Integrating Imported Blackboard Content in Canvas

Course content from Blackboard can be automatically imported into Canvas by the UH Canvas transition team . While automatic content import is meant to save you time transitioning to Canvas, you should expect some differences once a Canvas course is created with migrated Blackboard content. It is important to note that the Blackboard and Canvas organizational structures differ to such an extent that content does not always map seamlessly from one to the other. This may require you to redesign your course and build content from scratch in Canvas.

Vocabulary Overview : Equivalent Tools in Blackboard and Canvas 

• Quizzes and Question Banks (Bb equivalent areas/tools: Tests, Surveys and Pools)

• Files (Bb: Content Collection) 

• Assignments (Bb: Assignments) 

• Discussions (Bb: Discussions)  

• Module (Bb: Learning Module, Content Folder, sub-folders, etc)

• Pages (Bb: Learning Module, Content Folder, sub-folders, Items etc) 

• Announcements (Bb: Announcements)
  
  

If you decide to integrate Blackboard content into your Canvas course, you must consider the following factors:

• Content that will be imported onto Canvas but will require more work or need to be relinked: 

  • Announcements:
    Go to the Announcements tab on the left sidebar of your Canvas course. You will see a list of announcements from your Blackboard course. Once you select a specific announcement, you can click “Edit” on the top right corner of the screen.  In the edit window, you can edit any references to Blackboard, and select a new date and time to post your Announcement. 

  • Assignments:
    Canvas structures Assignments and Grades in a different way than Blackboard. Assignments will transfer to Canvas, but you will likely need to reorganize your assignments. To learn more about Canvas Assignments, visit the How do I use the Assignment Index Page guide.   Group assignments get transferred over as regular assignments.

  • Learning Modules

  • Discussion  Boards:
    Visit the How do I use the Discussions Index Page? guide

  • Tests, Surveys, and Pools:
    Tests, Surveys and Pools will import into the Quizzes section in Canvas . Re-do: Test's instructions, display dates and results/feedback. Not available in Canvas: Some questions (Hotspot,Quiz Bowl, Ordering Jumble), adaptive release, test exceptions.  Redeploy: RLB/Monitor. Note that Pools will not  show up on the main Quizzes page, but are accessible by going to “Quizzes” and select the three vertical dots on the upper right corner" and select "Manage Question Banks".  To learn more about questions banks, visit the guide How do I create a question bank in a course.

  • Nested folders (folder within folders):
    If your Blackboard course contains nested levels of content areas or folders, after migration to Canvas these folders and subfolders will be flattened out into separated modules and  the subdivided content will be separated across pages. You will need to do a lot of cleaning up to reassemble each weeks content. Recommendations:

    • Before requesting to have your course migrated to Canvas, move out any nestled folders or consolidate any materials where possible so that there is only one top level that has all the folders. By doing so, you will reduce the amount of time that you have to spend reorganizing content. 

  • Text descriptions of Folders or Items:
    In the migration process, folder or item descriptions (text on the front of items) become their own pages.
    Recommendations: 

    • After migration, revise all of these pages and the sequence to ensure they make sense.

    • If small folder descriptions, such as due dates, become their own page, you could rename the module title so that the due date is included.

    • Descriptions with a lot of text elements, such as instructions or images, can be consolidated onto one page instead of being spread across several.

  • Content Areas:
    If you used Content Areas  to organize your course materials in Blackboard, they will be recreated in Modules within Canvas. Visit the Canvas guide on How Do I Add a Module to learn more about organizing your course content.

  • Audio and Video content items (lower than 500 mb)

  • Publisher tools:
    Make sure that you work with your publishers and with your instructional designers to make sure that the publisher tool is available or find how to link it in a module or separately.

  • Files:  
    Some files may not be published.  Visit the Canvas guide on How do I use Files as an instructor? to learn more about managing files.
    
    

• Content that does not import into Canvas and will need to be recreated: 

  • Rubrics built into Bb:
    Rubric criteria can only include a point range or an individual point value. For more information on Rubrics, visit the How do I add a rubric in a course guide.

  • Groups and group tools:
    Although the import process creates a page for some of them, they are generally blank (or display little information) and have no enrollments or tools connected to them. Use Canvas' Groups feature to create student groups instead, or take a look at this brief video on Canvas Groups. 

  • Wikis, Blogs and Journals:  
    If you have used wiki’s in the past for collaborative projects, visit the What are Groups Canvas guide to explore how students can collaborate in Canvas. Consider changing blog assignments into Discussions, and Journals into Assignments.    

  • Links to some third-party tools (i.e., Turnitin assignments)

  • Course menu and content areas organization:
    Unlike Blackboard, in Canvas, you don't have a customizable course menu. Instead, you can choose which standard Canvas elements are available to students in your class. What you choose to hide and reveal determines the method of navigation that will be available to students in your course. Refer to Canvas: Options for Organizing Your Course for more information.

  • Faculty information (Contacts Tool):
    Canvas doesn't have a particular course associated "Contacts Tool", but has a global "Profile" that is visible to all users in your courses and that you can use to type your biography and add hobbies and interesting facts about yourself. Visit the Canvas guide on How do I edit my profile in my user account as an instructor? to learn more.

• The Canvas: What to expect when your course is migrated (video) may help demonstrate some common migration issues. 

• The export package does not include materials submitted by students or student details. If you need student contributions for research purposes, incompletes, accreditation agencies, recommendation letters, student examples, etc., before Blackboard (Bb) user access ends on June 1, 2023, download them to  UH OneDrive or SharePoint.  See Data Classification and Protection. For information on retaining and protecting student data and submissions, see Data Classification and Protection.  

• Visit the Blackboard to Canvas Migration Overview (Instructure Guide) for additional information.
  
  

• Learn how to prepare your course for migration to Canvas by visiting Preparing Your Course for Canvas Migration and how to work with Bb imported content by visitng Using Automatically Imported Bb Content on Canvas.