Block importing an entire course

[sphelps]

We are using Blueprint to create hundreds of course sections each session and allow faculty to pull in their own assignments and announcements using Import. We are seeing an increased incidence of faculty importing their entire previous course, rather than just the items they created. Is it possible to turn off or hide the option to import an entire course? @import_course

[kblack · Accepted solution]

Hi  @sphelps ‌ (you have a hilarious avatar, by the way!) - My general understanding is this is pretty difficult without disabling the ability for faculty to add virtually anything to a course site.  This is spelled out in the course permissions PDF which, for reference, is linked from this page: What user roles and permissions are available in Canvas?  You will see from looking over that document that a lot of things--like creating assignments or content--is also linked to the Course Settings permission, which is where an import originates. 

IF the blueprint courses are kept in their own subaccount where you could try disabling a few of these very key permissions, you might be able to get what you want.  But as with all permissions, I would STRONGLY encourage you to try things out first on either your Test or Beta installations.  Also, be aware of this rather annoying caveat that is near the top of that PDF that was linked to: "When you change a permission, it can sometimes take 30 minutes or longer for that permission to take effect."  

Others may have some suggestions, but I think it's safe to say that you should test anything fully before changing permissions anywhere.

[sphelps]

Thanks  @kblack ‌ - I will pass this along to our admins to see if we want to pursue testing a different permissions configuration for our faculty as I know we do isolate our BP masters separate from other courses. Unfortunately I think the live child courses are not.

Nice to have a place to start, though.

[kblack]

Glad to help a bit, Sharon. Good luck with the testing!