Exporting Canvas Content to Word

[MichelleMeadows]

When courses need major revisions, it would be helpful to export the content into a word document to share with the subject matter expert to reiview and suggest edits. Is there a way to download all course content and export it into word document form besides copying/pasting all content into a document? In addition, for quizzes, you can export the quiz with answers as a PDF, but is there a way to download the content with the feedback that has been typed into the correct/incorrect boxes as well?

[JonathanBurnos · Accepted solution]

Hi @MichelleMeadows , 

You've got some great questions about how to export content from Canvas. Here's a quick breakdown of what's possible:

Exporting Course Content

Canvas doesn't have a direct feature to export an entire course into a Word document. Instead, you can export your course content as an IMSCC ZIP file. This is the standard file format for sharing course content across different learning management systems (LMS) that support Common Cartridge. While you can technically unzip the file, the contents aren't designed to be easily readable in a program like Word.

Exporting Quizzes

The ability to export quizzes from Canvas as a Word document or PDF is a popular request from users, and while the "Print" function has been developed, a full-featured export isn't currently available.

The official way to export a quiz is in QTI ZIP format. This is a standard for storing quiz data for use with other compatible programs. However, it doesn't include features like typed feedback in a format that can be easily viewed in a Word document.

If you want to create a physical or digital copy of your quiz, the best way is to use the Print Key feature found within the quiz builder. You can then print the key to a PDF. From there, you could open it in Microsoft Word, but this method may not preserve the original formatting perfectly.

I hope you are having a great start to Fall. 

- Customer Success Team

[Chris_Hofer]

Hi @MichelleMeadows ...

In addition to the helpful feedback you received from @JonathanBurnos, I'd like to tag on to what he said about the *.imscc export file.  One thing you can do after exporting your course to an *.imscc file is to change the file extension to a *.zip file.  Then, you can unzip the file.  You'll get a bunch of files and folders.  One of those folders has a bunch of HTML pages in it that should contain things like your course pages and your assignment pages.  What you *could* do is try opening each of those pages individually within Microsoft Word and then actually save them as Word documents.  I realize it wouldn't save all your documents as one file, but it would be a bit better than copying and pasting things from Canvas to a Word document.

I'll also make one other note.  If you intend on copying any content from Word back into Canvas, just be extra careful of that.  When you copy things from Word to Canvas, you may get a lot of what I like to call "rogue" HTML code that comes with it.  Word, as you know, is a word processing software.  Canvas, on the other hand, is not.  It's a web interface with a Rich Content Editor (RCE) that differs from a Word processor (though it has some of the same kinds of tools).  So, what may look nice and clean in Word may not transfer over nicely if/when you copy content from Word back to Canvas.  I'm not sure if this will apply to what you are intending to do long term, but it's definitely something to be aware of.

I hope this information will be helpful to you!  Good luck!