Colorado Mountain College

Your Blackboard Course in Canvas

When a Blackboard 8 course is imported into Canvas, how its content looks in Canvas depends on what type of content it was originally. For example, in a default course conversion from Blackboard 8 to Canvas:

• Announcements
  
• Assignments
• Discussions
• Documents & Other Files
  
• Manually Inputted Text from the Blackboard Text Editor
• Tests, Question Pools
• Next Steps
  
  Announcements
  Announcements from a converted Blackboard 8 course will become fully functioning Canvas Announcements. However, the announcements will be posted and will be marked with the date that you carried out the course import. So be sure to check the Announcements and edit them as needed. The Canvas Instructor Guide chapter on Announcements in Canvas is available online here.
  Assignments
  Assignments from a converted Blackboard 8 course will become Canvas Assignments in the Assignments section of your Canvas course. However, they will be set to "No Submission" i.e. students will not be able to upload any files to them; and the due dates and other details will probably need adjusting as well. So please ensure that you check your Assignments and revise them as necessary.
  Discussions
  Discussions become Canvas Discussions. However, they will reflect the date that you carried out your course import, so be sure to check your Discussion's text and settings, revising as necessary. The Canvas Instructor Guide chapter on Discussions in Canvas is available online here.
  Documents & Other Files
  Documents that you uploaded into Blackboard have been automatically moved into the Files area of Canvas. To get to them click on the Files link on the left hand navigation bar.  The documents themselves transfer just fine to Canvas from Blackboard, but the automated process leaves them in your files area. Sometimes, it may place your files in folders there with automatically generated names that can be confusing.
  There are two ways to deal with this – reorganize and rename, or delete and re-upload. If you typed content manually into Blackboard that content has also been automatically moved to Canvas. It now either exists in the Files area as files, or has been transformed into Pages. Subfolders in a Blackboard course usually turn into Pages linked to other Pages. Please consult this tutorial on working with the Files area. The Canvas Instructor Guide chapter on Files in Canvas is available online here.
  Manually Inputted Text from the Blackboard Text Editor
  Manually inputted text, i.e. text that you typed into a Blackboard course, typically becomes Pages in Canvas. For a tutorial on how to edit Pages, please click here.
  Tests, Question Pools
  To find your tests and question pools in your Canvas course click on "Quizzes" on the left hand navigation menu. Once you're in the Quizzes section, to find and edit your question pools, click on the button at right "Manage Question Banks." In the Quizzes section, you should see a list of tests identical to the list that would have been in your Blackboard course's Test Manager.  None of these quizzes are visible to students at this time--they're all "unpublished." Question banks are never visible to students either, they are solely for instructors' use. You can open each quiz and edit the individual questions, the quiz directions, and the settings. Once you are satisfied with the quiz you must "publish" the quiz before students are able to see or take the quiz. For more information on the Canvas quiz tool see the Quiz chapter in the Canvas Instructor Guide.
  Next Steps
  Once your existing Blackboard content has been organized in the Files area in Canvas you are ready to begin building your new course(s) in Canvas.  To see how the tools in Canvas compare to the tools you are used to seeing in Blackboard refer to the table included in the Canvas Faculty FAQ webpage. Canvas expects you to begin your course by building assignments--but don’t feel like you have to do that.  Just skip any step you aren’t ready for as you can always come back. That is also true of due dates. If you want to build an assignment or quiz you don’t have to include a due date. You can add one or change one at any time. Once you add a date to an assignment or quiz Canvas will automatically enter the assignment or quiz on the calendar. You also don’t need to worry about the Gradebook since Canvas will automatically build your Gradebook as you build your course. After Jan. 31, 2013, CMC’s Blackboard 8 system was taken offline. If you need to access a Blackboard course, please contact the Office of Innovations in Teaching and Learning at innovations@coloradomtn.edu. The Office of Innovations in Teaching and Learning maintains archives offline of all CMC Blackboard courses.Don't forget to check the online training calendar of the Office of Innovations in Teaching and Learning for opportunities to learn Canvas, and other great tools like Google Docs, Jing, VoiceThread and more!