How do I import materials from another GauchoSpace course site?

Recurringly taught course: If you regularly teach a course and want to use the same GauchoSpace setup, importing is a good option. All of your past resources and activities will be imported into your new course. Student data does not import from past courses, so any activities (Assignments, Quizzes, Forums, etc) will be cleared and ready for the new class of students.

Sharing course materials between instructors: If you and your colleagues want to streamline a course site, or share resources, importing will help you do this. Oftentimes, an instructor will want to duplicate something from a colleague's GauchoSpace site. If your colleague makes you an Editing TA in their course, you will be able to import materials into your own site(s).

Import from a sandbox/project site: If you prefer to prepare a GauchoSpace site ahead of time, importing can help you move materials from a project site (an empty sandbox that is not tied to student registration data) into a live course site. Many instructors find this helpful if they prefer to build out a site before a future quarter's GauchoSpace sites become automatically available. This is also an option to explore if multiple instructors wish to collaborate on a course site ahead of time and then duplicate copies by importing them into individual sites. Project sites are not tied to registration data, so students will not be automatically added into courses, but a project site can always be imported into a live course site at a future time.

Quarters that can be imported by Instructors and Editing TAs:
(Last updated: Spring 2020)

• Summer 2015
• Fall 2015
• Winter 2016
• Spring 2016
• Summer 2016
• Fall 2016
• Winter 2017
• Spring 2017
• Summer 2017
• Fall 2017
• Winter 2018
• Spring 2018
• Fall 2018
• Winter 2019
• Spring 2019
• Summer 2019
• Fall 2019
• Winter 2020
• Spring 2020 (Current Quarter)

1. Log in to GauchoSpace.

2. Go to the course where you want the materials to appear. Generally, this is the new course site that is empty.

3. In the Administration Block click Import.
   

    

4. Select the radio button next to the course you would like to import, or search for it if it is not on the page. Note: The search function is very sensitive. If you are not finding your course by searching with the course number, try using the course title.

5. Click "Continue."

6. This page shows you which broad categories of items will be imported. By default, all are selected. Uncheck all materials that you do NOT wish to import. Then, click "Next."

   
   Note About the Gradebook:

   Do not uncheck any materials if you would like to import your gradebook from an older course. Doing a partial import will not carry over your complete gradebook information into the new site. You will need to import ALL materials if you wish to carry over the previous site's gradebook structure, including any manually-created items and your gradebook's aggregation method and values.
   Note About Question Bank: If you plan to import and use any quizzes into your new course site, you must leave the option for "Include question bank" checked. This is where the actual questions within a quiz are stored. Without this option selected, Quizzes will not be usable and will not be imported.

 

7. This page shows you a list of all specific resources and activities that are available for import. By default, everything is selected. You can uncheck any items that you do not wish to carry over. In order for items within a section to be imported, the title for that section needs to be selected. Click "Next" when you have selected everything you want.

8. Next, you will be shown a confirmation of what is about to be imported. The green checkmarks indicate that this item/category will be imported. The red "X" indicates items that are not going to be imported (they do not indicate an error). Once you have confirmed everything is correct, click the "Perform Import" button at the bottom of the page.

9. You will see a progress bar as items are imported and copied over to your new course. When this is complete, you will see two options.
   Edit Dates: This will immediately take you into the Dates Report interface, which allows you to quickly adjust due dates and access dates for your course. This report is always available at a later time, so you won't need to do this immediately. See the Dates Report section of this page for more information.
   View Course: This takes you to your course site with the newly imported items.

10. The materials from the old course should now appear in your new course.

1. Create your course site for the current quarter. (We will import materials from your previous course site into this site)

2. Find your previous course site on an archived GauchoSpace server and copy the link. Links to the archived servers.

3. Submit a help request with the link to your previous course site and the full name of your current course site in the description.

4. We will contact you after the import has been performed and the site is available. Our staff works on days that campus is open and we can generally respond to archive requests within 1-2 business days.

1. From your course home page, select the Reports menu in the Administration block. Then choose Dates.

2. From this screen, you can view start dates, due dates, submissions dates, etc. for all of your course activities at once. This report will only show you one type of Activity/Resource at a time (the example below shows Assignments). Expand each weekly/topic block to view the selected activities within that block. 

3. After making necessary changes, be sure to click the Save Changes button at the top or bottom of the page before using the drop-down menu to change activity types. Repeat these steps for each activity type that you wish to adjust.

