Copying Course Materials

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Course documents, syllabus, assignments, discussion forums, groups, grade book items, etc. can be copied from one course to another. We can do that for you, or you can do it yourself. If you choose to copy the materials yourself, the materials will be copied but not individual student scores, discussion postings, etc. Also, when copying course materials, one of the options is whether or not to copy settings. The "settings" include the menu options (buttons/links and colors) and the course banner, if any. If you choose to copy course settings, you may end up with duplicates of what was in the menu already and what you copy into it. That is, you may have 2 menu items that say "Course Documents." This will require some cleanup. See the paragraph near the bottom of this document for more information.

If you want us to copy course materials, please let us know the course ID of the source (old) and destination (new) courses, and whether we should copy the course settings. To find the course ID (you'll need this whether you're copying materials or we are), go to the Control Panel of the each course. The course ID appears in the box above all the options, and precedes the course name. For new courses, the course ID includes the primary CRN, such as "BA507_33064_F06".

If you want to copy the course materials yourself, first make sure you have the course ID for the new course. Then

1. Go to the Control Panel of the source (old) course, and in the lower left, click on Course Copy,
2. Click on Copy Course Materials into an Existing Course
3. Either enter the course ID (not the name, just the ID, such as BA507_33064_F06) or click on the Browse button and search for the course by instructor name, etc.
4. Select what materials you want to copy. Many instructors choose to include the following. Your preference may differ.
   • Content (including such things as Course Information or Syllabus, Course Documents, Assignments, etc.)
   • Adaptive Release rules
   • Announcements
     
   • Discussion Board
     
   • Glossary
     
   • Gradebook Items and Settings
     
   • Settings (course menu, colors, banner)
     
   • Staff Information
     
   • Tests, Surveys, and Pools
     

Don't copy Enrollments in part 3. This would copy the student names from one course to the next, but it will cause problems with our enrollment process from Banner.

5. Then click on Submit. The course copy should take less than 10 minutes; the system will send you an e-mail when it's done.

As mentioned earlier, copying the settings may produce duplicate menu items. These can be cleaned up manually by first making sure you know which menu items have content and which don't (click on each one in turn). Then go to the Control Panel and look for Manage Course Menu. Within that section, remove the menu items that have nothing in them. (You'll get a warning about deleting the content in that area, but that's OK -- you already made sure they were empty, right?) When you go back to the course, be sure to click on the Refresh button on the left to see the changes to the menu.

As always, if you have questions or concerns, contact our Blackboard support company at 866-517-3593 (available 24/7) or visit them online at http://d2.parature.com/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=4330. You may also wish to consult the Course Copy section in the online instructor manual.

updated 9/12/07