If you need to migrate a course from the Dallas/ACUONLINE instance of Canvas to the Abilene one, or vice versa, you will be performing an “export” and “import” process between two separate accounts. Below you will see the instructions on how to do it. In this example, you are exporting a course from the Abilene instance, and import it into a Dallas instance of Canvas for course development. The process should be similar if you export a course from the Dallas instance to the Abilene one.
Export your course in ACU:
1. Go to your current course in the ACU instance (URL: acu.instructure.com).
2. Go to settings.
3. Find “export course”, and export it.
4. When the export is completed, click on “new export” and download it. Keep the file format, do not unzip it. It should be an IMSCC file.
5. Check the size of the IMSCC file. If it exceeds 500 MB, you will need to ask for an increase in storage in the target shell course, which I’ll explain below.
Create a course in ACU Online:
1. Go go to your Dallas account (acuonline.instructure.com).
2. Click on “start a new course” towards the bottom right corner of your page. (If you import a course to a live course in Abilene, you should create a course via MyACU, see instructions here. If you want to import your Abilene course to a live course in Dallas, contact the instructional designer you work with for assistance.)
3. You will see a dialogue box asking you “Which account do you want this course to be associated with?” Choose “Sandbox.”
4. Give a name to your new course. When selecting a name for a course in development mode, you might want to include the word “Sandbox” in it to distinguish it from live courses when they are offered.
5. Send the URL of this new course to the Dallas instructional designer you work with to ask for an increase in size.
Import the course into the ACU Online account:
1. Go to the course created in acuonline.instructure.com.
2. Go to settings.
3. Click on “import course content.”
4. Select “Canvas course export package.”
5. Choose the file you downloaded.
6. Choose whether you want to import all or specific content.
7. Choose whether you want to adjust events and due dates. You have the option to remove the dates or shift the dates. Choose the one that works best for you.
8. Click on “import.”
9. If you have chosen to select content to import, please make your selection. If you import one type of content (such as quizzes), also import content that may be tied to it (such as question banks). If you are not sure, choose more and delete unnecessary ones later on.