LEARN/Brightspace Course Export/Import Help Guide
Topics
Introduction
UWaterloo LEARN
will begin deleting old pre-2017 LEARN courses on Tuesday,
March 15, 2022 according to the
UWaterloo Daily Bulletin notice.
LEARN/Brightspace has one main tool for exporting the content of a LEARN course.
This content does not contain any user data - no grades, no discussion posts,
no student dropbox or quiz submissions (but, see below for exporting user data).
Steps to export the content in a LEARN course
- navigate: LEARN course > Course Admin > Import/Export/Copy Components
- select "Export as Brightspace package" and click 'Start'
- select "All Components" and click 'Continue'
- select "Include course files in the export package" and click 'Export'
(this option is not selected by default)
- wait for notification (wait for a green dot to appear
next to the bell icon, at the top of the page) then click the bell icon
- click the "Export finished" item in the notification area
- click the link "Click here to download the export Zip package"
- download and save the Brightspace package .zip file
- it is named with the course term, course name, instructor and date of export
e.g. D2LExport_708237_CS999_pkates_1219_20223456.zip
Some Details
- 1 min youtube video
showing the course export process
- detailed help page
4. Export: Export course as Brightspace Package
showing the course export process
- list of course content
that can, and can't, be copied/imported/exported in a LEARN/Brightspace course
- the LEARN/Brightspace exported .zip file can be larger than 2 GB, but
the maximum .zip import file size is 2 GB for an instructor
- if your .zip file is larger than 2 GB then ask learnhelp@uwaterloo.ca to
import it for you
- Firefox shows you the file size before beginning the download process
so you can cancel the download step and export smaller pieces of your course
- the export steps listed above export all the course content that
LEARN/Brightspace is capable of exporting, but
- you can select just the content items you want to export
instead of "All Components"
- you can't select the files you want to export - you get all file or no files -
but you can use the Manage Files tool in the Course Admin page to
export just the files you want
Steps to import content from a LEARN/Brightspace .zip package into a LEARN course
- navigate: LEARN course > Course Admin > Import/Export/Copy Components
- select "Import Components" and click 'Start'
- select and upload an exported LEARN/Brightspace .zip file package
- import warning shown: max .zip file size is 2 GB
- if importing into an empty LEARN course
- ask IST learnhelp@uwaterloo.ca for a empty LEARN course to import
the whole package so you don't mess up an existing LEARN course
- use option to "import all components"
- if importing into an non-empty LEARN course
- use option "advanced options" (not "import all components") to
read the imported file and list its components
- click 'Continue'
- select parts of the import file you want to import
- you see the same list of course components as presented in the
Export operation,
and can similarly select individual items in each component
eg calendar, content, discussions, dropbox, grades, ...
- select the file import option to overwrite existing file with same name
or not (see Some Details below)
Some Details
- a course instructor cannot upload a file larger than 2 GB into LEARN
- once your .zip package is uploaded into LEARN, you can select which
content items you want to import
- you don't have to import every course item (a course item is not a file)
in the .zip package, but you have to select some item to import
- a course item is a LEARN/Brightspace content item (e.g. title), a quiz, a dropbox etc,
but it is not a file like a pdf file uploaded into your LEARN course
- imported content items are recreated in the LEARN course even if
they already exist - importing the same item twice results in two items
with the same name
- you have to import every normal file in the .zip file - there is no option
to select which files to import
- there is a file import option to prevent duplicate file names
- "Overwrite an existing file", or
- "Do not overwrite an existing file" (default option) = do not import files of same name
- there is no warning that content items or files in the .zip package have
the same names as existing content items or files in the LEARN course
Exporting and Backing up Select Student Data
As noted above, creating a LEARN/Brightspace export course .zip package
is for saving course content, not student data, like grades or submission data.
Some LEARN/Brightspace tools can export student data, some cannot.
See
D2L Course Export and Backing up Select Student Data for more detail.
- save student grades by exporting to a .csv file using the course Grades tool
- save student dropbox submissions by downloading files from each dropbox
- warning: the 'Download' link only exports the list of submissions shown
on the page (i.e. submissions not seen on the page will not be included
in the 'Download' .zip file), so expand the number listed as much as
possible using the 'per page' menu located at the bottom of the page
- save discussion posts by printing each discussion topic
- save quiz statistics or quiz grades through exports in the quiz tool
- save quiz submissions by manually printing each quiz submission, one at
a time
- note: use the browser to print to a pdf file or to a printer
Help pages for instructors
FAQ
- Can I import a LEARN/Brightspace .zip file package into another
Learning Management System (LMS) like Canvas?
- Can I open the .zip file and read the contents?
- yes, the .zip file holds XML files which structure the course information
along with course files which are located at the top-level of the .zip file,
but there is no 'reader' software that makes sense of the
XML structure, except the LEARN/Brightspace platform
- What is the LEARN/Brightspace package file format?
- it is a .zip file of XML files: an .xml file named imsmanifest.xml
that acts as an index for the contents of the .zip file, and
other .xml files, one for each Brightspace tool
eg discussion_d2l.xml, dropbox_d2l.xml,
grades_d2l.xml, links_d2l.xml, news_d2l.xml, questiondb.xml
and, when you select the export option
"Include course files in the export package"
then all the folders and document/media files within the Manage Files tool
are included at the top level of the .zip file
- note: there is no ability to select only some files to include in the
the exported .zip file package,
but the Manage Files tool has its own export operation that
lets you select files to export
- What LEARN/Brightspace content cannot be exported in a .zip package?
- cannot export/import
- awards
- grade settings
- groups
- homepages
- learning outcomes
- links
- nav bars
- widgets
- Can I edit/change the .zip file?
- What happens if I import the archive more than once into the same course?
- each import creates another LEARN item even if the item is already
in the course
- the exception is for files already in
the course with the same names as the files in the .zip file, in
which case, the default option is to not import the file again; the other
option is to overwrite the file with the file from the .zip file
- How do I send a GB size .zip file to learnhelp@uwaterloo.ca?
- Why would I make more than 1 backup LEARN/Brightspace .zip pachage archive?
- to make each .zip package have a manageable file size (under 2 GB)
Please contact me if you have any questions or comments.
Contact
Paul Kates
Mathematics Faculty CTE Liaison
pkates@uwaterloo.ca, x47047, MC 3044
Last modification date: Sun Mar 13 17:17:06 2022.