Canvas Release: Blueprint Courses (2017-06-24)

[erinhmcmillan]

This document introduces Blueprint Courses as noted in the Canvas Production Release Notes (2017-06-24).

Feature enforcement for all accounts: Canvas Release Notes (2018-12-08)‌

Blueprint Courses makes it easy for administrators or designers to deploy, update, and maintain course design templates or components across any number of courses or instructors. For an individual institution, Blueprint Courses allows Canvas admins to create content and learning objects, lock specific settings or content items, and push updates to all associated courses through course syncing.

Any items that are not locked can be managed individually by a course instructor. Content that can be managed by an instructor is not overwritten when the Blueprint Course is synced to associated courses, and new content created in any associated course is also not affected.

• Account Course Management
• Blueprint Course Feature Option
• Blueprint Course Permissions
• Account Courses Page Filter
• Blueprint Course Setup
• Course Settings
• General Locked Objects
• Locked Objects by Type
• Object Locking
• Instructor View: Associated Courses
• Blueprint Course Management
• Course Associations
• Course Search
• Concluded Courses
• Course Sync
• Sync Options
• Sync Status
• Sync History
• User-Level Features
• Community Resources
• Future Enhancements
• CustomerFeedback
• Feature Documentation

Account Course Management

Blueprint Course Feature Option

Blueprint Courses are managed by the Blueprint Course feature option, which applies to the entire account. Admins can enable Blueprint Courses in Account Settings.

Blueprint Course Permissions

When Blueprint Courses are enabled as a feature option, the Permissions page displays the Blueprint Courses (create / edit / associate / delete) permission, which allows users at the account level to manage any courses set as a blueprint course.

• Allows user to designate a course as a Blueprint Course.
• Allows user to manage Blueprint Course settings in Course Settings.
• Allows user to add associated courses.

At the course level, any user with an instructor role can be added to a blueprint course. Instructors can lock and unlock blueprint course objects and sync updates, but they cannot perform any tasks required by the Blueprint Course permission.

In addition to managing a blueprint course within the Canvas interface, courses can also be managed via the Blueprint Courses API.

Account Courses Page Filter

Once Blueprint Courses are enabled, admins can use the account-level Courses page sidebar to filter their account by blueprint courses. This feature helps admins easily locate all blueprint courses in their account.

Blueprint Course Setup

Any course can be enabled as a blueprint course in the Course Details page in Course Settings. However, a blueprint course cannot include any enrollments. Blueprint courses do not have to be published to sync content to associated courses.

Note: Blueprint Courses are not supported for courses across trust accounts. A course in one account cannot be a blueprint course for another account.

Course Settings

Course objects in blueprint courses are always locked individually within their appropriate Canvas pages, but the Course Settings page sets the specific definition for how locked objects should be treated for the entire course.

Attributes that can be locked include content, points, due dates, and availability dates and apply within assignments, discussions, pages, files, and quizzes. Locked objects can be defined generally or specifically by type.

General Locked Objects

By default, the course is defined for General Locked Objects, meaning that any objects locked in the blueprint course are subject to general attributes that cannot be edited in associated courses. For instance, when Content is selected as a locked object attribute, instructors in associated courses are not able to edit any content for any locked objects. The option to lock content is selected by default, though it can be deselected as a lock option.

Locked Objects by Type

Blueprint courses can also be defined for Locked Objects by Type, meaning that any objects locked in the course are subject to specific settings set by type that cannot be edited in associated courses. Blueprint courses support and sync five object types: assignments, discussions, pages, files, and quizzes.

By default, each object type contains no locked attributes. To select an attribute, admins can expand the attribute type menu and select individual attributes that apply to each locked object for that type. When an attribute is selected, the attribute name displays next to the object type.

Notes:

• Attributes do not need to be the same for each object type. Additionally, depending on the object type, not all attributes may be available.
• Rubrics can be updated and synced as part of blueprint courses. However, if points have been locked for an assignment, updating the rubric’s point value does not affect the assignment point value.

Object Locking

Within an individual blueprint course, any user with the Blueprint Course permission can lock and unlock course objects and sync content for the blueprint course.

