Blackboard Files: Safe Keeping

Blackboard will be turned off May 31, 2012. After May 31, 2012, instructors will no longer be able to open and view their Blackboard courses.

No matter if you need the Blackboard course now or not at all, you can Export the Blackboard course for safe keeping. This ZIP file can be saved onto your computer, department server, external hard drive or other location for you to access at any time. If you need to get a file from that Blackboard ZIP Exported course later, you would be able to open the ZIP file with bFree and extract all the Blackboard course files.

Note: These Blackboard ZIP Exported files are not readable unless you use bFree to extract the files or upload the ZIP back into Blackboard.

Table of Contents

Other Options

Exporting Blackboard Files

video icon view video

Exporting a Blackboard course allows you to save your course content (without the student data, assignments or assessments) into a compressed .zip format. You can’t directly unzip this exported file and manipulate its contents, but there is a tool (bFree) that will allow you to access these exported Blackboard course files. To export your Blackboard course, follow the instructions below:

From the Control Panel of your Blackboard course:

  1. Click the Export Course link in the Course Options section to open the Export/Archive Manager.
    The export course link is highlighted within the course options
  2. Click on the Export icon in the Action Bar.
    the export button is highlighted within the action bar
  3. Click on the check boxes next to the Content Sections you want to export.
  4. Scroll down to the bottom of the screen and click on the Submit button.
  5. Blackboard will queue the creation of the course package, and when the package is complete you will receive an email. Click on OK to return to the Export/Archive Manager.
    a screenshot of the confirmation message that the instructor receives when exporting their course
  6. After you receive an email from the Blackboard Administrator notifying you that the export operation has been completed, reopen the Export/Archive Manager.
    A sample email confirming a course has been exported
  7. Click on the most recent Export File Package link to download the file.
    an export file link is highlighted in the archive manager
    Make SURE the file is a ZIP file. If clicking on the file didn't save the ZIP file, then you may need to force it to save as ZIP.
    1) Right click your Mouse over the file name.
    rightclick
    2) Choose one of these: Save Link As / Save Target Link As / Save Target As
    3) Save the file in a location you can find later.
    Note: if you do not have a mouse with a Right Click, use the left click and hold down your Control or Option key.
    Once downloaded, the export file can be found on your personal computer as a zip file.
    an exported zip file

    If you prefer, you may watch a video version of these export instructions at this location:
    http://blackboardsupport.calpoly.edu/content/faculty/Video/Faculty_Videos/FacExport.htm


Other Options

Exporting Blackboard HTML content

HTML and text content cannot be directly exported from Blackboard and then re-uploaded into PolyLearn. This means that the instructor will need to copy the HTML content from Blackboard's HTML editor and then paste this content into Moodle's HTML editor.

  1. Go to the Blackboard course where the HTML is stored, and navigate to the specific HTML content.
  2. Click the Edit View button.
    the edit view button is highlighted within the blackboard course
  3. Click the Modify button next to the activity that the instructor will be taking the HTML from.
    The modify button is highlighted on the activities page
  4. Click the HTML button within the Blackboard text editor.
    The html button is highlighted on the text editor within Blackboard
  5. Select the HTML code and copy it (i.e., Control-C on Windows; Command-C on Macintosh).
    A screenshot of the html code selected and being copied.
  6. Go to the instructor's PolyLearn course and navigate to where the HTML content will be added.
  7. Make certain that editing is turned on and click the Add a resource pull-down menu.
  8. Choose the Page resource from the list of options.
    the page resource is highlighted within the add a resource pull-down menu
  9. Enter the Name and Description as these are required for the resource.
  10. Within the Page Content HTML box of PolyLearn, click the HTML button.
    the html button is highlighted within the HTML entry box.
  11. Paste (i.e., Control-V on Windows; Command-V on Macintosh) the previously copied HTML code into this pop-up window.
  12. Click the Update button.
    the update button within the HTML pop up window is highlighted
  13. Click the Save and return to course or Save and display button at the bottom of the page.