D2L Brightspace: Copy all materials between courses

Article Type: How To

Question:

• How can I quickly copy all of the course materials from one of my courses into another one of my courses? 

Step by Step Instructions:

1. Go to the course you want to copy from, and select Course Admin in the navbar. 
2. Select the Course Offering Information link. 
3. Under the Course Offering Code, copy (highlight the number and on PC press Ctrl + C; on a Mac Command + C) the numbers of the code, such as 20221000120S. 
4. Go to your current course you want to copy course materials into (the destination course) and select Course Admin in the navbar. 
5. Select the Import/Export/Copy Components link. 
6. Choose the Copy Components option and select the Search for Offering button. 
7. In the pop-up window, paste (on the PC, Ctrl + V; on Mac, Command + V) the course offering path in the Search For field, then select the Search icon.
8. When the course appears, activate the radio button next to the course and select Add Selected. Note: The pop-up window will close. 
9. Select the Copy All Components button. 
10. After the copy has finished processing, the course materials will be available in your current course.

Date Changes with a Course Copy

Instructions how to copy your course AND leave pieces behind AND slide the dates of your course to line up with the next semester

1. Go to the course you want to copy from, and select Course Admin in the navbar. 
2. Select the Course Offering Information link. 
3. Under the Course Offering Code, copy (highlight the number and on PC press Ctrl + C; on a Mac Command + C) the numbers of the code, such as 20221000120. 
4. Go to your current course you want to copy course materials into (the destination course) and select Course Admin in the navbar. 
5. Select the Import/Export/Copy Components link. 
6. Choose the Copy Components option and select the Search for Offering button. 
7. In the pop-up window, paste (on the PC, Ctrl + V; on Mac, Command + V) the course offering path in the Search For field, then select the Search icon.
8. When the course appears, activate the radio button next to the course and select Add Selected. Note: The pop-up window will close. 
9. Select “Select Components” button at the bottom of the screen
10. You can select which components you wish to transfer.
    1. You can Select All Components using the top check box and then go down the list removing those items you do not wish to transfer
    2. For example, some faculty do not wish their announcements to transfer semester to semester. In this case, select all and then remove the checkbox in front of Announcements.
11. Select Continue when you are ready to advance
12. On the confirmation page that appears, scroll down, at the bottom of the page you can offset your course tool dates

Example of a very common scenario

In a very normal example, I’ll demonstrate the use of Off Set Dates to show a move from a Fall Semester to Spring Semester.

Fall 2022 started on 8/20/2022 at 12:00 AM

Spring 2023 starts on 1/9/2023 at 12:00 AM

1. Utilizing Off Set Dates, select the “Offset all dates of copied components” checkbox.
2. Select the Calculate range between two dates

3. Enter the dates to offset From should be the first day of the previous semester and To should reflect the first day of the new semester.

In this example, D2L is prepared to then offset the dates on all activities by 142 days. Week 1 – Week 15 will simply shift dates based on adding 142 days to their current start/end dates.

4. Select Finish when done.

Some clean up may be needed

We know the weeks don’t exactly work out from Fall to Spring. Fall has a couple days that are different, Labor Day and Thanksgiving. Spring dates are Martin Luther King Jr Day and the famed Spring Break where Minnesotans are shoveling out of a blizzard wishing they had flown to Cancun. These issues give rise to the need to further tweak the dates. This is where Manage Dates comes in. Utilize Manage Dates to then further off set dates.

Going back to the example of Fall 22 to Spring 23. Having offset dates, one can then go into Manage Dates, find the dates that land on the week of Spring Break and advance them, and those items that follow, another 7 days. This will offset the course weeks and the results should leave you very close to where you need to be in your course. You may still have to modify some individual items but you should not have to touch every item.

Resources

• Watch D2L's self-help video on a course copy

• We do have a D2L Brightspace: Manage Dates knowledge base article if you are looking for more information on the Manage Dates tool that is found in Course Admin of your course. Or, feel free to watch the video below to see an example of Manage Dates using Off Set Dates.

Summary

Faculty have the ability to copy their materials from one course within D2L Brightspace to another. The easiest means of doing this is using the Import / Export / Copy Components tool within D2L.

Academic Technology Services can also assist with Course Copy Request Service.