Once the Course Settings page is saved with a Blueprint Course definition, each object in the Canvas index pages includes a Blueprint Course icon. By default, objects are unlocked. Objects can be locked individually from the index page.

Note: The Blueprint Course icon only displays for published objects. 

In the object’s individual page, the page displays the locked attributes selected in Course Settings, if any. Objects may be locked or unlocked from the individual page as well.

Any items that are not locked can be managed individually by a course instructor. Content that can be managed by an instructor is not overwritten when the Blueprint Course is synced to associated courses, and new content that is added to any associated course is also not affected.

Instructor View: Associated Courses

Course instructors in associated blueprint courses can view the status of each object and manage any objects in the course that have not been locked by an admin or designer.

Each object in the Canvas index pages includes a Blueprint Course icon. Instructors can view which objects have been locked. Any object without the locked icon is unlocked. However, in the object’s individual page, the page displays the locked attributes selected in Course Settings, if any. Instructors cannot modify locked objects, so any attributes that are locked cannot be edited.

Notes:

• Users with the Blueprint Course permission cannot manage any locked content directly in an associated course. Any changes that need to be made to the course must be managed from the blueprint course and re-synced.
• Objects that are unlocked can be managed like any other Canvas object in the course; the only difference is that the page designates that the object is part of a blueprint course.

Blueprint Course Management

Each page in Canvas displays a sidebar for the blueprint course. The sidebar can be access to view and set course associations, sync course content to associated courses (when content is changed), and view sync history.

Note: Any users enrolled as instructors in the blueprint course can lock and unlock course objects and sync content. However, these users cannot manage associations for the blueprint course.

Course Associations

The Associations page is accessed through the Association link and displays any courses that are associated with the blueprint course. Once a course is associated with a blueprint course, it cannot be associated with any other blueprint course.

After a course is associated with a blueprint course, the blueprint course will create an initial sync that included all course content.

Course Search

The search field supports searching by title, short name (course code), or SIS ID. Courses cannot be searched by course nickname since nicknames only apply to a course on a user level.

Courses can also be filtered by term or subaccount, and the Courses list can also be expanded and searched manually. Any applicable courses that display in the search results or as part of a single filter can be selected and associated with the blueprint course at the same time.

Changes to the Associations page can be saved by clicking the Done button at the bottom of the window. (In the Beta environment, this button is behind the Test Installation banner.)

Concluded Courses

Courses that are associated with a blueprint course and have been concluded will continue to receive any synced changes from the blueprint course. The status of a course does not affect the blueprint sync.

If a concluded course should not receive synced changes from the blueprint course, the concluded courses should be removed in the Associations page.

Course Sync

After a change is made to an attribute as defined in Course Settings, the blueprint course sidebar display a sync option indicating that unsynced changes have been made in the course. Content can be synced at any time.

All course content will be included in a blueprint sync, regardless of whether content is locked. Changed content will always overwrite the existing content in the associated courses for all locked objects. Again, content that can be managed by an instructor or new content created in an associated course by the instructor is not affected.

The sync will include the state of each object as it exists in the blueprint course. For instance, if an assignment is unpublished in the blueprint course, it will also be unpublished in the associated course. However, once the state is changed in the associated course, the state within the blueprint course will no longer apply.

If the blueprint course includes Modules, associated courses match the modules structure initially created in the blueprint courses. However, any additional modules and their content added to the blueprint course will always be added to the bottom of the Modules page in the associated courses.

Sync Options

In addition to the changes made to content objects as defined in Course Settings, all other course content will be included in a Blueprint sync. The only exception is Course Settings, which must be selected on a per-sync basis. Course Settings include all settings options in the course, including the Course Navigation. If this option is not selected, Course Settings are not included in the sync.

A notification can also be sent about the Blueprint sync, which is sent to users who have enabled the Blueprint Sync notification in the User Settings, As part of the notification, a message can be added as a reference to note what changes were made in the sync.

Sync Status

Once a sync has started, the sidebar shows the sync status as long as the user who synced the blueprint courses is viewing the page. The user can leave the page, but if the user views an associated course and notices no updates, the sync may still be in process.

Sync History

The Sync History page shows information about any previous course syncs. If a message was included as part of the notification, the message is displayed first.

