What is the best way to set dates in a Master Course so when things get copied to new sections, it adjusts dates to the new term?

[scottdennis]

Bringing over an old question from the old forums,

"We use the master course model, and use the API to copy our courses for new sections. That way the master never gets mucked up if an instructor tinkers at the section level. Is there a way we can set the dates in the master course so that when sections are created, it generates the appropriate dates for the term?

Right now we are manually adjusting the dates in the master so it copies correctly. There must be a better way!"

[scottdennis · Accepted solution]

...And bringing over an answer recently provided by  @jared_flaherty ​,

"all of our terms are 8 weeks, so we make our masters' 8 weeks... we have 8 modules unlocking every sunday at midnight in the masters, these dates are in the past, but spaced/timed properly in our course masters.        we setup the content migration API to shift dates forward to the "real term" it's being taught in....  since we use our course masters for all modalities, we only shift dates for online courses, we 'remove dates' for our f2f/blended courses.     works so far (we are still in beta)...   as long as your course master dates are set up with the same spacing as your dates in your courses api, your content migration api should dump everything in there all nice and proper."

Thanks, Jared!

[Chris_Hofer]

We have a "Master Term" as well where we house a "master" of all online/blended courses we build for our instructors.  However, we do not use start/end dates on our "Master Term" courses.  What we do is have one (maybe two) people for each course who is the person responsible for keeping the course curriculum up-to-date.  Those people are assigned the "Teacher" role.  Then, we created a custom role called "Viewer" which allows a user to view a "Master Term" course but not make any edits to it.  Any number of people can be a "Viewer" in a "Master Term" course, and those people are usually in the same program/field as the "Teacher".  We do this so that our faculty and adjuncts can collaborate and brainstorm on what is and what is not working for a given course.  Both "Teacher" and "Viewer" roles are then able to import content into their own sections for the Fall, Spring, or Summer semesters.  They are responsible for setting their own start/end dates based on the official start/end dates in our Banner SIS.

[kmeeusen]

When we first moved to Canvas, I let Canvas adjust due dates when I performed a course copy, but I was always having to spend time cleaning it up and invariable missed something prompting my students to ask if I expected them to use a time machine! I now set the course copy process to remove all due dates, then just add the correct dates into the new section shell.

Because of the way Canvas is set up, this is tedious, and I like the suggestion  @scottdennis ​ brought over of using masters more like a template, and matching the numbers of modules to the weeks of the terms. However, we have too much variance at our school in both term lengths, and instructional unit (modules) structure - not everybody uses the weekly module model.

So, tedious or not, this is the best way I have found for my own workflow to make sure that the due dates for the new term are correct.

[becky]

Hi,

I posted this answer in another thread but thought it might help someone who found this one first. Here it is again:

I successfully copied a course (which I will call Master) from the Fall of 2015 to Spring 2016 using the following steps.

1. Verify course start and end dates as well as assignment due dates in course master. I run a commercial training company so my courses are only 4 weeks long. In my example,
   1. Note start date is Mon, Aug 10, 2015 at 12:01 am
   2. Note end date of Saturday, Oct 3, 2015 at 11:59 pm
2. In Master course, go to Settings and choose “Copy this Course”
3. Enter details for new course
   1. Change name and course code fields
   2. Set course start and end dates ensuring the days of the week, time stamps, and course length are identical
      1. Start date Monday, Feb 1, 2016 at 12:01 am
      2. End date Saturday, March 26, 2016 at 11:59 pm
4. Check box for adjust events and due dates
5. Verify the auto-populated beginning and ending dates and times are as listed in step 3b
6. Click Create Course button
7. On the next screen, course copy is listed under Current Jobs as pre-processing but the job never completes
8. On the same screen, above the list of current jobs, choose Copy a Canvas Course from Content Type
9. Choose Master course from Search for a course drop-down list
10. Select All Content
11. Check box for Adjust events and due dates (again)
12. Verify (again) that beginning and ending dates and times are as listed in step 3b
13. Click Import

 

Course copy completes with deadlines adjusted as expected.

Following are a couple of notes:

     I have previously tried this without specifying an end date. That has always failed to properly adjust deadlines. I think the end date is essential.

     My new course did not copy in a concluded state.

[Stef_retired]

For anyone interested in this topic, be sure to RSVP to the CanvasLIVE event Adjust all assignment due dates on one page, which is coming up this Friday, January 13, 2017. RSVP “yes” if you will be there--and if you’re interested, but your schedule doesn’t allow you to attend in real time, RSVP "no" or "maybe" to receive all event updates. Your RSVP ensures that you will receive a notification should the event be cancelled or changed.