Back Up or Copy Your Course(s)

Overview: Having a backup of your course will enable you to quickly recover from data loss, transfer material to another course, and potentially have your course available to you outside of Bentley (if you are teaching at another institution using a similar version of Blackboard).

While the ATC will copy your course contents over for you per your request (we recommend you request the copy from us for entire course copies), if you are very comfortable with Blackboard you can also use the steps below as a quick way to copy over specific content areas in their entirety or your test banks. Click here for a refresher on how to copy individual items and/or folders.

The package you create (a .zip folder) cannot be opened and viewed directly from your computer; it can only be imported into a Blackboard course site to populate the site. This backup would therefore not replace any other storage strategies you have in place for accessing and viewing specific files.

Action: Create a package with your backup materials for any course you instruct.

1. In the Control Panel, under Packages and Utilities, select Export/Archive Course:

2. Select Export Package to back up only the materials you added to the course. Select Archive Course if you also wish to include student records.

3. Select the course materials that you wish back up, and click Submit. You will receive an e-mail confirmation when the export/archive package is complete.

4. Refresh the page and you should now see a file here. This is the zipped backup package of your course. Right-click the link and click “Save link as...” to download and save the file on your computer:

Next Steps: To import a package into a Blackboard course, select the Import Package option within Packages and Utilities to upload the package. You will be able to select the portions of the package you wish to upload.