How to import courses

How to import courses

Overview

The platform allows you to import courses and classes from a variety of sources. This article will cover:
  1. Importing Blackboard courses.
  2. Importing courses using Common Cartridge Format (CCF).
  3. Importing Moodle courses.
  4. Importing content from an existing course on the platform.
To learn how to import a SCORM course, visit the SCORM knowledge base article.
Info
Please note, CYPHER for business defaults to the term course. CYPHER for academia defaults to the term class. The terms course and class are interchangeable in this article.

Create a new course by importing a Blackboard course

The platform allows you to easily create a new course by uploading a Blackboard zip file. To create a new course from a Blackboard zip file:
  1. Click or hover over Courses on the main navigation menu.
  2. Click Add.
The course creation wizard pop-up displays.
  1. Click Course.
  2. Click Import Package.
  3. Click Blackboard.
Add course popup, Method step, Import package options
The course create wizard moves to the Details step. 
  1. Enter a Name for the course.
  2. Select a Style for the course: Instructor, Blended, Self paced, or Micro course.
  3. Enter the Duration for the course.
    1. This is optional for Self paced and Micro courses.
  4. Click Create.
Add course popup, Details step with a sample Blackboard course
The Upload file pop-up displays.
  1. Drag and drop the Blackboard zip file to the pop-up window.
  2. Or, click to browse for the Blackboard zip file on your computer.
  3. Click Save.
The Blackboard file will upload and you will receive a notification when the import is complete.

Meanwhile, the course has been created and the course Configure tab displays.  The Configure tab contains the most common course settings and allows you to quickly configure many elements of your course. Each section expands to display common settings related to the section. To learn more about configuring a course, visit the Configure courses and classes article. 

Sample Blackboard course, Admin, Configure page with an on screen message that the import is being processed

When the import is complete, you will receive a notification.
  1. Open the notification.
  2. Click the link in the notification to access your imported Blackboard course.

Automatic notification of a successful Blackboard course import

Blackboard terminology equivalent in the platform

Learning Modules

Blackboard learning modules are equivalent to modules in the platform. Each module imported from Blackboard that has resources will have a section page, which is named after the current module. This section page will contain all of the resources for the module. If a resource isn’t in a module, and is saved only as a course resource, it be will be imported as a course resource. The resource will be saved in the Resources section in a parent folder or as a course resource.

Resources

The following resources are supported:

Item
  1. The Blackboard Item is imported as a page resource with attachments. If the item has one or more attachments, these attachments will be created in the same location with the main page resources. 
BlankPage
  1. The Blackboard BlankPage is imported as a page resource for the current module or as a course resource. If the page has one or more attachments, these attachments will be created in the same folder with the page resources.
Module Page
  1. The Blackboard Module page is imported as a page resource for the current module or as a course resource. Only the page’s description will be imported without the contained tools. 
File
  1. The Blackboard File is imported as a file resource, in the current module or as a course resource. 
Audio
  1. The Blackboard Audio is imported as a file resource.
Video
  1. The Blackboard Video is imported as a file resource.
Image
  1. The Blackboard Image is imported as a file resource.
Web Link
  1. The Blackboard web link is imported as a web resource for the current module or as a course resource if it is not included in any module.
Lesson Plan
  1. The Blackboard Lesson Plan is imported as a folder that can hold resources. All the resources are imported, but the module's plan settings are not. If the module plan contains any assessments, they will be imported as a course assessment if the current module plan is not in a module.
Folder
  1. The Blackboard Content Folder is imported as a folder, as a module resource or as a course resource.

The following types of resources are not supported: Mashups - including Flickr Photo, Slideshare Presentation, Youtube Video, Voice Authoring, xpLor Content, and NBC, ContentSoftChalk, ScoreCenter Content, Course Link, Syllabus, Wiki and Wiki Pages.

Assessments

The following assessments are imported in a Blackboard import:

Test
  1. The Blackboard Test is imported as a quiz assignment.
Survey
  1. The Blackboard Survey is imported as a survey assignment.
Assignment
  1. Blackboard assignments are imported as freeform assignments (essay) for the current module. The assignment’s attachments are imported as an embedded file in the assignment description.
The following types of assessments are not supported: Self and Peer Assessment, SafeAssignment, or  McGraw-Hill Assignment.

Questions

Blackboard Tests and Surveys have various types of question types.

The platform supports the following types of questions for import:
  1. True/False, Either/Or, Matching, Multiple Choice, Multiple Answer, Short Response, File Upload, Opinion Scale/Likert, Essay, and Fill in the blank.

The platform does not support the following types of questions for import:

  1. Calculated Formula, Calculated Numeric, Hot Spot, Jumbled Sentence, Ordering, and Quiz Bowl.  

Additional features

Additional Blackboard features are imported in the following ways:
  1. Blackboard Discussion Boards are imported as forums, although individual posts are not imported.
  2. Blackboard Groups are imported as course groups. Individual group posts are not imported.
  3. The following features are not supported through import: Blackboard Blog and Journal.

Create a new course by importing a Common Cartridge course

The platform supports the importing of content using Common Cartridge Format (CCF) - the industry standard for import and export of course content. The platform supports CCF 1.2 - the most popular version of CCF. To create a new course from a Common Cartridge (CCF) file:
  1. Click or hover over Courses on the main navigation menu.
  2. Click Add.
The course creation wizard pop-up displays.
  1. Click Course.
  2. Click Import Package.
  3. Click Common Cartridge Format.
Add course popup, Method step, Import package options
The course create wizard moves to the Details step. 
  1. Enter a Name for the course.
  2. Select a Style for the course: Instructor, Blended, Self paced, or Micro course.
  3. Enter the Duration for the course.
    1. This is optional for Self paced and Micro courses.
  4. Click Create.
Add course popup, Details step with a sample Common Cartridge Format course
The Upload file pop-up displays.
  1. Drag and drop the CCF file to the pop-up window.
  2. Or, click to browse for the CCF file on your computer.
  3. Click Save.
The CCF file will upload and you will receive a notification when the import is complete.

