Importing a sample course into your LMS

Every sample pack downloads as one file. This page says what is in it, how to import it, and what to change in the first twenty minutes so the course is yours.

What is in the file

The download is a Common Cartridge 1.1 package with the extension .imscc. It holds every week of the course: the content pages, the quizzes and exams with their answer keys, the discussions, the assignments with their rubrics, the readings, and a module overview for each week.

A pack that downloads as a zip holds two things: the course cartridge (.imscc) and the instructor pack. Unzip it first, then import the .imscc file; the instructor pack is for you and is never imported.

Module 0, at the top of the course, carries three short pages for you and your students: About these course materials (how the pack was generated and reviewed), Accessibility & Inclusion (how the pack is designed), and Course Materials Cost: $0.

Announcements arrive scheduled but not yet posted: none carries a post date, so nothing reaches students until you set one for each. Nothing else in the pack carries a date either: no due dates, no unlock dates, no term dates. You set both — give each announcement its week's date, and let your learning management system place the other dates once you have entered your term.

Canvas

Canvas (with Classic Quizzes) is the import path we have verified.

1. In your Canvas course, open Settings, choose Import Course Content, and pick Common Cartridge 1.x Package as the content type.
2. Upload the .imscc file, choose All content, and run the import.
3. Import into an empty course shell, so nothing merges with content you already have.
4. When the import finishes, open Module 0 first, then the week-by-week modules.

The assignment groups and their weights import with the pack, so the Canvas gradebook is set the moment the import finishes.

The quizzes are Classic Quizzes; we have not verified the pack with Canvas New Quizzes.

Moodle

Moodle restores the standards export of the pack (the file whose name ends in -standards.imscc), not the Canvas file. If your download did not include it, reply to the download email and we will send it.

In Moodle, open your course, choose Restore, upload the file, and restore it into the empty course.

We tested this with Moodle 4.5: the instructional pages restore, and the multiple-choice, true/false, and short-answer quiz questions import and work. Multiple-answer and essay questions are not yet verified in Moodle.

Canvas-only settings do not transfer to Moodle: assignment groups, weights, points, due dates, and submission types are set by you in Moodle. Assignment pages restore as Moodle Pages, module titles show as generic section labels, and announcements do not become Moodle forum posts.

Brightspace

We have not yet verified the pack in Brightspace, so this page does not describe an import path for it; write to hello@thecoursemaker.com and we will tell you when we have.

Make it yours in twenty minutes

1. Read Module 0 — the three pages your students will see first.
2. Set your term dates, and let your learning management system place the due dates; the pack ships none.
3. Give each week's announcement its post date; they import scheduled but unposted, so none goes out until you do.
4. Replace the generic accommodation paragraph in the syllabus with your college's own.
5. Skim the Links in this pack page in the instructor pack — the list of every external link the course sends students to.

Links and privacy

The readings and videos in a pack are links to external sources that we neither host nor control, and each link passes through a Course Maker redirector. In the Privacy Policy's words: “When a link is followed … we record only that it happened, keyed to the course, the edition, the link … and the hostname of the learning management system it was followed from … and, for the redirector, we then send the browser on to the external source. We record no name, account, IP address, cookie, or other identifier, we set no cookies, and we make no attempt to distinguish one person from another. These counts tell us which linked resources are in use and which links have broken.”

To opt out, in the policy's words again: “If your institution prefers that a pack contain no redirector links … tell us … by email and we will supply the pack with direct links.” Write to hello@thecoursemaker.com with the course and edition, and read the Privacy Policy for the whole of it.

Help

Reply to the download email, or write to hello@thecoursemaker.com. Every pack is provided under the Sample Course License: use it and change it in any course you teach; do not redistribute it.