[ARCHIVED] Copying Module Not Working

[badams5]

Hello ,

Though the command to copy a module to another course has worked previously, it seems to have stopped. The command to copy is there, it says it is starting the copying, but the module never shows up in my other course.

Is this a more widespread problem than with just me?

Thanks.

[James · Accepted solution]

@badams5 

It's been six weeks since I had to copy any modules, but I'll relay some of my experiences from then in the hopes that it helps.

There have been a few times that I was sure that I copied a module but then it never showed up in the destination course.

What was happening was that I was starting to type in our SIS code for the course. It was unique and there is only one match for it, but I found out that if I don't select the name of the course from the autocomplete list, it doesn't work.

This will not work: 

This will work:

Another issue I think I've had is if I try to copy multiple times (this was with a module item rather than a whole module, but I wanted to copy the resource to multiple courses), I had trouble getting it to work if I didn't refresh the page between copy attempts. That might also apply to copying multiple modules on the same page, I'm not sure. At least it got to the point where I just automatically reload the page before I try a second copy.

Finally, the lesson in the Canvas Instructor Guide on copying a module says that you must have the ability to add course content to the destination course. That's probably not the problem, but I thought I'd mention it.

[rrussell5]

I agree that selecting from the auto-drop down list and refreshing the page between copy attempts both help. However, this is usually limited, especially if you make multiple copy attempts. It is really frustrating that this feature is not reliable, especially when Canvas outperforms Blackboard in so many other ways. Errors with this feature may cause a professor to need to recreate modules and other materials that could simply be copied in Blackboard with no issues. I sincerely hope that Canvas fixes this issue. They outperform Blackboard in so many other ways, but the inconsistency of this feature requires professors to recreate work and negates all the other benefits of Canvas. I think Canvas can outperform blackboard if this feature is fixed for its inconsistency.