Exporting Courses as a Brightspace Package

Owned by Madison Leonard Student Worker
Last updated: Jul 31, 2024 by Skylar Grant
3 min read

Instructors can export their courses to copy some or all of the elements of the course into another course. Exporting a course as a cartridge is also an effective way to back up your course’s content. We recommend exporting the course any time you make changes to it. Start by opening the course you’d like to export…

  1. Click on Course Admin in the Navigation Bar at the top of the screen

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  1. Click on Import / Export / Copy Components under the Site Resources category

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  1. Select Export as Brightspace Package

What is the difference between the different types of exports?

  • Export as Brightspace Package is an excellent option for exporting a Brightspace course to be imported back into another Brightspace course. It offers a wide selection of elements to choose for export and downloads as a compressed (.zip) file, which saves space on your PC.

  • Export as Common Cartridge is best for exporting a Brightspace course with the intention of importing it into another LMS, such as Blackboard or Moodle. This can also be used to import back into another Brightspace course. This downloads as an IMSCC file, which stands for Instructional Management Systems Common Cartridge.

  • Export as Thin Common Cartridge performs a lot of the same basic functions as the regular Common Cartridge download, but with its own limitations. The thin common cartridge export option is specifically designed to export Learning Tools Interoperability (LTI), web links, and metadata. This can still be imported into any LMS system, such as Blackboard or Moodle.

  1. Select each component to export. Click the check-box next to Select All if you want to export the entire course

  1. Click Continue after selecting the components to export

  2. Verify the component selection, then click the check-box next to Include course files in the export package at the bottom of the page, then click Export

You’ll be brought to a screen informing you that the export has begun, and you will receive a notification when the cartridge is ready to download.

  1. Click on Export finished in the notification tray once the cartridge is ready to download

  2. Click on Click here to download the export Zip package

After the cartridge is downloaded, you can find it in your Downloads folder. We recommend copying this file to another location on the computer. For added security, place a copy of the file on OneDrive and a USB flash drive to ensure that the backup survives any mishaps.