Canvas: Preserve Course Content

This article provides instructions for Canvas users to preserve course content, particularly that content marked for potential deletion as part of Course and Media Content Retention Standards.

Table of Contents

• Auditing & Inventorying
  • Auditing & Inventorying for Teachers
  • Auditing & Inventorying for Canvas Administrators
  • Auditing & Inventorying for Data & Reporting Admin or Program Manager Roles
• Retaining Content in a Development Course
  • Exporting Course Content
  • Requesting a Non-academic Site
  • Importing Course Content

Auditing & Inventorying

Auditing & Inventorying for Teachers

As a teacher in Canvas, you can see a list of courses labelled for deletion.

1. Select Courses in global navigation. A flyout menu appears.
2. Select All Courses. A list of all courses where you are enrolled or where you are a student appears. 
3. Use browser's find function to highlight courses within the list with "[TO BE DELETED OCT 2026]" in the course name.
   • MacOS browsers Chrome, Safari, and Firefox: Press Cmd+F
   • Windows browsers Chrome and Firefox: Press Ctrl+F 
4. Enter "[TO BE DELETED OCT 2026]" in the search field that appears
5. Select Enter
6. View courses highlighted as "[TO BE DELETED OCT 2026]"

Auditing & Inventorying for Canvas Administrators 

If you have an administrative role in Canvas, you can filter for all the courses labelled for deletion across a sub-account. 

1. Log into canvas.umn.edu
2. Select Admin in the global navigation menu on the left
3. Select the name of the account. A list of courses for the account displays.
4. Select Sub-Accounts in the account navigation. A hierarchical list of all the sub-accounts displays.
5. Select the sub-account for which you want to identify courses labelled for deletion. A list of all courses within that sub-account displays.
6. In the Search courses field, enter "[TO BE DELETED OCT 2026]"
7. Select Enter
8. View courses highlighted as "[TO BE DELETED OCT 2026]"

Auditing & Inventorying for Data & Reporting Admin or Program Manager Roles

If you have the Data & Reporting Admin or Program Manager roles, you can generate a report of all courses within a sub-account. 

1. Log into canvas.umn.edu
2. Select Admin in the global navigation menu on the left
3. Select the name of the account. A list of courses for the account displays.
4. Select Sub-Accounts in the account navigation. A hierarchical list of all the sub-accounts displays.
5. Select the sub-account for which you want to identify courses labelled for deletion. A list of all courses within that sub-account displays.
6. Select Settings in Account navigation
7. Select the Reports tab. A list of all account-level reports displays.
8. Find the Provisioning report in the list within the reports menu
9. Select Configure… next to the Provisioning report. A list of options from which you can Configure a Report appears.

10. Check the box next to Courses CSV
11. Select Run Report. When your report is ready, you will receive an email with a link to download the report. 
12. Load the downloaded CSV into a spreadsheet application and filter for "[TO BE DELETED OCT 2026]" in the long_name column. 

Retaining Content in a Development Course

Exporting Course Content

1. Log into canvas.umn.edu
2. Select Settings in the course where you want to export content from course navigation. A page of course configurations displays.
3. Select Export Course Content from the list of actions on the right. A Content Exports page displays.
4. Select Course as the Export Type, 
5. Select Create Export.A progress bar displays. Exporting a course may take a few minutes, depending on its size. You will receive an email when the export is complete.
6. Select the New Export link when your download is ready. The downloaded file is an .imscc file type which you can store and/or import into Canvas or any other standards-based learning management system."
7. Replace with: "The downloaded file is an .imscc file type. This file can be stored in an alternative storage location, or imported into a different course in Canvas or any other standards-based learning management system
   • Note: When preparing the content export, a notice appears on the page: "Content export files cannot be downloaded after 30 days." This expiration timeline applies only to the downloadable file created by that export. The Content Export process can be run again to create a new downloadable file, if necessary.

Requesting a Non-academic Site

1. Log into canvas.umn.edu
2. Select Help in the global navigation on the left
3. Select Course Request (Non-academic). The Course Request tool displays.
4. Select Standard as the Non-Academic Course Type
   1. Enter a Course name and Short name.
   2. Select an Institution or Primary Account.
   3. Select a College or Secondary Account.
   4. If prompted, select Department or Tertiary Account
      1. Note: As the requester, you are automatically assigned the role of Teacher, to provide you with the best possible permission set while creating the course. If you are a Designer, add your Designer role now to the same row that lists you as a Teacher, and then remove your Teacher role from the people page after the course is created.
   5. Optional: Enroll another user in your site by entering their email address under Grant Role(s) to Additional Users and selecting + Add Email. Their email address will be added to the form. Select a role in the Role Options column. Repeat to add more users.
5. Select Make Request to generate the course. A site will be created immediately. A link to the course will appear at the top of the form along with confirmation of the users you enrolled.
6. Select the link to the newly created course. The home page of the new, empty course displays.

Importing Course Content

1. Select Settings from course navigation. A page of course configurations displays.
2. Select Import Course Content from the list of actions on the right. An Import Content page displays.
3. Select Canvas Course Export Package from the Select Content Type dropdown menu.
4. Drag and drop or browse your files to select the .imscc file you created in the "Export Course Content" section above.
5. Select Select specific content.
6. Select + Add to Import Queue. An entry displays as Waiting for selection in the Content imports table.
7. Select Select content. A window of options displays.
8. Select the checkbox by the content you wish to import and select Select Content.