Import/Export/Copy Components
The Import/Export/Copy Components utility lets instructors copy materials from another course offering, and export and import those materials to and from a file.
Copying components can save you from having to recreate course resources from scratch and can significantly reduce the amount of work required to create or re-offer a course.
How to access the Import/Export/Copy Components menu:
- Enter the course where the materials are to end up - the course into which the components need to be copied.
- From the right side of your name, select the "Admin Tools" gear icon and then select "Import/Export/Copy Components" from the drop-down menu as illustrated in the following screenshot.
Note: You can also access the "Import/Export/Copy Components" tool via the "Course Admin" area and via the Table of Contents area in the "Content" area of course. These alternate methods are in addition to the method described here.
How to Copy Content Between Courses
The following video demonstrates how to copy course components into your course.
How to Copy A Course:
- Enter the course where the materials are to end up - the course into which the components need to be copied.
- From the right side of your name, select the "Admin Tools" gear icon and then select "Import/Export/Copy Components" from the drop-down menu as mentioned above.
- Select the "Copy Components from Another Course Offering" radio button and click the "Search for offering" button.
- A pop-up window will display. Enter at least a portion of the title of the course that you want to copy from and click the magnifying glass icon to search.
- Select the radio button associated with the course you want to copy from.
- Click "Add Selected" to continue the process.
The "Course to Copy:" area will show the name of the course that the components will be copied from.
Select either the "Copy All Components" button or the "Select Components" from the bottom of the page as desired.
Copy All Components
Caution: Selecting the "Copy All Components" button starts the copy of all components from the identified "Course to Copy" into the target course immediately - there is no delay and there is no cancellation of the process once the "Copy All Components" button is selected.
During the copy process, the display typically reads "The copy is queued, please wait for processing..." in a status bar.
After the process completes, a green check-mark indicator icon will appear along with a time stamp display denoting the date and time of the job.
Copy Select Components
"Select Components" allows you to choose specific items to copy over into the course as opposed to the whole course.
After selecting what items to copy over, select the "Continue" button and follow the prompts.
It may take some time for the components to load below the "Choose Components to Copy" statement. Until the components load, you can't select and move forward. There is typically a shorter load time for fewer components and a longer load time for more components.
Notes:
- When copying content pages/modules that have Via assessment links or My Media videos, you must also check the "External Learning Tool Links" box, otherwise, the Via links or My Media videos will not work.
- After any successful copy process completes, you can select either the "Copy Another Package" button or the "View Content" button.
- Selecting the "View Content" button takes you to the Content area.
- Selecting the "Copy Another Package" button takes you back to the beginning of the Import/Export/Copy Components area and you can elect to copy more items from another course ("Copy Another Package").
- Use caution when electing to copy more items (using "Copy All Components" or "Select Components") from the same course that has just been copied because duplicates will occur.*
- There is no option to overwrite an existing course with this process. You must manually correct any duplicates caused by doing multiple copies.
View History
At the beginning of the Import/Export/Copy Components area, after a "Copy All Components" or "Select Components" routine has been performed, a "View History" link appears.
Selecting the "View History" link allows users to review when a copy was performed and from which course they made a copy.
Selecting the green check-mark "Copy Completed" icon will take you into a detailed step-by-step description of what was copied from which course and when this occurred.
What to do After Copying
After copying, you should check the course into which the components were copied to see how the copying worked out. Test links to verify that all is working as intended.
eLearn will only ADD components to a course - the process DOES NOT OVERWRITE (with the exception of course files). Components can double and triple up if you repeat copying a component(s) over and over again - this can cause confusion!
How to Export Components
Exporting the components of an eLearn course creates a .zip file that can be reused. Exporting a course package out of eLearn is facilitated via the Import/Export/Copy Components tool. To keep a copy of an eLearn course (components and organization only - no student data) on a local computer, instructors can export the course components and save the .zip file to a local computer.
Here are some help files for exporting components:
How to Import Components
Importing a course package into eLearn is facilitated via the Import/Export/Copy Components tool. To update a blank eLearn course with components from another course, instructors can use the import feature to import an exported course .zip file (this copies course material ONLY - no student data) if an export has taken place and the .zip file is accessible.
Here are some help files for importing a course package: