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Advanced Content Authoring and Reporting - Importing a Pressbooks Thin Common Cartridge file into your Canvas course

Pressbooks can be used to author and host basic course content with interactivity as well as more advanced content authoring and reporting (ACAR) features (such as H5P activities, Hypothes.is annotations and reporting).

If you're interested in these advanced content authoring and reporting features, we highly recommended requesting a consultation from the Learn@UW-Madison team to help you get started.

This document describes how an instructor can import a Pressbooks Common Cartridge file into a Canvas course.

After you’ve downloaded your interactive Pressbook as a .zip file (as described in Advanced Content Authoring and Reporting - How to export a Pressbook as a Thin Common Cartridge for use in Canvas , you need to import it to your Canvas course:

  1. Log in to Canvas.

  2. Navigate to the Canvas course you’d like to add your Pressbooks content to.

  3. Click on Settings from the course navigation.

  4. Click on Import Course Content:
    A screenshot from the Canvas "Settings" screen showing some of the options. The cursor hovers over the "Import Course Content" option.

  5. Select Common Cartridge 1.x package from the content type drop-down menu: 
    A screenshot from Canvas shwoing the "Import Content" menu. The "Content type" dropdown menu is expanded and the cursor is over "Common Cartridge 1.x Package."

  6. Next to Source, click the Choose File button:
    A screenshot from the Canvas "Import Content" screen which shows "Common Cartridge 1.x Package" has been chosen as the "Content Type". The cursor hovers over the "Choose File" button.

  7. Select the .zip file you downloaded from Pressbooks as outlined in the previous KB article Advanced Content Authoring and Reporting - How to export a Pressbook as a Thin Common Cartridge for use in Canvas .

  8. Select either the All content to import everything or Select specific content to choose which parts of your Pressbook to import.

  • If you chose All content, click the Import button:
    A screenshot from the Canvas "Import Content" screen showing the "All content" radio button selected with the cursor over the "Import" button.
    Your material will import into Canvas. If your book has a lot of material, it could take a few minutes. You can see the progress under Current Jobs.

  • If you chose Select specific content, click the Import button:
    A screenshot from the Canvas "Import Settings" screen showing the "Select specific content" radio button selected. The cursor hovers over the "Import" button.
    Under Current Jobs you will see your Pressbooks material import. Once completed, you will see a Select Content button. Click it:
    A screenshot from the Canvas "Import Content" screen under "Current Jobs". It shows a job that has completed with the cursor over the "Select Content" button.

    A Select Content window will open, which shows what parts of your Pressbook are available to import. Click the checkbox for the pieces you want to import and click Select Content:
    A screenshot from Canvas showing the "Select Content" window. Two assignments have their checkboxes checked which means they are selected for import. The cursor hovers over the "Select Content" button.
    The Common Cartridge listed under Current Jobs progress bar will complete. The Select Content button will turn to a green completed notification

  • Click on Modules to review the imported material. If you selected All content, it will include any chapters you checked as described in Advanced Content Authoring and Reporting - How to export a Pressbook as a Thin Common Cartridge for use in Canvas , including assignments, discussions, the introduction, and appendix. If you chose Select specific content, it will only include the items you selected. You may want to remove any modules you don't actually plan to use by clicking the three dot button next to unneeded material and selecting Remove:
    A screenshot from Canvas in the "Modules" tool showing an "Introduction" module. The user has clicked on the three dot menu and the cursor hovers over the "Remove" option.

    • If you would like to push grades from the interactive (H5P) activities within your Pressbook, you will want to review Advanced Content Authoring and Reporting - Manually pushing a grade from Pressbooks to the Canvas gradebook and setting up auto-sync .

    See Also:



    Keywords:content, authoring, pilot, pressbooks, import, Canvas, thin, common, cartridge, upload   Doc ID:84559
    Owner:Learn@UW Madison .Group:Learn@UW-Madison
    Created:2018-08-07 13:28 CSTUpdated:2021-08-17 09:24 CST
    Sites:DoIT Help Desk, Learn@UW-Madison
    Feedback:  0   0