[ARCHIVED] Blueprint courses

[lbarratt1]

We've been asked to turn on Blueprint courses.
While testing Blueprint courses on our Beta server we found that:

• Only Admins can create Blueprint courses
• If updates are made to a Blueprint course, only Admins can do the sync to push out the changes

I'm worried that turning this feature on will become fairly task intensive for the few Admins that manage our system.
Has anyone found that turning on Blueprint courses has created noticeable increase in workload to manage all the requests for Blueprint courses and, requests for syncing when updates are made?
If so, how did you manage all these requests?

Thanks so much.

[kblack]

Hi  @lbarratt1 ‌ -  

Allow me to make a correction to one of your assumptions.  While it is true that only administrators can create a Blueprint course (and the associated courses tied to it), it is not true that an administrator must sync it. You should assign an instructor to a Blueprint course, much like any other course site.  That instructor, in turn, can do all the syncing.  This is pointed out here:  How do I sync course content in a blueprint course as an instructor? 

Also, I wrote a blog post on some of my testing of Blueprint courses, which I invite you to check not so much for the content that I wrote, but for some of the comments below.  (Especially since--I must admit--the concept still has not gained a lot of traction at my own institution, despite many people saying "they want to chat with me about it"!)  You may be especially interested in  @dearne_willing 's wonderful flowchart and the document she created, Canvas_Blueprints.pdf - Google Drive .

And while I assume you have been looking around the Community a bit already, you should also be sure to check  @lstark ‌'s  and the InstructureCon 2017‌ video  .

[lbarratt1]

Thank you. The information I received during a Canvas chat misled me.

We will reconsider using Blueprints. Thank you.

[lbarratt1]

Hi Ken,

I really appreciate your Blog. A lot of great information to help us.

One quick question. Do you have a "default" setting for instructors requesting a Blueprint course? For example, do you turn on/check all 4 options leaving it up to the instructor which items will be locked?

Thanks for providing all this information.

Leona 🙂

[kblack]

Thanks for your nice comments, Leona.  I do not have a default setting.  In fact, I leave it up to the department (if it is for multiple instructors using the same course site).  Don't forgot, however, that choosing an option that can be locked is different from actually locking it by clicking that blueprint button within the blueprint course itself. 

Our faculty here are not of the "locking" frame of mind, preferring to let instructors kind of do their own thing and giving them the resources as opposed to dictating things.  Given that general philosophy, I guess to answer your question I lean to only doing "content" in General Locked Objects.

[lbarratt1]

This information has saved me a ton of time and is very helpful. Thank you Ken.

Somewhere I saw where somebody was going to post the diferences between using Commons for updating/share vs. Blueprints.

Does anyone know where that is?

I'd like to know how to direct faculty to the correct tool.

Thank you kindly.

Leona

[Stef_retired]

 @lbarratt1 ‌, is this the comparison chart to which you're referring? (It's in the comments section:  @victoria-maloy  created it.) Is there a Canvas Commons vs. Blueprint Course document/table? 

[dearne_willing]

Hi  @lbarratt1 

I've been using Canvas Blueprints successfully since August and I can say they are great!

I first read up all I could in the Canvas guides, found  @kblack 's blog extremely helpful, made a flowchart and a list of all that I needed to do Canvas Blueprint Flowchart. 

We have found that the locking feature is great for achieving statewide consistency with assessments at our RTO. Associating the course and then during the planning stage each team decides which items they would like locked or unlocked, to allow for teacher customisation as necessary.

I certainly feel planning and communication is the key to running successful Canvas Blueprints. Ensuring all parties are on the same track and understand all implications that we know of before setting them up.

The team decides who is added to the blueprint to sync changes as well as the elearn admin team.

I have demo blueprint courses I show to staff before they decide if blueprints is the way to go. Usually with a demo and when they see how easy it is to sync instead of importing changes they are hooked.

New Canvas Production Release Notes (2017-10-28) now include module changes are synced too make it even better.

