UMBC Blackboard is now creating new blank courses for all classes listed in the Schedule of Classes. Instructors who had been requesting course copies from a previous course can easily import all content (including exams and surveys) to their new (blank) course.

This tutorial refers to the previously used course as previous, and the course to which you want to copy the material as current.

For example:
Sending material from TEST101_0101_SP2003 (previous) to TEST101_0101_FA2004 (current).

NOTE: It is recommended that you complete the process on a private computer, rather than a public computer (such as a lab computer), as you may exceed your UMBC account quota.

After opening the previous course, confirm the presence and location of all content you wish to send to the new, blank course.

You may now Export the course to your local computer.

From your course Control Panel, under "Course Options", click Export Course.

On the following page, select which elements you wish to import into your new course.

NOTE: If you are importing from a Spring 2004 or previous course, DO NOT SELECT 'Gradebook Items and Settings'. If you do this during the import procedure, you and your students will receive an error message when accessing the Gradebook.

Click to continue.

Some sections of Blackboard courses will not export:

- All Discussion Board postings

- All files in the Digital Drop Box

- Enrollment

- Links to 'deployed' exams and surveys (exams/surveys themselves remain, but you will have to redeploy them)

- Gradebook Items and Settings in courses previous to Summer 2004

Click the link to download the package file of your course.

Warning messages MAY appear in the Export Log. These usually pertain to unimportable items (see above), and can be ignored.

Choose a location on your computer where you will remember to find the .ZIP file. In the example, the course is exported as sample.zip.

You will see your course listed with the course ID and the .ZIP extension.

Open the blank course that has been automatically generated for you. You are now ready to import the data into the new course.

From the course Control Panel in the blank course, under "Course Options", click Import Package.

Click Browse, then select the .ZIP file you exported earlier from the PREVIOUS course.

Select the course materials you wish to import into the blank course (e.g., Content, Announcements, Calendar, Course Settings, etc.).

Click .

*The importing process can take several minutes for large courses.

You will receive WARNING messages from the Import Log receipt that follows. Again, these usually pertain to unimportable items (see above), and can be ignored.

Click OK on the receipt page to enter your new, imported course.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact Bob Armstrong at 410.455.3885 or rarmstro@umbc.edu or blackboard@umbc.edu.