu as needed (see section 0.3 of this manual for instructions).
• Check and fix all links, if necessary.
• Update announcements, tasks, and calendar events.
• Make the course available.
• Turn on Guest Access if desired

5.4 Delete a Course

Warning: Deleting a course deletes it entirely. This action should only be taken when extensive structural and content changes will be easier if the course is empty of material. Be sure you archive (see section 5.2 above) the entire course before deleting any portion of the course.

1. From the Control Panel choose Packages and Utilities and then choose Bulk Delete.

2. In the Bulk Delete window,

• Section 1: Select the content materials to remove.
• Section 2: Select any other materials to remove.
• Section 3: Type Delete in the text box and then click Submit.