Desire Learn Overview

Quickguide: Import/Export/Copy Tool

The Import/Export/Copy Components tool lets you copy Content, Quizzes, Grade Items, Discussion Forums, Dropbox Folders and nearly every other type of component from one course to another. Copying components saves you from having to recreate your courses resources from scratch and can significantly reduce the amount of work required to create or re-offer a course. You can use the Import/Export/Copy Components feature to reuse components created in a previous course offering, to add components created by your peers into your own course offering, and to set up standard components inside a master course and copy them into a new course offering each time a course is re-offered.

How to Access the Import/Export/Copy Components Tool

1. From any page in your course, click Edit Course on the navigation bar. 2. Click Import/Export/Copy Components.

In This Guide
Copying Components Importing Course Components from a File Exporting Course Components to a File

Copying Components
You can copy content from one course to another if you are an instructor in both courses. If you want to move content from one course to another course that you do not currently have access to, you can export that content into a zipped file for later use (see the Exporting Course Components to a File section of this guide). 1. Go to the course you want to copy components into. Its very important that you start in the course that is the destination for the copied components. 2. Click Edit Course. 3. Click Import/Export/Copy Components (Figure 1). 4. Select Copy Components from Another Org Unit (Figure 2).

Figure 1

Figure 2

Desire2Learn Quickguide: Import/Export/Copy Tool (Page 2 of 7)

5. Click Next. Note: In the Current Course Components section at the top, click Show the current course components to see items that already exist in the course you are copying components into. Click the View Detail icon next to each component to see a list of those components that are in the course you are copying components into. 6. Select the course you want to copy components from in the Existing Offering drop-down menu. When you have selected the course, the available components will appear at the bottom of the page. 7. Select the components you want to copy using the checkbox next to each component or click Select All Components to copy from all tools. 8. To copy only certain items from a component, choose Select individual items to copy. This allows you to select individual Quizzes, Discussion Forums, Content Topics, etc (Figure 3). Note: If you are copying components from a Bb Import course, do not copy the Discussions. Discussions are organized differently in Blackboard, and Desire2Learn and will not import them correctly, so they must be rebuilt manually, rather than copied from Blackboard. 9. When you are finished selecting components, click Next. 10. If you chose Select individual items to copy for any components, select which items from that component to copy on the pages that follow. Click the + plus signs next to each component to expand that list and see all of the items included in that component. Select the checkbox next to each item youd like to copy into the current course. Note: Not all components have sub-items.
Figure 4 Figure 3

Desire2Learn Quickguide: Import/Export/Copy Tool (Page 3 of 7)

When you have selected all of the items to copy, click Next (Figure 4). 11. On the Select Course Material page, confirm that the correct materials to be copied are listed and click Next (Figure 5). Note: The Copy Summary will be displayed. When a component has been successfully copied, a green check mark appears beside it. If any component fails to copy properly, a red X will appear beside it. 12. When the process is finished, click Done. Note: In general, course components already in the destination course will not be affected by copying course components. The only course component that can be overwritten is Course Files. A Course File is overwritten if one of the files being copied has the same name as an existing file. If you are copying components from the same source multiple times, be careful not to copy the same items more than once or you will create duplicates.

Figure 5

Content: Be sure to copy all of the Course Files used by the content topic or the topic will not display properly. Due Dates: Due dates for items are not changed when you copy them. You must use the Manage Dates tool to change the due dates for items in your course. Grades: Calculated grade items are not copied. Groups and Sections: Auto-enrollments are not run in the new course. You must enroll users yourself. Release Conditions: The only release conditions that are copied are those that are attached to and reference other components that are copied at the same time. Choosing Release Conditions without selecting any other component does nothing. Navbars and Homepages: Custom Navbars and Homepages will copy over, but you must set the custom navbar or homepage as active before you will see it.

Student Data
Student data is not copied from one course to another; only the course structures are copied. For example, if you copy a Discussion topic, only the prompt and discussion settings are copied, not the individual student posts.

Links and Associations between Components

If you are copying linked or associated components, you must copy all of the related components at the same time. For example, if a Discussion Topic has release conditions based on the results of a Quiz, you must copy all three components (Discussions, Quizzes and Release Conditions) at the same time. As long as the associated components are copied together, links between them are retained. Note: Please see the information in Figure 6 for details about copying certain information in between courses in Desire2Learn.

