@NatalieDyer ...
I've not tested this myself, but I *think* the answer to your question about your content remaining in Commons would be "yes"? You might want to have a conversation with your school's Canvas administrator(s) or someone from your school's Online Learning / eLearning / Distance Education department to see if they have any thoughts on this.
Another option...which might actually be better for everyone...is to see if your Canvas admin could create an empty sandbox course shell for the new instructor. Then, they could import (copy) the contents of your course into the sandbox course for the new instructor. Even if the new instructor didn't yet have an account in Canvas, your Canvas admin could still create a sandbox course and import the contents ... keeping in mind that they will need to eventually enroll the new instructor in the sandbox course. By doing it this way, the new instructor won't mess up anything in your current course and won't have access to the students enrolled in your course. Then, when the new instructor is ready to do so, she can copy the contents of that course from her sandbox course into the course shell she will get before the new semester starts.
I'd encourage you to have a chat with your Canvas admin about this. I'm sure they'll be able to work with you to make things as easy as possible for all involved. Hope this helps! Good luck!
