Avoid These Common Course Import Mishaps

As we head towards the middle of the Fall term, you may already be thinking ahead to Spring. A new semester will mean new empty course shells that you will need to develop, and no one wants to spend all Winter break troubleshooting issues. That is why we on the EdTech team want to review how to proactively identify and fix some common course import mishaps.

What Does Course Import Do?

As many of you know, the Course Import Tool is an efficient way to copy course content term-to-term into new course shells. This tool allows instructors to import all content or select content to the new course. The following Canvas guides give detailed instructions on How to Use the Course Import Tool and How to Import Specific Content.

Caution on Multiple Imports

You can do multiple course imports, but a word of caution: When importing content, a message displays explaining that importing the same course content or export package more than once overwrites any existing content in the course. If you import content into a new course, edit the content in the new course, and later import the previous content again, the imported content will override the existing content.

Importing Quizzes and Modules: The biggest issues we see with multiple course imports involve Quizzes and Modules. If you import a quiz and forget to import the quiz bank, importing the quiz bank later will NOT fix the issue of the quiz missing the quiz bank. Quizzes must be imported together with the quiz bank at the same time. We see a similar issue with Modules. You should import both the Modules and the Modules’ content at the same time. Content that works together should stay together in a course import.

A Good Tip: If you are not sure exactly what you want from a previous course, then it is better to import everything and then hide, unpublish, or delete the content you don’t want than it is to import course content multiple times. The more times content is imported, the more likely one will experience unexpected problems.

Do You Know How to Use the Course Link Validator?

Sometimes a link, image, or file in a course works for the instructor but does not work for students, and the instructor doesn’t know there is a problem until after the semester begins. Instead of trying to navigate the entire course in student view, Canvas provides a tool that will check all links for you and tell you what students will not be able to access. You can find this tool in Course Settings in the same right-hand column you used to import course content. Click “Validate Links in Content.”

By default, the option to show links to unpublished content is enabled [1] and you may want to disable it if you have content you are purposefully keeping unpublished. After running the link validator, Canvas will list the number of broken links, where they are located, and the reason the link does not work [2]. In the figure on the right, you can see that Canvas has identified a link a student will not be able to access because the content is unpublished.

COMMON BROKEN LINK ERRORS

The validator displays broken links and images by item type [1]. Broken content is identified as either a link or an image [2]. Non-existent content means that the object is invalid and should be replaced [3]. Unreachable objects mean the image could not be displayed [4]. You can update links by clicking on the name of the content to edit directly within the Rich Content Editor.

Note: Course Cards are a supported object type. Any deleted course image added from Unsplash displays as an invalid image.

If nothing else, the link validator will give you peace of mind that everything is working as it should in your course. The following guide has more information on How to Validate Links in Canvas.

Review Your Course from Student View

Once you have imported materials, developed your new course, and checked all the links, we highly recommend navigating your course in Student View. This gives you a student’s perspective on the course and creates a Test Student in the Gradebook. You can enter Student View from the top-right of the Home page.

You will know if you are in Student View because of the persistent box on the bottom of the screen indicating you are logged into Student View. You will view the course as a student user would see it. For example, students cannot see the Settings navigation link like instructors can. This is a great resource for instructors because it will allow you to see from a student’s perspective if your course is easy to navigate and if the information is presented to students in the way that you want. You can even submit assignments, post discussions, and take quizzes as a test student. When you are finished, you can click “reset student” to clear any activity and click “leave student view” to go back to your instructor view. You can review the complete details in the Canvas guide How to View Course as a Test Student.