As we transition from Blackboard to Canvas we want instructors to understand their options for retaining the content and student data that is currently housed in their Blackboard courses. Once Blackboard is retired as the university’s active learning management system, your ability to access to these items will be limited unless you take some steps to download and house them on your own computer. Students can learn about downloading their own data at our Getting Ready for the Move to Canvas for Students page.

The below checklist outlines some optional steps beyond what we are doing for you that will allow you to back up and continue to have personal access to much of what is housed in Blackboard now. If you have any questions about the move to Canvas or any of the procedures below, technologists are available via email at lms@teaching.pitt.edu or by calling 412-648-2832.

	What we are doing for you:	For more information…
☑	Migrating courses from Summer 2018 (term code 2187) onward into Canvas Migrated courses will not contain any student enrollments or student data, but will contain course content, including uploaded files, course structure, item descriptions, tests and assignments and so on.	https://teaching.pitt.edu/canvas/transition-faqs/
☑	Archiving all Blackboard courses in a read-only Blackboard Archive format This Blackboard archive will be include complete courses including student data, but be accessible to a limited number of university technology support staff. We will be able to work with you to retrieve data that is housed in these archives on an as-needed basis.	https://teaching.pitt.edu/canvas/transition-faqs/
	Consider also:	For more information…
☐	Downloading your course content from your courses’ content collection Each course in Blackboard has a content collection that houses all of the documents and file attachments that you uploaded as part of the course. Each course’s entire content collection can be downloaded as a single zip package. This file can be housed on your local computer and/or uploaded to Canvas's Files system.	How to Download a Course or Personal Content Collection from Blackboard
☐	Downloading your course Grade Centers into an Excel spreadsheet The Grade Center for each course can be downloaded as an Excel spreadsheet for retention of student grades on your own computer. The spreadsheet will show scores/grades but will not include copies of student submitted work such as assignments and tests.	How to Download a Blackboard Grade Center Into an Excel Spreadsheet
☐	Downloading student-submitted papers, tests and discussions If you want to retain copies of student work, you can download student-submitted papers (as zip packages) and tests (as Excel spreadsheets)	How to Download Student Submitted Papers From Blackboard How to Download Full Test Results from Blackboard How to Download Blackboard Discussion Forum Posts
☐	Download your test item pools as QTI files Blackboard test item pools can be download as QTI (Question and Test Interoperability) zip packages which can be imported into a wide variety of other learning management systems, including Canvas. Please note that only a test item pool downloads as QTI, individual Blackboard tests do not.	How to Download Blackboard Test Item Pools as QTI Files
☐	Downloading archive files of your Blackboard courses While we will be retaining Blackboard archive files in storage in accordance with Pitt’s data retention policy, you may also wish to store a copy of your course’s archive file on your own computer. These archive files can be restored back into Blackboard (with student data) or into Canvas (without student data) but cannot be opened from your own computer, so this should be viewed as an extra archival backup, not as a way of gaining access to your course materials after you no longer have access to Blackboard.	How to create a Blackboard Archive File