Saving Course Materials from Blackboard (MyCourses)

Posted by Adam Rose on
  • It is your responsibility to download and back up any files or data you wish to retain from the Blackboard server. 
  • Blackboard support will end on June 30, 2025, and course content will no longer be available after that date. 
  • We recommend storing files in OneDrive, which is automatically backed up and remains available even if you switch computers. 
  • This document is about retaining data for your personal or required records, not moving content to Canvas.  For more information about migration please see Content Migration Processes 
  • There will be some special considerations for faculty and students dealing with incompletes during the transition from myCourses to Canvas, for more information, see Incompletes during the myCourses-Canvas Transition

What You Can Save from Blackboard 

This guide includes instructions on how to download: 

  • Grade Center data 
  • Discussion forum posts 
  • Student assignment and test submissions 
  • Your entire course site (as an archive) 

 Export the Grade Center 

  1. Go to Full Grade Center. 
  2. In the upper right, click Work Offline > Download. 
  3. Generally, keep the default option Full Grade Center (but you can choose Selected Column if needed). 
  4. Set Delimiter Type to Comma. 
  5. Click Submit, then Download on the next page. 
  6. This will save the .csv file to your computer.
    (File will be named something like gc_CourseName_fullgc_YYYY_MM_DD_HH_MM_SS.csv) 

Download Discussion Forum Posts 

  1. Go to the Discussion Board and open the desired forum. 
  2. Click Display > Show All  
  3. Tick the top checkbox to select all threads (or select individual threads using the checkboxes,)
  4. Click Collect at the top/bottom of the thread list.
  5. On the next page, click Print Preview, then save the content as a PDF. 

Download Assignment Submissions 

  1. Open the Grade Center, then click Assignments. 
  2. Click the edit arrow next to the assignment column and select Assignment File Download. 
  3. To download all files, click Show All (bottom right), then tick the top checkbox to select all. 
    • If you prefer,  Select specific students by checking the box next to their name(s). 
  4. Click Submit, then click to download the file. 

Download Test Submissions 

  1. In the Grade Center, click the edit arrow for the test column and select Download Results.
  2. Choose Comma as the delimiter and select the desired format. 
  3. Click Download Results to save the file. 

Archive an Entire Course Site 

You can create a full course archive that includes all course content and student interactions (useful for legal or reference purposes).
⚠️ Note: Archives are not human-readable and student data from an archive can only be restored to Blackboard—not Canvas (Canvas will only import course content, not student data.) 

Steps: 

  1. In the course Control Panel, go to Packages and Utilities > Export/Archive Course 
  2. Click Archive Course 
  3. Select “Include Grade Center History” 
  4. Leave the course files settings at their defaults 
  5. Press “Submit.” 
  6. Wait for an email confirmation of your course backup being completed. This should take 5-10 minutes (larger courses may take more time) 
  7. Once you receive the email, return to the Packages & Utilities > Export/Archive Course page of the course you archived. 
  8. Click on the “ArchiveFile” that was produced to save the backup file to your computer.