Copying Course Content from Another Course
A new empty course site is created each time a course is offered. Copying content from an earlier course saves time and makes it easier to reuse materials. You can copy the entire course or choose specific content only.
In most cases, copied content appears in the new course almost immediately, although it can sometimes take a few hours.
If all content is copied, announcements are included as well. They will appear in the new course and can be updated or scheduled again. If you do not want to copy announcements, choose Select specific content and leave Announcements unchecked. You can also copy only selected announcements.
Importing All Course Content or Selected Content
Importing content – done in the course that will receive the content
Path: Home – Import Existing Content
This method can be used to import all course content or only part of it. By selecting Select specific content, you can choose exactly what to import and leave out other items, such as announcements.
- Open the course that will receive the content (the new course).
- Click Import Existing Content on the right side of the course home page.
- Under Content Type, select Copy a Canvas Course.
- Select the course that contains the content (the older course) in the Search for a course field.
- You can then choose between two options: import all content at once or select specific content.
By selecting Select specific content, the teacher can choose exactly which content should be transferred to the new course. For example, content can be imported in stages, which may be useful in content-heavy courses or when some clean-up is needed.
You can also let Canvas automatically adjust events and due dates. - Click Add to Import Queue.
- If Select specific content was chosen, the next step is to click Select Content. You may need to wait a moment for the button to appear, especially if the course contains a large amount of content.
- Next, select the content to be transferred to the new course. Note that you can click the arrows in the window to expand sections and choose individual files, assignments, and other items.
- Finally, click Import at the bottom of the window.
Canvas shows the statuses Queued, Running, and Completed during the import process. Imported content is added to the course and does not overwrite existing content.
The process can be repeated as often as needed, but it may take some time for the content to transfer. Do not repeat the process if the status shows Queued, as this means the import is still in progress. Repeating the process may duplicate all content, and the action cannot be undone.
If all content was selected, a confirmation with a green Completed status appears after the import finishes. The content should then appear in the appropriate areas of the course site, for example assignments under Assignments, files under Files, and so on.
Note: When all course content is imported, announcements previously sent by the teacher in the course are included as well.
Copying Individual Items
Exporting/copying – done in the course that contains the content
Path: Three-dot menu – Copy To
In this case, start by opening the course that contains the content you want to transfer or copy.
- Click the options menu (the three-dot menu) for the item you want to transfer, and then click Copy To. For example, you can copy individual files from the course files area, single assignments, pages, or modules/weeks together with their content.
- Select the course that will receive the content. Entering part of the course name is enough to find it.
- Click Copy. The content will be placed in its default location in the new course, for example pages in Pages, files in Files, and so on. You can also choose in which module of the other course the item should appear and where it should be placed in the order of items already there.
