Recycling Your Course

If you have taught a course using Blackboard in the past, you can reuse the same course in the new semester. Through either Course Copy or Course Import, the Blackboard Administrator can bring life to an old course in a new course shell.

If you have a Blackboard course(s) from a previous semester that you would like to reuse, complete the ITS Course Request Form and be sure to include the Course ID(s) and Semester(s) in the box under Course Import.

If you have an archived course (from the Blackboard server), send that archive as an e-mail attachment to the Technology Help Desk and ask that the archive be imported into the new semester's course shell. Be sure to include the Course ID for the new course. Click here for a tutorial on how to attach files to an e-mail using Microsoft Outlook.

Once the old course has been imported into the new course shell, you can run the Course Recycler to prepare the course for the coming semester.
    1. From the Control Panel click on Recycle Course (found under Course Options).
    2. Select the Content Areas to be recycled. In most cases, these are the areas of your course that will stay constant from semester to semester. Only recycle those areas that you truly want to rebuild. REMEMBER: Once a section has been recycled, it can not be restored.
    3. Select the Other Areas of your course to be recycled. These are the areas that are most likely to change from semester to semester. If you have created a collection of online assessments, be sure to leave this box unchecked. It is easier to change one or two questions than to rebuild an entire assessment or question pool.
    4. Type Remove at the bottom of the screen and click Submit.
    5. A receipt will appear confirming that your chosen areas have been recycled. Click OK to continue.
    6. Click on Control Panel link at the top of the screen to continue to the next step.

Click Here to see a Flash Movie demonstration of this step.
Created by K. Wiemer
Last Updated July 12, 2005