Desire2Learn 8.3
Copying Components of a Course
There may be components of a course (e.g., a survey) that you use in virtually the same form each time you teach it. Or, perhaps there is a component that you use in many of your courses. Rather than create these components for each class or each time you teach the same course, D2L gives you the capability of copying components from one course to another. Be sure to read the Important Considerations before proceeding.
Important Considerations
Copying components is not a completely clean operation. Some adjustments will be necessary after you have copied the desired component(s). Discussed here are the items that will need your attention before the copied component is ready for use in your course. For a more detailed checklist, refer to Updating Courses after Copying Components.
Content Availability
If you have restricted the availability dates on any of the following, those dates will need to be updated: quizzes, dropbox folders, discussion forms and topics, grades, content items, and news items.
Course Calendar
Course Calendar events are copied from one course to another if Schedule is selected when defining components that should be copied. The event dates will need to be changed once imported into the new course. Another option to add calendar events to a course is to use the file import option. Calendar information can be stored and updated in Excel, the file converted to a .csv file and imported. It is always important to review the dates of all items to make sure that they reflect the semester in which the course is being taught.
Grades
Grade schemes do not copy. If you copy your grades structure, you will need to define the grading system and the default grade scheme for the new course.
QuickLinks
QuickLinks do not update; they continue to reference the course they were copied from. Therefore, documents that contain QuickLinks (e.g., to a discussion) will need to have the QuickLink recreated.
Target Links
HTML documents which contain navigational links to sections within the same document or other course documents (target links) continue to reference documents in the course they were copied from. Therefore, HTML documents that contain target links will need to have the links updated. This can be done in one of two ways: You can manually edit the HTML code, or, rather than copying the document, you can download it from the course where it resides and upload it to your new course (Create Topic » Upload New File).
Copying All Components
Even though some adjustments will be necessary, copying components from an existing or previous course can save you the time of recreating frequently used course components.
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Access the course that you want to copy the component to
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On the Navigation bar, click EDIT COURSE
The Course Admin Tools pane appears. -
From the Tools list, click IMPORT/EXPORT/COPY COMPONENTS
The Import/Export/Copy Components pane appears.
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Select Copy Components from another Org Unit
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Click NEXT
The Copy Course Components pane appears. -
In the Copy the selected course components from section, from the Existing Offering pull-down menu, select the course containing the components you want to copy
The pane refreshes displaying components available for copying.
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To copy all components, in the Choose Components to Copy section, select Select All Components
NOTE: An item is selected if a check mark appears before it.
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Click NEXT
The Select Course Material pane appears.
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To confirm the components, click NEXT
The Copy Course Components pane appears.
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Click DONE
The desired components were successfully copied.
Copying Individual Components
Instead of copying all components from an existing course, you can select individual components to copy.
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Access the course that you want to copy the component to
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On the Navigation bar, click EDIT COURSE
The Course Admin Tools pane appears. -
From the Tools list, click IMPORT/EXPORT/COPY COMPONENTS
The Import/Export/Copy Components pane appears. -
Select Copy Components from another Org Unit
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Click NEXT
The Copy Course Components pane appears. -
In the Copy the selected course components from section, from the Existing Offering pull-down menu, select the course containing the components you want to copy
The pane refreshes displaying components available for copying. -
To copy selected components, in the Choose Components to Copy section, select the desired components
NOTE: An item is selected if a check mark appears before it.
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Click NEXT
The Select Course Material pane appears.
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To confirm the components, click NEXT
The Copy Course Components pane appears.
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Click DONE
The desired components were successfully copied.
As a final consideration, please refer to Updating Courses after Copying Components to review all the necessary steps to ensure that your new course information is accurate.