Figure 6

Desire2Learn Quickguide: Import/Export/Copy Tool (Page 4 of 7)

Importing Course Components from a File

You can import components that have been created by other instructors, provided by content vendors, or created in a contentcreation program, like Respondus. To import components, you must have a file containing the components in a format supported by the Import tool. 13. Go to the Import/Export/Copy Components page for your course. 14. Select Import Components and from a file (Figure 7). 15. Click Browse. Locate and select the import file. Note: This is the file created when you exported content from another software package or another Desire2Learn course. It can also be a file from content vendor. 16. Click Next. 17. The Preprocessing Progress page appears. A green check mark appears next to each item as it is completed. The preprocessing phase might take some time to complete, depending on the file size. 18. When both stages are complete, click Next. 19. In the Select Course Materials section at the top of the page, specify the import settings you want to use. If you want to import files into a subdirectory under your course offerings root directory, enter the sub-directory path in the Import file to field. If you leave this field blank, imported files are saved in the root directory in the Manage Files area. Note: By creating a sub-directory in the Import file to field, you can organize the imported material into one folder in your course, though other content types will be placed in the corresponding tool without a

Figure 7

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specific denotation that it came from a course import. Specify what should happen if a file in the import package has the same name as a file that already exists in the destination course. To import metadata, select the Import metadata checkbox. 20. In the Select Components to Import section, select the components you want to import using the checkboxes next to each component. 21. To import only certain items from a component, choose Select individual items to import. This will allow you to select individual Quizzes, Content Topics, Dropbox Folders, etc. 22. Click Next (Figure 8). 23. If you chose Select individual items to copy for any components, select which items from that componentto copy on the pages that follow. Click the + plus signs next to each component to expand that list and see all of the items included in that component. Select the checkbox next to each item youd like to copy into the current course. Note: Not all components have sub-items. When you have selected all of the items to copy, click Next. 24. On the Select Course Material page, confirm your selection and click Next. Note: The Importing Course Material page appears, showing the import progress. When a component has been successfully imported, a green check mark appears beside it. If any component fails to import, a red X appears beside it. 25. When the process is finished, click Next to see a final summary screen with a list of any notes or warnings. For example, if you import a content topic that is not
Figure 8

Figure 9

Desire2Learn Quickguide: Import/Export/Copy Tool (Page 6 of 7)

associated with a module, a module is created for it and this action is listed on the final summary screen (Figure 9). Note: If components with the same name as the components you are importing already exist in the course, you will have multiple course components with the same name.

Exporting Course Components to a File

You can export components from your course offering to a zipped file. You can use this feature to share content from your course with other instructors. 26. Go to the Import/Export/Copy Components page for your course. 27. Select Export Components. Make sure you select Include course files in the export package (Figure 10). 28. Click Next. 29. Select the components you want to export using the check box next to each component. 30. To export only certain items from a component, choose Select individual items to export. 31. When you are finished selecting components, click Next. 32. If you chose Select individual items to export for any components, select which items from that component to copy on the pages that follow. Click the + plus signs next to each component to expand that list and see all of the items included in that component. Select the checkbox next to each item youd like to copy into the current course. Note: Not all components have sub-items. When you have selected all of the items to copy, click Next (Figure 11).
Figure 11 Figure 10

Desire2Learn Quickguide: Import/Export/Copy Tool (Page 7 of 7)

33. Click Next to begin the export. The Export Course Components page is displayed, showing the export progress. Note: When a component has been successfully exported, a green check mark appears beside it. If any component fails to export, a red X will appear beside it. 34. When the process is finished, click Done. A final Export Summary page is displayed. 35. To download the file, click on the link that says Click here to download the export Zip package. Choose a location to save the file and save it. (Figure 12) Note: If you do not download the file from this screen, it is lost. You cannot download this specific exported file later.

Student Data

Student data is not exported. For example, if you export the Dropbox, none of the assignments submitted to Dropbox folders are exported.

Links and Associations between Components

Associations between components will not be exported. The IMS Content Packaging specification, which the format for export files is based on, does not support these associations (for example, Quicklinks, links to Grade Items, Release Conditions, etc.).

Figure 12

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