5.9. Exporting and Importing a Course

You can Export a Course and Import a Course through Studio.

To duplicate an existing course for a new run, course creators can use the course re-run option. See Re-running a Course.

5.9.1. Export a Course

There are several reasons you may want to export your course:

  • To save your work
  • To edit the XML in your course directly
  • To create a backup copy of your course, which you can import if you want to revert the course back to a previous state
  • To share with another instructor for another class
  • To create a copy of your course that you can later import into another course instance and customize

When you export your course, Studio creates a .tar.gz file that includes the following course data:

  • Course content (all Sections, Subsections, and Units)
  • Course structure
  • Individual problems
  • Pages
  • Course assets
  • Course settings

The following data is not exported with your course:

  • User data
  • Course team data
  • Discussion data
  • Certificates

To export a course:

  1. From the Tools menu, select Export.
  2. Click Export Course Content.

When the export completes you can then access the .tar.gz file on your computer.

5.9.2. Import a Course

Warning

Content of the imported course replaces all the content of this course. You cannot undo a course import. We recommend that you first export the current course, so you have a backup copy of it.

There are several reasons you may want to import a course. For example:

  • To load a course you developed outside of Studio.
  • To run a new version of a course that was not created in Studio.

The course that you import must be in a .tar.gz file (that is, a .tar file compressed with GNU Zip). This .tar.gz file must contain a course.xml file in a course data directory. The tar.gz file must have the same name as the course data directory. It may also contain other files.

If your course uses legacy layout structures, you may not be able to edit the course in Studio, although it will probably appear correctly on Edge. To make sure that your course is completely editable, ensure that all of your material is embedded in a unit.

The import process has five stages. During the first two stages, you must stay on the Course Import page. You can leave this page after the Unpacking stage has completed. We recommend, however, that you don’t make important changes to your course until the import operation has completed.

To import a course:

  1. From the Tools menu, select Import.
  2. Click Choose a File to Import.
  3. Locate the file that you want, and then click Open.
  4. Click Replace my course with the one above.