3. Importing Course Content

Course Import

The Course Import feature allows administrators and instructors to copy content that was created in previous courses. This saves instructors a significant amount of development time. Instructors can import specific resources and activities from a previous course, or all the content. 

The Import process does not include any user data, including prior enrollments, groups and group memberships, assignment submissions, quiz attempts, forum posts, and learner grades. This also includes forum posts made by the instructor(s), and emails sent through the Quickmail block. 

Imports will copy content from the source course into the same spot in the destination course. For example: if you import resources that were located in Topic 7 of the source course, they will appear in Topic 7 of the destination course.

Important Notes:

  • The availability settings that were set in the source course will remain the same in the destination course. If a resource within a topic is hidden from students in the source course, it will remain hidden in the destination course.
  • Due dates on activities will need to be updated for the current term. Any time and date-based settings you set on activities in the source course will typically remain the same in the destination course.
    • Some clients use the Dates plugin to bulk edit dates for course activities. If you'd like to add this plugin to your site, open a support request and ask for report_editdates to be installed. 

To import content:

  1. Navigate to destination course (the course you're importing content into) 
  2. The next step is dependent on your site them.
    • In Boost, click the gear icon in the top-right corner of the course, then select "Import" from the menu.
    • In Fordson, open the Course Management Panel and select "Import" near the bottom of the Course Settings column.
  3. Search for the source course on the next page.
    • Tip: If you're having trouble finding the destination course via search, try simplifying your search terms. 
  4. Select the course, then click the Continue button.
This opens an Import wizard that will guide you through the import process.
  1. In the first step you will choose what to include or exclude in the import. For example, you may want to copy the activities, but not the course blocks. 
  2. In the second step you will select the specific activities and resources to import. All content is selected by default, and can optionally be de-selected.
  3. The final step is a review to confirm the selections you made in the second step.
  4. Begin the Import process with the ‘Perform Import’ button.

Important Notes

  • Imports can take anywhere from several seconds to several minutes to process. 
  • Imports create a session lock for the user who initiates them. This means you will not be able to perform any other action on your site (even loading another page) while the import is processing. This is a security feature to prevent your site from being overwhelmed by demanding task requests. 
  • If a course is especially large, or has a very large question bank (5,000+ questions), the import process may take longer than your browser can wait. This will result in a 504 error in your browser. This does not mean the import failed. It just means your browser could not wait any longer for it to finish. Try loading another page on your site. If it does not load, temporarily log into your site in another browser. If it does load, the import process is done.
The video demonstrates the import process.