Copying Your Entire Course From One Semester to the Next

Blackboard provides a tool that allows you to copy an entire course from a previous semester to the new semester. This method allows you to select which areas of your old course (e.g. all of Course Information, all of Course Documents, etc.) will be copied into the new course. If you copy the Discussion Board, only the forums will be copied, not the actual postings. If you wish to only copy a single piece of material (e.g. a content item, a folder and its contents), locate the material in the appropriate content area and use the Copy button that is next to the Modify button.

In order to do this you must have instructor access to both the old and the new courses.

1. Go into the course that you want to copy material from.
2. Go into the Control Panel.
3. Select Course Copy from the Course Options module at the bottom left.
4. Select Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course.
5. Next to the Destination Course ID: field, click the Browse to locate the course that you want to copy the material to.
6. Enter criteria and click the Search button (it works best if you enter the Subject and Course code without spaces such as 300414).
7. Click the Select button for the course that you want to copy the material to. The first four digits of the course ID refer to the year and the 5th digit refers to the semester (0-Winter, 1-Spring, 7-Summer, 9-Fall). For example 200612130041401 would be Spring 2006.
8. Use your mouse to select Course Materials with check marks. Typically, all of the material would be selected with the possible exceptions of Announcements and Calendar. If you are copying any material which was created using the Assignment Manager tool, be sure to select Gradebook Items and Settings.
9. Click Submit.

Importing Course Material

If you have previously exported a course, your course material is saved into a zipped file. You can then import the archived material into another course using the following steps:

1. Go into the Control Panel.
2. Select Import Package from the Course Options module at the bottom left.
3. Click on the Browse button to locate, select, and Open the zip file.
4. Use your mouse to select Course Materials with check marks. Typically, all of the material would be selected with the possible exceptions of Announcements and Calendar. If you are copying any material which was created using the Assignment Manager tool, be sure to select Gradebook Items and Settings.
5. Click Submit.