Copying Content in My.Seneca: Course Copy vs Export vs Archive | Academic Newsletter | Seneca Polytechnic

by Jennifer Peters, Seneca Libraries and the Teaching & Learning Centre

in the September 2019 issue

There are several ways to move and copy content in My.Seneca, including Course Copy and Export/Archive. So what’s the difference?

Course Copy
Course Copy allows you to copy content from one currently available course directly into another currently available course. The course doesn’t have to be from the current semester, but it does have to be from the one of the past four semesters.

You can select areas, such as Course Information, Course Documents, Quizzes, Grade Centre, etc. to copy from one course to another. Course Copy will add content to the destination course but will not remove existing content.

Export/Archive
Export allows you to create a zipped file containing all content or specific content from a course. This zipped file can be imported into any other My.Seneca course or organization.

Export is very useful for sharing content with colleagues, moving content from BBteach* to My.Seneca, or creating your own back-up of content from old courses (before they are removed after four semesters).

Archive allows you to create a zipped file which acts as a permanent record of a course, including all the content and student interactions.

How Do I Choose?

Top Tips

• Don’t course copy everything by default; select only the components you need so that you don’t have to delete redundant content in the new course
• Don’t course copy the course outline. Student should always have a link to the current course outline for the current semester. (For more information about course outlines in My.Seneca course sites, see the Course Outlines in My.Seneca: An update article in this issue.)
• If you are teaching multiple sections of a course, set-up all the content in one section and then course copy to the other sections. If you need to add another file or announcement later on, use Qwickly (found on the front page of My.Seneca) to post to multiple sections at once. (For more details about Qwickly, see the My.Seneca Tip: Qwickly article in the September 2018 issue of the Academic Newsletter.)
• Don’t try to open the exported file. It’s a zipped file that can only be read by Blackboard. If you need to access something in the zipped file, import it into a course or organization first and then you can open the content
• Don’t forget to download a copy of the export or archive file

How Do I Course Copy or Export/Archive?
See ITS’s   website for more information:

Questions?
Contact teaching@senecacollege.ca.

*BBteach is a secondary Blackboard site where you can test different things in demo courses that are not connected with any actual students. BBteach is found at https://bbteach.senecacollege.ca/. You can request a demo course from servicedesk@senecacollege.ca.

View the September 2019 issue of the Academic Newsletter.