We all know that a well organized course benefits students, and it’s also true that intentional course design makes it easier to roll over an existing course into future course shells. You are likely already aware that Canvas allows you to copy your course content into a new course shell. This means you can duplicate your course content and assignments, leaving student data behind. However, depending on the content you have in your course, the process of duplicating your course is not always a simple one. Fortunately, there are choices you can make when setting up your course that will minimize the amount of time you need to spend “cleaning up” your course later on.
One way to lessen the burden of rolling over an existing course is to keep a log of everything that must be changed before the course is ready to publish. This log is sometimes called the course rollover notes. If you regularly use Google Docs or other interactive tools in your course, Canvas will copy existing links when you elect to copy the course. The copied links will include previous student work that must be deleted. However, it can be hard to remember everything that needs to be cleaned out before the course is ready for a fresh semester if you don’t keep a log. Any time you use a tool outside of Canvas, put your students into groups, release answer keys, or ask for your students to contribute to the design of the course, you are adding time to the rollover process. Keeping a log of necessary changes will help minimize the amount of time you spend maintaining your course.
Examples of what you would log are: remake Google Docs; clean up Jamboards with student work; document Harmonize discussion prompts (LTIs will not rollover); copy and paste announcements and schedule next semester announcements. The rollover notes do not need to be very involved. See below for a sample of what these notes might look like.
- Change the date in the course overview page of the “Get Started Module”
- Update the sign up document for “Discussion Leader” in the Week 1 Module and delete student names from last semester.
- Create new discussion groups in Canvas Groups.
- Delete answer keys from each assessment module.
- Change the journal prompt from Module 2 to reflect current news.
Your rollover notes might also include a calendar noting when modules should be published. Think of the rollover notes as the project management guide to a well-organized course. While you can keep track of your rollover notes in any way that makes sense for you, one of the best methods for storing this documentation is as a page in your Canvas course. This way, all of the information needed to manage a successful rollover is at your fingertips. Just make sure these notes are hidden from students.
Another way you can build a course that is easily duplicated is to distinguish between timely and timeless course content. The timeless components of the course will withstand the test of time, such as videos about theories or concepts that will not change. On the other hand, timely course material contains information that may change or that will not be relevant to future students, such as a news article covering a current event or a video recording where you greet students by saying you hope they had a relaxing summer. To save time removing irrelevant content, note all timely content in your course rollover notes or save timely course content for live in-class sessions so there will be fewer instances of needing to delete outdated content from semester to semester.
Distinguishing between timeless and timely course content can also help you focus your energy when creating course materials. While it is worth your time to create timeless instructional videos about discipline specific theories or course concepts, videos that include contextual examples will need to be switched out for future semesters once the examples are no longer relevant. When selecting timely course material, consider using pre-made videos or text-based material as both of these modalities can be easily replaced as needed.
Once you have your course rollover notes ready to go, you can copy your existing Canvas course over to your new course shell. Never delete information from the existing course as you will always want to preserve a full record of the completed course. First copy, then clean. Now that you have made a copy, you can follow your notes to more efficiently clean out and set up your new course. If you would like to discuss how best to copy a course or export course content, please feel free to reach out to the Learning and Teaching Consultants! We will be happy to assist you.
Tips and Tricks for Additional Course Types:
If you are teaching a blended course (meaning the course has a blend of synchronous, asynchronous, and/or in-person components), you'll need to have a way to track both the asynchronous and synchronous sessions of the course. One cohesive way to do this is to house synchronous lesson plans in your LMS in the location they would appear if your entire class was online. You can keep any synchronous content/activities hidden from students, but you will have an entire course planned and ready to go if you ever need to change the course format at a later time.
If you are teaching a course that will be shared with multiple instructors, you will need to create facilitator instructions so that your co-instructors know what to do and when. Consider adding a page in Canvas that details the course plan, including which course components are to be completed in class or outside of class. Again, this page can be hidden from students, but housing the course plan within the LMS makes it easier for instructors to reference. Another option would be to add a page to each module that includes facilitation instructions and the course log notes.
