Copying course components between org units

The Copy Components utility lets you copy quizzes, content, grade items, discussion forums, dropbox folders and nearly every other type of component from another course offering or a course offering’s parent template. 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 in both offerings. (If you want to copy components from a peer’s course offering, ask that user to enroll you). No special enrolment is required to copy components into a course offering from its parent template.

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.

Overwriting and duplicating content

The only component that might be overwritten is Course Files. A course file is overwritten if one of the files being copied has the same name as an existing file.

No other components are overwritten. Let’s say 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 messages posted to topics. Similarly, if you copy dropboxes, assignments submitted to dropbox folders 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.

Note To copy release conditions you must select the Release Conditions component.

Special considerations when copying course components

Copy components

1. Go to the Import/Export/Copy page for the course offering you want to copy components into, by doing one of the following:
   • Click the Edit Course link on your course navigation bar, then click Import/Export/Copy Components.
   • In the Course Administration widget on your course homepage, click Import/Export/Copy Component.
2. Make sure Copy Components from Another Org Unit is selected, and then click Next.
3. In the Current Course Components section at the top, you can click the View Details icon next to a component to see existing items.
4. In the Copy the selected course components from section, select the org unit you want to copy components from.
5. • Choose Existing Offering to copy components from another course offering you are enrolled in. You can select an offering from the list or click Search for offering to find the course offering using a pop-up search window.
   • Choose Parent Template of Current Offering to copy components from the course template the current course offering belongs to.
6. When you have selected the source course offering or template, the bottom section of the page expands to list the components available. Select the components you want to copy using the check box next to each component.
7. To copy only certain items from a component, choose Select individual items to copy. This allows you to select, individual quizzes, discussion forums, dropbox folders, etc.
8. When you are finished selecting components, click Next.
9. • If you chose “Select individual items to copy” for any component in the previous step, the Select Items page appears. Otherwise, the Confirm Components to Copy page appears. This page lists all of the items and any sub-items contained in the current component. (For example, on the Select Dropbox Items page, you will see all of the dropbox folders and categories.)
   • Select the individual items and sub-items you want to copy and click Next.
   • To view sub-items, click the + icon next to an item or click Expand All at the top of the list.

     Note Not all components have sub-items.

   • Repeat the previous step for any other components for which you chose “Select individual items to copy.” 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.
10. You can change the items selected within a component by clicking Modify. This takes you to the Select Items page for that component.
11. Click Next to begin copying.
12. • The Copy Summary 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.
13. When the process is finished, click Done.

See Also

• Editing course offering properties
• Setting up course tools
• Understanding Course Templates