Meanwhile, the course has been created and the course Configure tab displays.  The Configure tab contains the most common course settings and allows you to quickly configure many elements of your course. Each section expands to display common settings related to the section. To learn more about configuring a course, visit the Configure courses and classes article. 

Sample Common Cartridge Format course, Admin, Configure page with an on screen message that the import is being processed.


When the import is complete, you will receive a notification.
  1. Open the notification.
  2. Click the link in the notification to access your imported CCF course.
Automatic notification of a successful Common Cartridge course import

Create a new course by importing a Moodle course

The platform allows you to easily create a new course by uploading a Moodle file. To create a new course from a Moodle file:
  1. Click or hover over Courses on the main navigation menu.
  2. Click Add.
The course creation wizard pop-up displays.
  1. Click Course.
  2. Click Import Package.
  3. Click Moodle.
Add course popup, Method step, Import package options
The course create wizard moves to the Details step. 
  1. Enter a Name for the course.
  2. Select a Style for the course: Instructor, Blended, Self paced, or Micro course.
  3. Enter the Duration for the course.
    1. This is optional for Self paced and Micro courses.
  4. Click Create.
Add course popup, Details step with a sample Moodle course
The Upload file pop-up displays.
  1. Drag and drop the Moodle file to the pop-up window.
  2. Or, click to browse for the Moodle file on your computer.
  3. Click Save.
The Moodle file will upload and you will receive a notification when the import is complete.

Meanwhile, the course has been created and the course Configure tab displays.  The Configure tab contains the most common course settings and allows you to quickly configure many elements of your course. Each section expands to display common settings related to the section. To learn more about configuring a course, visit the Configure courses and classes article. 

Sample Moodle course, Admin, Configure page with an on screen message that the import is being processed

When the import is complete, you will receive a notification.
  1. Open the notification.
  2. Click the link in the notification to access your imported Moodle course.
Automatic notification of a successful Moodle course import

Moodle terminology equivalents in the platform

Sections

Moodle sections are equivalent to modules in the platform. Each module imported from Moodle that has resources will have a section page, which is named after the current module. This section page will contain all the resources for the module.

Activities

Moodle activities are equivalent to different types of resources in the platform. For each section, the necessary Moodle activities will be imported. The following resources are imported in the Moodle import:

Module activity
  1. The Moodle module activity pages are imported as page sections for the module.
Assignment 
  1. Moodle assignment are imported as freeform assignments (essay) for the current module. The assignment can only have attachments if they are embedded in the description of the assignment. Importing separate attachments is not supported.
Page 
  1. The Moodle page is imported as a page resource for the current module.
Resource 
  1. The Moodle resource is imported as a file resource for the current module.
Url 
  1. The Moodle URL is imported as a web resource for the current module.
Folder 
  1. The Moodle resource is imported as a folder for the current module, that can hold resources.
Quiz 
  1. The Moodle quiz is imported as a quiz assignment for the current module. Moodle quizzes have various types of questions, but the platform only supports the following types of questions for import: True/False, Matching, Multiple choice with one answer, Multiple choice with multiple answers, Essay, and Description.  The following types of questions are not supported: Calculated, Calculated multi-choice, Calculated simple, Embedded answers (Cloze), Numerical, Random short-answer matching, or Short answer.
Choice 
  1. Moodle choice activities are imported as a survey with a multiple choice question with one correct answer.
SCORM package
  1. The Moodle SCORM package is imported as a regular SCORM package for the current module.
Forum 
  1. The Moodle forum is imported as a forum for the course. The Moodle import feature does not import the posts from the Moodle forum. Forums can only have attachments if they are embedded in the description of forums.  Importing separate attachments is not supported.
Wiki 
  1. The Moodle wiki is imported as a wiki page for the current course.

The following Moodle activities are not supported: external tool, imscp, workshop, survey, book, chat, label, database, and glossary.

Import files to an empty course

The portal also allows you to import a Blackboard, CCF, Moodle, or existing course into a new, empty course. 

Info
Please note, the new course must be empty, and cannot have existing modules, assessments, or resources.

First, create a new, empty course.  Visit the Creating a new course manually section of the Create a new course article for more details. 

To import a course into the new, empty course:
  1. Access the new course.
  2. Click Admin from the course navigation menu.
  3. Click Import from the fly-out menu.

Course, Admin menu active with the Import button highlighted

The Import screen allows you to select the source of the import.
  1. Click Existing to import an existing course from your platform into the new course.
  2. Click Common Cartridge Format to import a CCF file into the new course.
  3. Click Moodle to import a Moodle file into the new course.
  4. Click Blackboard to import a Blackboard zip file.

Course, Import page

If you selected Existing, the Import the content from an existing course or template pop-up displays.
  1. Select an existing course or template.
    1. You can use the search filter to quickly locate courses and templates.
  2. Click Submit.
Import the content from an existing course or template pop-up with 9 course matches found and the filter text box highlighted

If you selected Common Cartridge Format, Moodle, or Blackboard, the Upload file pop-up displays.
  1. Drag and drop the course file to the pop-up window.
  2. Or, click to browse for the course  file on your computer.
  3. Click Save.

Upload file pop-up with CCF file uploaded

When the import is complete, you will receive a notification.
  1. Click the link to access your new course with imported content.

Automatic notification of a successful course import from an existing course