This information applies only to the Ultra experience.

Migrate from D2L Brightspace

We know that you’ve spent a lot of time developing your courses in Brightspace and don’t want to redo all that work because your institution decided to switch to Ultra. You can easily convert your course from Brightspace to Ultra while preserving as much of your course’s material and customization as possible.

Topics on this page include:

Import your course

To import your course from Brightspace to Ultra, you need to download a course file.

D2L Brightspace

  1. Go to your course in Brightspace and select the Course Tools menu.
  2. Select Course Admin.
  3. Select Import / Export / Copy Components.
  4. On the next page, select Export as Brightspace Package, then select Start.
  5. Select Select All Components, then select Continue.
  6. On the next page, go to the bottom and select Include Course Files in the Export Package.
  7. Select Export. A notification will appear in your Update Alerts when the export's complete.
  8. Select Click here to download the export Zip package.

Blackboard Learn Ultra

Go to your course's Content page in Learn. Select the More options menu and then select Import Content.

Image of the Course Content page, with the More options menu expanded and Import Content highlighted

Select Import Content again on the panel that appears. Choose the ZIP file that you downloaded earlier.

A gray bar appears at the top of the Content page that says, “Importing course content.” Larger courses will take a longer time to upload, depending on the speed of your internet connection. There’s no progress bar.

Your institution can limit the size of files that can be uploaded to Ultra. Your course might exceed this size limit if there are many large files in it.

If you leave the Content page, you can check on the upload’s progress by going to the Course Tasks and Logs panel. Select the More options menu at the top of the Content page and then select Course Tasks and Logs.

Image of the Course Tasks and Logs panel

When the import is complete, you’ll be asked to review exceptions with your import. This prompt appears at the bottom of your screen.

Participation and activity data are not preserved during the conversion process. Items like posts on discussions, assignment submissions, and grades are all removed.

Review exceptions and customize your course

Select the red text link with the number of exceptions to your import to review them. Don’t be alarmed – most exceptions are not significant and won't require any adjustment from you.

When you import a Brightspace course to an Ultra course, all of your Lessons & Folders and Units are converted to folders. You can easily drag imported items outside of folders and put them on the main Content page. You can also create a folder within an existing folder to further organize your content.

You can turn your Brightspace Lessons & Folders and Units to learning modules in Ultra to further control student access. Learning modules include features for forcing a sequence, controlling student visibility, and can include an image to help your students navigate to the module. Visit the “Create Learning Modules” topic for more information on learning modules.

There are differences between the features available in Ultra and in Brightspace, so we recommend reviewing all discussions, quizzes, and tests after you import them. Unsupported test and quiz options are removed during import.

Due dates and student visibility for content can be adjusted using the Batch Edit feature. You can also delete content in a group. Visit the “Batch Edit” topic for more information about this feature.

Mathematical formulas written in LaTeX that don't have correct syntax won't convert from Brightspace to Ultra. Review all formulas in your course after you import it.