CanvExporter
Get your Canvas course content out of Canvas and into files you can actually open, read, and print. No importing back into an LMS, no wrangling XML.
Built by a Canvas administrator after the May 2026 Instructure breach, when a lot of us learned the hard way that a course export hands you an .imscc file you can't read without Canvas. There are two versions. Pick the one that fits you.
I teach. I want my own course content. Beta
A button you drag to your bookmarks bar. No install, no account, no access token. Click it inside any Canvas course and it saves your course as readable Word documents and spreadsheets.
I'm an admin. I want the full tool.
A Python tool that runs with a Canvas API token and pulls complete course content, including uploaded files, into an organized folder. Built for records requests, departmental work, and jobs at scale.
What's the difference?
| Feature | Teacher version | Admin version |
|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | Any teacher, in their own course | An admin with an API token |
| Install | Drag a button to your bookmarks bar | Python and a few libraries |
| Access token | Not needed | Needed |
| What it pulls | Content you authored: pages, assignments, quizzes, discussions, rubrics | Everything, including uploaded files |
| Output | .docx and .csv in one .zip | .docx and .csv, organized folders |
| Status | Beta | Released |
Both do the same core job: turn Canvas course content into readable documents. The teacher version trades completeness for zero-friction access. The admin version trades convenience for a token and pulls the whole course.
Page look out of date? GitHub can keep showing an older copy for a few minutes after an update. Hard-refresh with Ctrl + Shift + R, or Cmd + Shift + R on a Mac.
License: Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 (CC BY-NC 4.0). Free to use. Credit required. Not for commercial use without permission. Full license.