Reusing Your Course in Canvas
The great thing about spending time to set up your course in Canvas is that you can reuse the materials when you teach the class again by copying the content from the previous course and then updating it.
Copy Content and Adjust All Due Dates
Access the Canvas course for the upcoming semester
Click on the course Settings from the bottom of the left-hand navigation
Click Import Course Content button
On the Content Type drop-down menu, click Copy a Canvas Course
Select the name of the course you want to copy from (or type the name of the course in the search bar)
Prior to Spring 2020, the naming convention of courses from Banner was two-character term plus two-digit year, then a space, then the abbreviated department name, dash, course number, dash, section number, i.e. Fa18 ENGL-2060-001. Starting in Spring 2020, the naming convention of courses from Banner is full term name, then a space, then the year then the abbreviated department name, dash, course number, dash, section number, i.e. Fall 2020 ENGL-2060-001. If you start typing in the name, Canvas will populate options from the search results and you can click on the correct section.
Choose whether you would like to copy All content or Select specific content
If you used a lot of announcements that will not be relevant for the upcoming semester, we recommend that you select specific content and don't copy the announcements. You will pick which content will be copied in a later step.
Click the checkbox to Adjust events and due dates
Using this option will get your due dates close to the correct due dates, but you will likely need to make some adjustments later. Canvas should auto-populate the beginning and ending date of each course, but there may be circumstances where you want to make an adjustment to these dates or need to enter them manually. The start (A1) and end (A2) dates of the class you are copying from go on the left and the start (B1) and end (B2) dates of the upcoming course are on the right.
Optional: Designate substitution days
If you had most of your due dates on Thursday the last time you taught the class and you want those dates to shift to Saturday, you can use the Substitution option. Click on the + Substitution button, then choose which day of the week the assignments were due on the left and the day of the week you would like them due on the right. You can add additional substitution days, if desired.
Click Import
If you chose Select specific content above, you will now click the Select Content button
Check the boxes to designate which content you would like copied. Click the arrows to see more details of a specific content type. Click Select Content to start the import.
When the content has finished importing, the progress bar will show Completed
Adjust Specific Due Dates
After the content has been imported, make additional adjustments to specific assignment dates. The easy way to do this (if you don't have availability and locked after dates) is on the calendar.
Go to the calendar tool
Check the guide to make sure you can see the course for which you want to adjust dates
Click and drag assignments to change the due date
Adjust Dates with Availability and Lock Settings
If there are availability and lock dates, making adjustments can be a bit more complicated. We have a tool for that!
Go to the course Settings
Click on the Navigation tab
Click and drag Multi Tool from the section of hidden items to the top
Click Save
Click on the Multi Tool link on the left-hand navigation
Click on Due Date Modifier (authorize Cidi Labs Tools, if prompted)
In the Assignment Data section you can made updates to individual assignments by entering the new date and time and clicking on the Update button
You can also change multiple dates at once by selecting the new dates that you want (you'll see the original date below the new date), then click on the Update All button
To change multiple assignments and types of dates at once, check the boxes next to the files you want to change
(You can use the Assignment Type buttons—Assignments, Discussions, Quizzes, Pages—at the top of the list to filter to just those assignment types.)
Navigate to the Bulk Updates section
Select (A) the types of dates and number of days you would like to adjust, then click on the Adjust Dates button, then (B) click the Update Canvas button
Video
This video shows how to execute the steps listed above on how to adjust dates with availability and lock settings.
Update Modules List on Homepage
If you have a course homepage that displays a list of modules and you want to make it so the current module will highlight throughout the semester, use the steps below.
Go to the course homepage
Click Edit
Launch the Design Tools
Click on Add Advanced Elements, then Module List
Click the Show Dates button
(If there are already dates showing, click on the Clear button)
Enter the desired start and end date for the first module by clicking in each field and selecting the appropriate date from the calendar
The rest of the dates will be auto-generated. The tool is designed to follow the pattern that is set on the first module through the end of the module list, as calculated by the number of days for the first module. The most likely scenario is to have a module that lasts for a week. So, on the first module you would set the start date for the first day of the semester (usually a Monday) and go through the end of the seventh day (the following Sunday).
In the Spring semester, it is a good idea to add an extra module for Spring Break that is placed in the appropriate position to show the break in coursework and have the dates automatically generated correctly, but you can also change dates of each module, if desired.
Optional: Make any required adjustments to the dates by manually editing to the desired dates
Optional: In the Browser Only Features section of the Module List tool, click on Current next to the Include Quick Links option to have the module contents displayed on the homepage
Current Quick Links Option
Module Contents on Homepage
Click Save or Save & Publish
Video
This video shows how to execute the steps listed above on how to update the module list on the homepage.
Run Link Validator
The last thing to do is run the link validator to make sure that all of your content is still available for your students.
Click on Settings at the bottom of the left-hand navigation
Click Validate Links in Content
Click Start Link Validation button
Wait for the content in your course to be checked
You will see a list of unavailable external links, unpublished content, and links to other courses
Links to the content where the broken links are found and the title and link of the broken links are provided for easy access to make updates. If you are using USU templates, the external course links in that content link to courses that are available to anyone with the link.
For more details about this tool see Canvas Guide: How do I validate links in a course?