First Import into an Empty Site: In this common scenario, you may be importing from an existing course site into a completely empty, new course site. In this scenario, the entire Gradebook will be imported exactly as it appears in the original course. All activities that have an associated Gradebook item (like Assignments, Quizzes, Forums w/Ratings, etc.), all manually created grade items, all manually created grade categories, weights and aggregation methods and preferences will be imported. This is the ideal situation if you want an exact replica of your course and gradebook. 

Partial Import into an Empty Site: During the Import process, you may choose to not import all of the Activities and Resources. Depending on what you leave out, this will affect the Gradebook in different ways:

• Leaving Out a Graded Activity: If you leave out an Activity that automatically links to the Gradebook (Like an Assignment, Quiz or Forum w/Ratings), then your manually created grade items and categories will not import into your new site. All of your other Graded Activities will still import, but they will be uncategorized and you will need to reset weights and grading aggregation methods.
• Leaving Out a Resource: If you leave out a Resource (such as a label, a URL or a File), then your manually created grade items and categories will still import into your course site as long as all Graded Activities are included. 

Gradebook Behavior When Importing Into Non-Empty Sites: Sometimes it is useful to import from another course site after you have already starting building your new page. For example, sometimes instructors will use a project site to collaborate, and then want to disseminate a product into individual course sites. Or, after starting to build a course, you gain access to a colleague's course and want to import some of their structure into your own. Things to be aware of when importing into a non-empty site:

• Activities with Associated Grade Items: Activities will bring their associated Gradebook item with them during an Import. However, these items will simply be added to the end of the Gradebook and you may need to readjust your weights and move them into the appropriate category. Even if you have the same categories in the origin course and the destination course, GauchoSpace will not be able to place the imported item into a Gradebook category.
• Manual Grade Items and Gradebook Categories: If there are any existing items in the Gradebook already (whether from an Activity or manually created), GauchoSpace will not bring over any manual grade items or Gradebook categories during an import. The benefit of this is that you do not need to worry about duplicate items if you import multiple times. However, this is something to be aware of if you're attempting to import a Gradebook structure.
• Exporting from Courses with Linked Subcourses: If you are attempting to duplicate a course that previously used the "Subcourse" activity (such as you had a meta-site with linked section sites), it is important to know that GauchoSpace will be unable to import all aspects of the source Gradebook. In order to prevent current courses from being linked with past courses, GauchoSpace stops the "Subcourse" activities from importing which then prevents manual grade items, Gradebook categories and customized aggregation methods, weights and formulas from being imported. Please be sure to make these changes manually to your Gradebook after import. Additionally, you can also delete the "Subcourse" activities from the exporting site beforehand, however it is strongly recommended that you download a copy of the Gradebook for your records, before doing this.
• Importing Quizzes: Whenever you want to import a quiz, you will also need to import the question bank otherwise you will not be able to import the quiz. Related to this, if you have quizzes that are not imported, the Gradebook will not be able to import manual grade items or gradebook categories, even if the destination Gradebook is empty.

Will It Import Into My Gradebook?

Gradebook Item	Importing Into an Empty Site	Importing Into a Non-Empty Site	Partial Import Into an Empty Site	Exporting from Courses with Linked Subcourses
Gradebook Items Associated with an Activity (such as Assignment, Quizzes or Forum w/Ratings)	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Manual Grade Item	Yes	No	Only if all Graded Activities are included.	No
Gradebook Category	Yes	No	Only if all Graded Activities are included.	No
Weights	Yes	No	Only if all Graded Activities are included.	No
Aggregation Method & Settings	Yes	No	Only if all Graded Activities are included.	No

Use dates in a consistent manner: One of the most tedious parts of importing a GauchoSpace course is replacing time-specific text. Consider using a naming scheme so dates are mentioned in one place in each week's section. This will help you track down where you need to change dates. See the example below.

Avoid dates in Activity/Resource names: Similar to above, consider using a naming scheme that does not depend on dates in the names of Assignments, Quizzes, Forums or other activities/resources. For example, rather than naming weekly homeworks for the day they are due, try naming them for the week of the quarter or in sequence such "Homework #1" or "Week 1 Homework" instead of "May 6 Homework." This will make date updates easier and make your course more adaptable to each new term. Activities that have an automatic gradebook entry (like Assignments and Quizzes) take their names into the gradebook so this will also make the gradebook clearer to students.

Consider using a Project Site for preparation and organization: Oftentimes, instructors will collect many resources and activities in their GauchoSpace sites after several iterations of teaching a course. Rather than keeping unused materials on the active course site in each new quarter, consider creating a GauchoSpace Project Site to store these resources. Project Sites are GauchoSpace sandboxes that are not connected to student registration data, so they can be used to try out new things or to keep resources safe and active in GauchoSpace without cluttering up active sites. Click here to request a project site.