Copying course content into BB Ultra

Unless you have created an development version of last years module in ultra, you will not be able to migrate your course as normal. Instead September 24’s teaching module will contain an empty Ultra template, but you can easily copy content across from other Original and Ultra modules.

The new Blackboard Ultra module template

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CDLE recommend copying individual documents or folders TO the new Blackboard Ultra template This will allow you to gradually build up the new Blackboard Ultra content structure for your module.

Use this method to copy documents, folders, tests, assignments, Panopto videos, discussions, announcements and SCORMs.

Copying a document or folder TO Blackboard Ultra module

CDLE recommend this approach for copying old Blackboard module content into the new Blackboard Ultra template. This process allows you to plan your course structure and gradually build up the course content for your new Ultra module.

For instance, copying over weekly folders from Blackboard Original into a Blackboard Ultra Learning Materials folder.

1. Either click on the plus + and select Copy Content from the drop-down menu.

… or at the top of the Course Content area, click the ellipsis (three dots)

and select Copy Items from the menu

2. This will bring up the Copy Items dialogue box. Enter your module code in the Course name or ID search box.

3. Click on the course that contains the folder or document to be copied …

4. Then navigate to the folder you wish to copy e.g. Week 2 folder which is located in the Learning Content folder. So click on Learning Content …

… then select the tick box beside the folder you wish to copy (Week 2) and select Start Copy.

After a few seconds the folder will copy across.

The copied folder will appear at the bottom of the Course content list. By default, the folder and its contents will be hidden from students.

5. Click on the copied folder’s (Week 2) down arrow to review the files.

Flatten Nested folders

For instance the copied Week 2 folder contains nested folders 1.Learn, 3. Investigate, 4. Consolidate.

If you tried copying the Week 2 folder into a Learning Materials folder, a warning that the folder exceeds the two folder depth limit appears.

Therefore you would need to flatten the structure of Week 2 folder, e.g. dragging the content from the nested folders into the upper layer and delete the empty folders.

1. Click on the arrow to reveal the contents of the Week 2 folder, then open the contents of the nested folders.

2. Then drag and drop the contents of the nested folders 1.Learn, 3. Investigate, 4. Consolidate into the Week 2 folder.

3. Delete the empty folders, the flattened folder structure looks like this:

4. Now you can copy the folder into the Learning Materials folder, the structure is now two folders deep with three levels.

Blackboard Ultra Exception notices

Copying Blackboard Original folders TO Blackboard Ultra may generate exception notices. Don’t worry, these will normally be caused by formatting issues. Click on the warning and review the Exception Report.

You can view reports by clicking the ellipses (three dots) at the top of the Course Content area and selecting Course Tasks and Logs.

This warning states there may be formatting issues with the content copied across.

Make sure you review the content inside the folder to check for errors.

Exception notices caused by copying tests

It is important to check your tests when they are copied over, a number of test and question options are no longer available.

Unlike Blackboard Original, Ultra test do not have description and instruction fields, instead a single text field. The description or instruction field may not be copied over. If this is the case you may see the following exception.

Other test options that may generate the above exception include the removal of images and tables from the instruction field.

The following exception will appear if a question type is no longer supported in Ultra and removed from the test.

Tables in questions and/or answer field may also be removed and generate the above exception.

See our guide for copying tests for more information.

Review the copied content

Go through the folders, check your files, documents, assignments, discussions and documents, make sure that they have retained their functionality, use the Blackboard Ultra icons as a guide:

For instance, a discussion in Blackboard Original has been converted to a document in Blackboard Original, the Discussion will have to be recreated.

Remove any empty or unnecessary files. Drag and drop the required files into the Ultra template’s Module Information folder, Weekly Learning modules or Assessment folder.

Folders that exceed Ultra’s three levels will be retained but displaced from the original course structure, drag and drop files and documents between folders to flatten the course structure.

Check your links, make sure they don’t navigate back to the original course. Check your documents you may need to reformat some elements.

Discussions will appear in Course Content and in the Discussions area. NB you can remove any discussions from the Course content area and they will remain in the Discussions area.

Any Blackboard and Turnitin dropboxes will be visible in Course Content and be accessible via Gradebook and Calendar due dates (if a due date has been set)

When you are happy with the items, make them visible:

Use the drop-down arrow to change to visible to students.

Copying a whole module TO Blackboard Ultra

This approach is NOT recommended, folder structure changes and formatting and tool settings exceptions can be chaotic and overwhelming.

It is recommended you take a piecemeal approach, copying content in stages, see above.

1. In your Ultra module, at the top of the course content area, click the ellipsis (three dots)

2. Select Copy Items from the menu

3. This will bring up the Copy Items dialogue box. Enter your module code in the Course name or ID search box.

4. Click on the course that needs copied over.

When an Original course is copied over, it will generate a number of exceptions, click on the exception warning. This will reveal the except report in the right hand side.

Click on any category e.g Assignments and tests to review the exceptions

When you copy over a full module, all the content will be added to the the bottom of the Course Content area, nested folders deeper than three levels will have their folder structure changed to reflect the simplified Ultra structure.

Copying a document or folder FROM Blackboard Original

You can continue to copy folders and documents FROM Blackboard Original by using the drop-down arrow beside the item and select Copy. However, it is recommended that copy a folder or document TO Blackboard Ultra module.

For instance, you can copy a Week 1 folder across from Blackboard Original (note the nested 3. Investigate folder)

Select the drop-down arrow and select Copy

This opens the Copy dialogue box, select the Destination Course e.g. your Ultra development area.

Click on Browse to select the Destination folder e.g. Learning Materials

and press Submit.

Check your destination folder for the copied items.

Due to Ultra’s three-level hierarchy, a maximum depth of two folders is allowed, during copying, the nested 3.Investigate folder has been displaced from the original course folder structure.

You can remedy this issue by flattening the folder structure, dragging and dropping the contents of 3.Investigate folder into the Week 1 folder …

Then delete the separate and empty 3. Investigate folder. Now the four level content structure of the Blackboard Original course has been converted into the Blackboard Ultra three-level folder structure.

Blackboard Original copying exceptions

For instance in the above example, on pressing Submit, there was a warning telling me an item (a SCORM) didn’t copy across.

Once you have performed housekeeping on the the course, the course can can quickly be tailored to suit the new Ultra template

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