Copy an Assignment

[jthoms]

This idea has been developed and deployed to Canvas

  Idea will be open for vote Wed. July 1, 2015 - Wed. October 7, 2015  Learn more about voting...

A good instructional design practice is to have a predictable module structure for students to follow throughout a course. Assignments often have consistent options and text (ie: honor code statements) throughout a course.

Currently copying requires creating a new assignment, and copying content for each item. By adding a “copy” option to the options gear, the effort to build a course will be greatly reduced. If this triggered a dialogue to state how many copies to make, it would be very simple to quickly build out a course structure.

Please help to flesh out this idea by discussing your particular use case in the comments.

Edit: taking quizzes out of this request -- please vote and comment at Duplicate Quizzes

Comments from Instructure

For more information, please read through the Canvas Production Release Notes (2017-07-15) 

[jthoms]

I tried to sort things out with an edit to the request text and a comment on . Feel free to modify, if I've missed something.

Glad to help with community gardening

[Renee_Carney]

You rock! 

Thank you!

[DaleDrees]

Oh my Gosh - Love the Picture!

[jthoms]

Awww...

[rmiller]

In my classes there are several reading assignments that are functionally the same except for the page numbers in the text.  It would save much time and potential for mistakes if we could copy the assignment then simply update the parts of the assignment that are different.  Not being able to do this has added considerably to the time required to set up a course.

[hollands]

I'm probably misunderstanding the question (I decided to give up coffee recently so my brain doesn't begin to function until around 11:30 EST), but my group uses a small workaround. It doesn't apply in every case but if you go into Settings and Import Content into this course you can actually select your own course. Select "choose content" or whatever it's called then select the Assignment in Question, It will make a copy of said assignment. Even if they're named the same since Canvas creates a unique URL for each assignment.

Our course designs tend to keep the assignment area pretty barren in terms of text and directions (we use a Google Doc overview for all of that), so for us it works pretty well. I've learned to jot down the URL for the assignment I don't want to change though!

I totally agree a copy button would be 10x easier but it is possible to do at least to some degree.

[kedgecomb]

I like the idea of a copy option!  That would be helpful to instructors when they are designing modules and using similar types of assignments in each module!  Thank you for suggesting!

[emily]

Such a crucial basic function!

[lisaarter]

I have my pre-service teachers do weekly reflections based on their practicums.  Same assignment for 15 weeks.  Being able to copy would be amazing!

[jsparks]

Hello Colleagues,

This is a great idea, and one we are actively exploring.  We may not get to this in the next six months; however, it is on our radar to allow copying of multiple types of gradable content within Canvas. We expect to share more as we can on this feature's status.

Jason