There are a few features I would like e.g. the ability to select items from the blueprint to sync.

Regards

Dearne

[felipe_prieto]

Hi, Do you know how can we identify a "normal" course vs a blueprint one in Canvas Data? I ask this because:We've been told that one of the prerequisites to implement a blueprint course is that  the child course is located at the same subaccount level as the blueprint one.

Sorry, if this question does not belong here...

[Robbie_Grant]

 @lbarratt1 ,

We are giving the Canvas Admins area a little bit of love and just want to check in with you.  This will also bring this question new attention. 

Were you able to find an answer to your question? I am going to go ahead and mark this question as answered because there hasn't been any more activity in a while so I assume that you have the information that you need. If you still have a question about this or if you have information that you would like to share with the community, by all means, please do come back and leave a comment.  Also, if this question has been answered by one of the previous replies, please feel free to mark that answer as correct.

Robbie

[s_j_beale]

Hi all,

Thanks for these links. I just went throughLeslie Stark's BluePrint Tool Overview video and took some notes (with time stamps).

Any points I was unsure of have square brackets next to them.

Here you go:

https://community.canvaslms.com/videos/3073-blueprint-tool-overview

0:43 Root account admin - enable feature flag for blueprint courses

0:50 New permission - can only be given to root acc. Admin

1:05 best practice - set up Blueprint courses at the highest level of a sub-account

Set up at root account - can be synced to any sub-acc. Level courses

1:28 Naming conventions

Can align with college, level, etc. - consistency most important

1:45 Can course filter to show only blueprint courses

2:00 Any course shell without students enrolled can be used as a blueprint course

Can be used as PLC courses, master template courses or instructional design hub

2:10 Root acc. Admin only one allowed to enable a blueprint course

Can enrol a designer or teacher to add content

2:24 Blueprint enabling at the course settings for admin

2 options that lock all objects (content pages, files, quizzes, discussions, assignments)

These objects will have locked content for points, due dates and availablility dates

Can only decide on what can be locked - does not automatically lock them within a course

3:09 Click modules and will see Blueprint icons

Can click on the icons to lock them

Does not lock order of the content items in the module - instructors can still change this

3:33 LTIs, SCORM content, outcomes, rubrics and course navigation settings can all be set up in the master blueprint course and will sync with associated courses

But if updated after the first sync, they will not update in associated courses

Outcomes only associate to the course level reporting, not the sub-account or root account level EVEN IF initially imported from root account to blueprint course

4:03 To associate blueprint course with a course shell, click top-right

Click Associations

Search for courses (likely in sub-account)

Pulling this into child blueprint courses - nothing there at this point before associating

Unlimited number of courses for associations with a blueprint course

1 child course can only be associated with 1 blueprint course, not more

5:07 If 1 course associated with a blueprint course and "it" concludes [which one?!!], the concluded course will continue to update

SO best practice - disassociate concluded courses OR make a copy of blueprint courses for new terms

6:06 Look at blueprint courses as a student (masquerade)

6:33 Any locked content shows instructors that the content is locked

6:39 LTIs sync provided that they are accessible in sub- or root-account

Course-specific LTIs will not sync

6:45 Instructor can now edit some items, possibly change some dates if needed, and can add content

7:03  Any content instructors add will not be affected when master blueprint course syncs

7:15 Amending a locked assignment as an instructor

Can change: points, submission type, dates, amend description, etc.

8:00 Updating locked objects e.g. assignment, quiz, discussion, content page or file - can sync these items [individually??]

Open item page and hit sync in Blueprint sidebar

Instructors will receive notification of an update

Can view sync history in sidebar, too

8:45 view of updated assignment

8:50 IF a non-locked item has been edited by instructor and a blueprint course tries to update this item, it will NOT overwrite changes made by instructor

Admin can view sync history and it will show as an exception

9:20 Rationale for creating Blueprint courses

9:40 Course layout pre-set with common home pages, common buttons and images for links that are AD8 (??) compliant