Import courses

[JustineClevelan]

Why is it so hard to import courses. I am so frustrated right now. Just want to import my courses to start my class. Can someone please help. I am so tired of these job aides that do not help. I thought this was going to be user friendly and its not and I cannot get any help from no one. 

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

@JustineClevelan ...

Importing course content should not be hard at all.  What parts are you having difficulties with?  Are you following the steps outlined in either of these Guides?

• How do I copy content from another Canvas course u... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)
• How do I select specific content as part of a cour... - Instructure Community

Also, this video would be really good to watch.  You'd want to use the "Copy a Canvas Course" option:

• Course Content Import (Instructors) - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

If you have other questions, please let Community members know, and we'll be glad to help...thanks!

[MG09]

@Chris_Hofer 

How do I import the grading categories from my fall semester into my spring semester?

[Chris_Hofer]

Hello @MG09 …

I am a little unclear as to what you mean by “grading categories”.  Do you mean the grading schemes that you can set up via your course “Settings” page (to define what an “A”, “B”, “C”, “D”, and “F” grade mean)?  Or, do are you asking about the assignment groups on the “Assignments” index page of your course where you can categorize your assignments using “Assignment Groups” and (if you want) weight those “Assignment Groups”?  For example, you might have the following:

• Written Assignments = 50%
• Graded Quizzes = 35%
• Graded Discussions = 15%
• TOTAL = 100%

If you could help to clarify, this would be beneficial…thanks!

[cchampi]

I am having trouble importing a course from a colleague and I cannot for the life of me figure it out. He sent me a zip file that he got from exporting his own course, but the import tool does not recognize it (and it came from the same LMS!). There are no instructions for anything other than "Copy a Canvas Course" which only applies to courses you have in your own Canvas list. There are no answers to importing a Canvas export file from another user. I can do it, but each time it fails and says "Unsupported content package" which I find odd because the "content package" was generated by Canvas itself.

[Chris_Hofer]

@cchampi ...

Most likely, your colleague exported the Canvas course following these instructions:

How do I export a Canvas course?

For you, once you have that file from your colleague, you'll want to follow the steps in this Guide:

How do I import a Canvas course export package?

Another option for you, if your school utilizes Canvas Commons, would be for your colleague to share the entire course to Canvas Commons.  Then, once it is in Commons, you could import the course content from Commons into your own course.

Yet another option...reach out to your school's Canvas administrator.  That person should be able to copy the contents of your colleague's course into your own course.

Sing out if you have additional questions about this...thanks!