Copying Course Components Between Courses
The Import/Export/Copy Components tool lets you copy course components (e.g., quizzes, content, grade items, discussion forums, and Dropbox folders) between course offerings. Copying components saves you from having to recreate your course’s resources from scratch and can significantly reduce the amount of work required to create or re-offer a course.
To copy components between course offerings, you must be enrolled in both offerings. (If you want to copy components from a peer’s course offering, ask that user to enroll you as an instructor).
The only components that can be overwritten are course files. A course file is overwritten only if the file being copied has the same exact name as an existing file. No other components are overwritten.
For instance, say you have three checklists in your current course offering and you decide to copy two checklists from another offering. You will now have a total of five checklists in the current offering. This is true even if the components are identical. If you are copying components from the same source multiple times, be careful not to copy the same items more than once or you will create duplicates.
User data is not copied. For example, if you copy the discussions component, only the forums and topics are copied, not the messages posted to topics. Similarly, if you copy Dropbox items, assignments submitted to Dropbox folders will not be copied; if you copy quizzes, user attempts are not be copied, etc.
If you are copying linked or associated components, you must copy all of the related components at the same time. For example, if a discussion topic has release conditions based on the results of a quiz, you must copy all three components (discussions, quizzes, and release conditions) at the same time. Similarly, if you have a quiz that is associated with a grade item, be sure to copy both the quiz and the grade item at the same time. As long as the associated components are copied together, links between them are retained.
Note: To copy release conditions you must select the Release Conditions component.
- Select Edit Course in your course navigation bar.Image
- Under the Site Sources section, select Import/Export/Copy Components.Image
Note: It is highly recommended that you "Copy All Components" and then delete any items you do not want. If you want to copy certain components, please see the Copy Selected Components section.
- Select Copy Components from Another Org Unit, and then click Search for Offering. Be sure to keep Include protected resources checked.Image
- In the pop-up window, search for the course you want to copy from. We recommend searching by course name and schedule number (e.g., ED P 400 8487). After entering something into the search bar, select the magnifying glass. Then, select the radio button to the left of the course offering code, and then click Add Selected in the lower left of the pop-up window.Image
- If you selected the wrong course, simply click the X to the right of the course name and click Search for offering again.Image
- Select Copy All Components, wait while the course copy processes. Note: selecting this option initiates the copy and cannot be canceled.Image
- When the copy process is finished, a green check mark will appear.Image
IMPORTANT NOTE: Using the Import/Export/Copy Components tool will not copy over your videos from the Course Gallery. Any pages in your course that have embedded videos from your Course Gallery or Media Library will not work after performing a course copy. You will need to re-embed videos as needed throughout your course. If you have a lot of video content in your course, we recommend you create playlists in your Course Gallery organized by week/module/unit and point your students to via media directly through the Course Gallery. Please see the Creating Playlists section for more information.
- If you do want to only copy certain components, after following steps 1 through 3 above, choose Select Components.Image
- Select the components you want to copy using the checkbox next to each component.
- Note: If you are copying Content you must also select Course Files.
- Note: If you are copying Quizzes that contain images you must also select Course Files.
- For each component, you can select whether you want to copy all items in that component or individual items.
- When you are finished selecting components, click Continue.Image
- The next screen will give you the opportunity to confirm your selections. For any components where you chose Select individual items to copy, you will see each item within that specific component. Select which specific items you wish to copy. Note: This page displays the file structure of your course. Items will be organized in “folders” which can be expanded by selecting the ‘+’ icon next to each “folder.”
- Once you are finished selecting specific items, select Continue.Image
- The Confirm Components to Copy page appears. This page lists all the components that are copied and the number of items selected for each component. You can change the items selected within a component by clicking Modify. This takes you to the Select Items page for that component. Select Finish to begin copying.Image
- The Copy Course Components History page is displayed, showing the copy progress. When a component has been successfully copied, a green check mark appears beside it. If any component fails to copy properly, a red X will appear beside it.Image
When copying individual components from a course offering, be sure to keep in mind the following considerations regarding specific components.
- Competencies: Only competencies and learning objectives can be copied, not activities.
- Content: Copying Content does not include Course Files or Content Display Settings; these must be selected as separate components. Be sure to copy all of the files used by the content topic or the topic will not display properly.
- Grades: Calculated grade items are not copied.
- Groups and Sections: Auto-enrollments are not run in the new course. You must enroll users yourself.
- Navigation Bars: Tool Display Names must also be copied if you modified the names of tools.
- Release Conditions: The only release conditions that are copied are ones that are attached to and reference other components that are copied at the same time. For instance, if a quiz has a release condition attached that refers to a content topic, it is only copied if both the quiz and the content topic are copied at the same time. Choosing Release Conditions without selecting any other component does nothing.
