Importing Course Content

These instructions are for copying content from a previous Caltech Canvas course into another course. (More detailed instructions are available in this document.)

Note: We highly recommend copying selected content (not the entire course).

For copying small amounts of information (a single module, for example) to another course of yours, simply click the three-dot menu on the right side of the module and click "Copy to...". To send the material to another Canvas user, select "Send to..." in the same menu.

For larger amounts of content, follow these directions:

STEP 1: Import content from another Canvas course into your course shell

1. Login to Canvas and navigate to the new course shell that you would like to edit. (Caltech course shells for upcoming courses may be found under Unpublished Courses on your Dashboard.)

2. Open Settings for the course in Canvas; you will find the link at the bottom of the left-side navigation menu.

3. Find and click the Import Course Content link (This link will be on the right side of the screen if your browser window is wide enough; otherwise, you will need to scroll down.)

4. In the Content Type drop-down menu, select Copy a Canvas Course.

5. In the Search for a course box, begin typing the name of your course and select the course you would like to copy from in the list that appears. (Older Canvas courses and migrated Moodle courses will be listed as completed courses so you should check the Include completed courses box.)

6. Next to Content, select what you would like to import. We recommend choosing the specific Pages, Modules, Announcements, and other Canvas objects that you want to use in your new course, and exclude any items you don't need, such as outdated Zoom Calendar events (which will otherwise populate the new course Calendar and student To Do lists).

a. Click the Select specific content radio button [2]. You will be required to select the content you want to import after you have reviewed the remaining page options.b. If you select All content instead, you will want to delete unneeded materials. Refer to this guide for instructions and guidance.

7. If you are copying content from a previous Canvas course, you can adjust the due dates associated with the course events and assignments. We recommend that you do NOT adjust dates from a migrated Moodle course, however, because Moodle does not have the same type of academic term information as Canvas.

To adjust due dates, select the Options box to reveal the calendar interface, then for Date adjustment, select Shift dates. You also have the option to Remove dates if you'd prefer to assign them manually.

Generally, you will only need to adjust the Beginning dates, and can leave the Ending dates blank. For Beginning date, enter the first day of the term for the original course, and the first day of the term for the new course. Previous academic term dates can be found on the Registrar website.

8. Click the Import button to begin the process and view the Current Jobs page, which displays the status of your import. If importing all content, a progress bar will indicate time remaining.

If you chose to select specific content in your course, the current job will show as Waiting for Selection, which means you must select the content you want to import.

The import may also display other status indicators as part of the import process. Learn more about course import statuses.

STEP 2: Verify the completed import in your Canvas course shell

1. When the import has finished, click on "Pages" in the left side course navigation menu.

2. At the top left side of the page, click the "View All Pages" button.

3. Review the list to verify that your content has been imported. If you chose not to reset your course, you may notice more than one version of the same type of page. To choose which one should be visible, click on the Publish button to the right of the item, and unpublish or delete the items you don't need.