The copy components utility lets you copy quizzes, content, grade items, discussion forums, assignment submission folders, and nearly every other type of component from another course shell. 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.
You can use the copy components feature to:
- Reuse components created in a previous course offering.
- Add components created by your peers into your own course offering.
Set up standard components inside a course template and copy them into a new course offering each time a course is re-offered.
To copy components between course offerings, you must be enrolled as an instructor in both offerings. (If you want to copy components from a peer’s course offering, ask that user to enroll you as an instructor or provide you with a Brightspace package).
You can also copy components into a course template and you can create standard components within a template and then copy them into the template’s associated course offerings.
There are two ways to access the Import/Export/Copy Components Tool. This webpage will walk you through the steps for importing course content from the Content Tool. You can also access this tool by clicking on Faculty Tools choosing Course Admin and then opening the Import/Export/Copy Components tool.
- Click on the course shell that you want your course content copied into.
- Click Content on the course navigation bar
- If you are not directed there automatically, click Table of Contents.
- Click the grey Import Course button and choose Copy Existing Course from the dropdown menu.
- Copy Components from another Org Unit will be selected by default.
- Click the grey Search for Offering button.
- Enter the name of the course you want to copy from into the search box.
- Click the Search button.
- Click the checkbox next to the course you would like to copy materials from.
- Click the blue Add Selected button.
- To copy the entire course, click Copy All Components and go to step 16.
- To copy only some components of the course, click Select Components.
- To copy the entire course, click Copy All Components and go to step 16.
- Check the box next to any content you want to copy. You can choose to copy all items in a category or select individual items to copy.
- When you have selected all the components you want to copy, click the blue Continue button.
- If you have selected individual items to copy, you will be taken to another screen. From this screen, you will need to confirm which individual items you would like to copy.
- Once you have finished selecting the components you would like to copy, you will be taken to a confirmation screen where you can review the components you have selected. Click Modify to return to the previous screen and make any changes.
- Click Finish to import the selected components.
- You will be taken to the Copy Course Components History page. You may need to wait for your imported materials to copy over.
- Once everything is copied, you will see a green check mark on the right side of the page.
- Once your course has been successfully copied, navigate to the appropriate tools to make sure you are seeing everything you expected to see.
Overwriting and duplicating content
The only components you might overwrite are course files. Course files are overwritten if one of the files being copied has the same name as an existing file. No other components are overwritten.
For example, if you have three checklists in your current course offering, and 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 and importing course components
User data is not copied. For example, if you copy the discussions component, only the forums and topics are copied, not the threads inside the topics. Similarly, if you copy Assignment Submission folders, user submissions are not be copied; if you copy quizzes, user attempts are not be copied, etc.
Links and associations between components
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.
We recommend that you Copy All Components between courses to ensure you maintain all desired associations and then delete any undesired material in the new course.
Best Practices
If you are copying components into a course that is active, you will want to make sure you hide any modules or pages you do not want learners to have immediate access to.
You may also want to expire any announcements you are importing to avoid learners being overwhelmed by too many notifications.
Any dates attached to assignments, quizzes, events, and release conditions will not automatically update to reflect the dates of your new semester. You will want to either remove these dates or update them through the Manage Dates tool before making the material available to learners. You can do this in the new course shell before publishing the content or activating the course