In this article

• Why declutter?
• Step 1: Take stock
• Step 2: Take out the clutter
• Step 3: Secure everything you want to keep
• Step 4: Make for a “less messy” move to Canvas
• Conclusion

Why declutter?

It’s likely that you’ve experienced a relocation in the past. Did you declutter your living space before moving? Did you clear out the back of that closet or that overstuffed kitchen drawer? Did you reorganize so that unpacking would be easier? You can experience analogous benefits in decluttering your course, especially if you plan to import parts (or even your entire) Moodle course into a Canvas space. Decluttering will involve:

1. Taking stock of your Moodle course to identify items that would benefit from decluttering
2. Getting rid of things that you don’t want to bring with you to Canvas
3. Reorganizing some content to ensure that it is not lost and that it comes over in as useful a state as possible.

Note: In Canvas, you can do a whole course import from Moodle or start with a fresh blank shell in Canvas and import elements of your Moodle course. Decluttering Moodle will benefit both approaches, and these steps guide you through the actions needed for either a whole-course import or a selective course import. No need to bring unused items or outdated materials with you!

Step 1: Take stock

We’ve created a checklist to help you audit what is in your course and prepare for decluttering. Use the instructions under the “My course audit” to get started taking stock and identifying items that would benefit from decluttering. One thing to note is that very large courses (>2 GB) will need to be downsized to import any of their content.

Step 2: Remove unwanted items

Think of it as spring cleaning, pruning or tidying up your course. The goal is to clear out unused, outdated, and unwanted items. This step will also help streamline your Moodle course for the last semester(s) you use it! Things to remove:

• Old, outdated or unused course materials and resources
• Old or unused Quiz activities
• Items from the course’s Question Banks that you don’t intend to use in a future Quiz
• Old or unused Assignments

You’ll find tasks related to deleting items in the second table on the decluttering checklist, organized by type of Moodle content. Use the columns in the table to find recommended tasks for each type of approach to moving your course to Canvas, and find important notes and resources in the far right column.

Step 3: Secure everything you want to keep

Not all Moodle activities or resources can be imported into Canvas. Certain Moodle activities and resources lose description fields, rubrics, attachments or other content during the import to Canvas. Our decluttering checklist guides you through steps to make sure you don’t lose critical course content.

These activity and resource elements are lost when importing Moodle content into a Canvas course.

• Descriptions of Moodle Quizzes, Files, Folders, Pages, and URLs.
• Moodle Assignment instructions
• Content you deliver in Blocks
• Rubrics you’ve saved in Moodle
• Attachments to Essay questions in Quizzes

Step 4: Make for a “less messy” move to Canvas

Canvas organizes content differently than Moodle. The way some Moodle items import into Canvas is likely less than ideal due to differences in organizational structure. Doing a bit of organizing before importing will ensure your imported items are in the best possible shape.

Use our decluttering checklist to help you:

• Refine your section titles and descriptions to maximize usability
• Organize your Question Banks
• Consolidate content in Section descriptions and Text and Media Areas into logical, usable Moodle Pages. The consolidation will prevent a Canvas course from having an overwhelming number of short pages.
• Remove any subsections in Moodle and organize your content into top-level sections instead.
• Move any media files larger than 500 MB to Panopto instead of storing them in your Moodle space.
• Ensure everything you import is accessible.

Conclusion

Moving your course into a new digital home is the perfect opportunity to leave behind what no longer serves you. By investing time in taking stock and clean out now, you’re ensuring that your Canvas course starts as a clean, functional workspace rather than a cluttered digital attic. And, a little intentional organization today means less work to get your Canvas course ready to teach in the future.