As some faculty venture out to explore Canvas on their own,
I thought it might be useful to provide some insight on one of the first issues
that faculty may encounter, or at least should contemplate as they consider
their readiness for the spring migration (sounds reminiscent of a temporary
mammalian relocation pattern, huh?). How do I get my course content into Canvas
as painlessly as possible? Can’t I just export it over from Blackboard? The
answer is…wait for it…Yes, and No.
One of the features in Canvas, of which I am particularly
fond, is the way in which Canvas houses course content. Once you login, there
is a link on the left navigation bar, called “Files.” This repository is
essentially a C: drive associated with your individual Canvas account. It is
similar to the Content Collection in Blackboard, but is far less clunky and
fare more akin to the Finder on a Mac or Windows Explorer on a PC.
Once you are in a specific course, you can access files for
that course by clicking on the Files link in the left navigation bar. Once you
are on the Files page, you can also access all of the files for all of your
courses by clicking on the “see files
for all your courses/groups” hyperlink in the bottom right corner.
You should be aware that exporting courses from Blackboard
may be more cumbersome and time consuming that simply dragging and dropping
files from your Finder or Windows Explorer directly into your Files page in
Canvas. I have found that using this feature (as well as a few others) in
Internet Explorer and Safari does not work as seamlessly as in Firefox.
Exporting courses from Blackboard does not place your course content neatly in
Canvas the same way it appears in Blackboard; your content is simply dropped
into the Files interface in Canvas, in no particular order, I might add. With
that said, it is certainly worth considering organizing your course files and
folders on your local drive and them dropping them into Canvas. You can now
create modules and/or pages and add very simply add links to the files you have
already dropped in Canvas.
--Nicole M. West
