Bulk add links to Modules

[NathanielBland]

Hello! My university is migrating a course from Moodle to our Canvas implementation and I have a question to see if I can save a bunch of time. The course is 41 chapters long broken into 10 blocks.

Block 1

-Chapter 1

-Chapter 2

Block 2

-Chapter 3

-Chapter 4

and so on.

For each chapter, I need to link to 6 external links for an audiobook, learning objectives, slides, and so on. Is there a way I can automate this in Canvas at all or am I stuck? I have all the links broken down into their constituent parts in an excel doc, but I'm hoping I don't have to create 246 individual external links through clicking that plus button each time....

I suppose if push comes to shove I can create them in a page for each block or chapter and use something like Python to make the code...but I think it would look prettier if they were all discrete elements.

Thanks,

Nathaniel

[greydon · Accepted solution]

Hello @NathanielBland 

Thank you for contacting the Canvas Community. We're sorry to hear you've been experiencing issues with adding links to modules in bulk. We can import exported course  files from Moodle to Canvas and it  should generally bring everything over and put it  in the areas it  belongs. Where and how were the external links set  up in Moodle? If you have already  exported  and imported the course and  the external URLs  aren't populating in  the modules, you may need to manually add this. Currently, there is no option to bulk import or  add external URLs throughout a series of modules. You mentioned also using pages or Python and you are certainly welcome to explore these other options since  we do not have that function integrated or created as of now although we clearly see  the need to do so. If you want to give  students direct access to the csv or create a page, etc. it could save on time but  other  than that, you'd need to add  the external URLs manually to each module if the Moodle export did not already place them there. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. 

Here is the Canvas guide:

https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-import-content-from-Moodle-into-Canvas/...  

[NathanielBland]

Hi Greydon,

Thank you for your reply. Some of the links in question are LTI tools that were used in moodle but our LMS team will not implement this particular LTI while they are focusing on the move from blackboard. So, I'm forced to rebuild that content without using the LTI and when I do a moodle import, they show up as external application links that are broken and I cannot seem to change the item type.

[greydon]

Hello @NathanielBland 

Thanks for following up and we're sorry to hear you're still experiencing an issue. Some LTIs in Moodle may not have been installed in Canvas before the import which would cause issues like this. It could also depend where and how the external apps in moodle were placed as the  two platforms don't have identical  features, although most of them  match up. I am sorry to hear  that some of the links and external information has to be embedded again, and possibly you could speak with your school directly for assistance in getting the course set up if time is of the essence. Hopefully canvas support was able to provide some clarity if not direct resolution.