[ARCHIVED] Delete Past Discussions

[holmant]

Hi

I am tech support for a recurring course every summer. Students have to discuss on weekly topics.  How can I go back to previous summer course (2021) and remove all student discussions?  The discussion topics themselves stay the same year after year.  I just need to remove the old student discussion replies so that the current students cannot see the previous students' posts.

Thanks

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi there, @holmant ...

It sounds like you'd want to have a new course shell set up for your Summer 2022 course so that you can import the content from the Summer 2021 course into the Summer 2022 course.  This will copy all content but without the responses and grades from students who took the course in Summer 2021.  The new students in the Summer 2022 course won't see any of the student responses from the Summer 2021 course because they are not enrolled in the same course.  You'd be able to set up those same kinds of groups for the Summer 2022 that you had in your Summer 2021.

This Guide will help once you get your Summer 2022 course shell set up.  You'd want to log into your Summer 2022 course when using this Guide...as you'll be selecting your Summer 2021 course during the import process.  How do I copy content from another Canvas course u... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

Sing out if you have more questions about this...thanks!

[chriscas]

Hi @holmant,

Can you provide any more detail about your role and how these courses are setup, as I'm a bit confused by the description.  If this a single canvas course shell (school.instructure.com/courses/YYYYYY) where current students are being enrolled alongside students who completed the course previously, or is a new canvas course shell generated each time the course repeats?  It would also be great to know what kind of role you have in Canvas (teacher, TA, designer, etc).  If you could inform us more on both of those fronts, someone might be able to offer some suggestions.

-Chris

[holmant]

This is a course that is repeated every summer.  We have anywhere from 10-30 students each summer. The students are divided evenly into GROUPS under Group 1 group set. Group Set 1 = Group 1, Group 2, Group3). The students have to do weekly discussions within their group.

I am listed as Teacher in the course.

Summer 2021                                                        Summer 2022
Group Set - Group 1                                               Group Set - Group 1 
30 students spilt into 5 Individual Groups           15 students split into 3 individual Groups
Group 1, Group 2, Group 3, Group 4, Group 5     Group 1, Group 2, Group 3

Discussion Topics always remain same from year to year, unless they need to be updated (Just different enrollments)

Students in 2022 can see posts to discussions made by Students in 2021.  I need to remove the 2021 discussion responses.

The students this summer can see posts under the discussion in the group they are assigned from last year’s students who were in the same group.  (Group 1 current year, can see Group 1 last year students’ posts).  I need to remove the student posts from 2021 Group 1 so that the current students cannot see them.

I guess it would be a canvas shell that’s repeated every summer, but with a whole new enrollment of students , but course materials are the same from previous year. 

Am I too confusing?  Lol

Thanks

[Chris_Hofer · Accepted solution]

Hi there, @holmant ...

It sounds like you'd want to have a new course shell set up for your Summer 2022 course so that you can import the content from the Summer 2021 course into the Summer 2022 course.  This will copy all content but without the responses and grades from students who took the course in Summer 2021.  The new students in the Summer 2022 course won't see any of the student responses from the Summer 2021 course because they are not enrolled in the same course.  You'd be able to set up those same kinds of groups for the Summer 2022 that you had in your Summer 2021.

This Guide will help once you get your Summer 2022 course shell set up.  You'd want to log into your Summer 2022 course when using this Guide...as you'll be selecting your Summer 2021 course during the import process.  How do I copy content from another Canvas course u... - Instructure Community (canvaslms.com)

Sing out if you have more questions about this...thanks!

[SusanNiemeyer · Accepted solution]

@holmant  - The advice you received from @Chris_Hofer is the best approach.

I also teach a summer course with the same course content, but different students every summer. Every summer, I start with a brand-new Canvas "course" on my Dashboard. The new students are enrolled in it. Then I "import" my course content from the previous summer's course. When I "import," I remove the dates. Then I assign new dates. (You can also try "shifting" the dates when you import.) This gives me a brand new course to work with.

Having a brand-new course card is a ***MUCH BETTER*** solution than trying to reopen an old course card with the former students' work.