Downloading (But Not Importing) a Course from Commons

[jcrooks]

In short, how do I download a course from the commons without importing it into an existing course? Can that even be done?

A colleague has posted a course to the commons. She has a wealth of knowledge and experience. I would like to download her course to review later, perhaps using pieces of it in the future, perhaps adapting some of it into my existing courses. I certainly do not want to import her material into an existing course because that would paste over my existing course, right? And even if it does not, it is very difficult to house, organize, and access "just-for-me" and "what-if?" material in a canvas shell without students coming across it and trying to interact with it, right? I would like access to the course without it mixing with my own.

My search of the canvas guides yielded only how to import into an existing course. Thank you for any help you can offer.

[heather_stockfo]

Yes! You can preview and download: https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-16718-4152725343 

[heather_stockfo]

More specifically, below the "import into course" option is an option to download to your computer : )

[jcrooks]

Thank you for your replies, Heather. I'm afraid I am not skilled in using canvas. When I try to download using that option below import, my computer cannot read the .imscc file type, nor have I been able to discover which programs can open that file type. When I open the preview in commons, I am unable to navigate after the first page I view. I am probably making very basic mistakes.

[kmeeusen]

Hi  @jcrooks 

The only programs that can read an .imscc file are learning management systems that use that file type - like Canvas.

I am guessing you just want to gi9ve the content a good looking over before you commit, and I get that.  The way to do this is to create (How do I start a new course from the Dashboard as an instructor? ), or have  created for you, a sandbox (empty Canvas course shell) that you can play with. Depending on how faculty permissions are managed at your school, you may be able to do that yourself; but if not, then you will need to ask your Canvas Admin to create one for you. Then download from Commons into the course she3ll. If you don't like it, you can easily reset your course content (How do I reset course content?), and try something else.

Kelley

[heather_stockfo]

No problem @JamesCrooks, we have all been new at one time or another. To view the content of the “imscc” file, simply rename the file’s extension to “zip”.  Your operating system should then offer a way to uncompress the file, by clicking on it, through a file menu, or tool such as Winzip on Windows and unzip on a Mac. 

[cholling]

I didn't know that, Heather. You get the gold star for my first knowledge gain this morning 🙂 Thanks.

[jcrooks]

Thank you for the replies. I asked my campus canvasd admin to create a sandbox for me, and that resolved me issue.