User-Level Features

Admins and instructors can receive notifications about synced updates from blueprint courses by enabling the Blueprint Sync notification under Course Activities.

Depending on the amount of content in the blueprint course and the number of associated courses, synced content may take some time to display in associated courses. The Blueprint Sync notification will indicate when a sync is complete.

Community Resources

Future Enhancements

Blueprint Courses will continue to receive additional feature enhancements over future releases as indicated in Release Notes‌.

Customer Feedback

Community feedback for Blueprint Courses is welcome per Canvas Community Feedback Guidelines, which outlines general feedback, broken functionality, and feature enhancements.

For Blueprint Courses, feature enhancements should include the blueprint courses tag. Before submitting a new idea, please review all existing Blueprint Courses feature ideas.

Feature Documentation

All current feature functionality is noted in Canvas Guides Blueprint Courses documentation. Comments are also welcome for functionality clarification. Lessons will also be updated with all future enhancements as indicated in release notes.

[sadenniston · Accepted solution]

Very happy with this - it will make my planning for next year much easier.

[buellj · Accepted solution]

This is an awesome feature! Can't wait to delve into the details. I can see this being useful for pushing out standard resources for disability services, etc. 

[sadenniston · Accepted solution]

Very happy with this - it will make my planning for next year much easier.

[stemlett]

Very pleased to see Blueprint courses in Beta now - can't wait to get started. This will be such a great feature for ensuring quality courses can be spread across a large school. 

[akinsey]

I'm excited to play around with this before rolling it out. I have some concerns.

1. It cannot be used across trust accounts. Does this mean that course cannot be synced or viewed or how does that work/not work across the trust accounts?

2. Can courses have more than one blueprint? Like if we wanted all courses to have one specific module for orientation, could that blueprint be locked but then also have other content-specific courses that are tied in too? Probably not, but it never hurts to wonder.

3. I want to play around with the synching. Because if it does what I think it does (which is basically like cross-listing without moving the students into a section in one course), then you could change something in one course, sync it with the other, and voila. If that's the case, my life just got so much easier.

I'm excited to play around with it!

[jschaffer]

 @akinsey ‌,

I am thinking the same thing.  I really want to start playing around with this and get an idea of how it works, particularly the sync.  However, my one concern is surrounding linking a course across multiple terms.  Since we have a centralized content model, if we have a central Master Course, it would seem that we would have do copy over a version of that course, and link that new version to all the live sections that are running so that if/when updates are made, we do not affect the courses we copied in the past. 

Is that your understanding as well?  Anyone have any insight into this?

Jason. 

[kmeeusen]

I am very excited about this new feature, but also have many questions.

• How will this work with SIS integrations?
• For those of us unable to use API, how labor-intensive will a manual sync be?
• Can the Syllabus page be locked?

Probably many more after I start playing with this new toy, but that's a start.

Kelley

[Renee_Carney]

We're excited for you to explore this new feature as well.

1. The simple answer to your first question is no.  A course in trust A cannot be a blueprint course for a course in trust B.

2. Course cannot in fact have more than one blueprint course.  This is a great question, and one we foresee popping up again!

3. Your assumptions of course synching are correct...  "you could change something in one course, sync it with the other, and voila.

[buellj · Accepted solution]

This is an awesome feature! Can't wait to delve into the details. I can see this being useful for pushing out standard resources for disability services, etc. 

[themidiman · Accepted solution]

We generate development courses for instructors to create content for any non-sis-generated course shell. If I'm an instructor it should be easier to find and set my own courses that I'm enrolled via the teacher role in rather than have to search through an entire term. It appears that only admins can do this, but with good reason I suspect. As an instructor you sometimes have to work with admins for other support issues on this level and you wouldn't want to set yourself up to break a course in production. Does the product team have any user stories which mention letting course designers set this Blueprint relationship up?

Also the associated course functionality on the admin side seems a bit lacking. If I try to find the course by its full or short name it doesn't come up in the list. If I use the SIS ID it doesn't come up in the list even with the associated term. 

So far it's a bit of a disappointment to play with, but I also realize it's a beta feature. I'm wondering if anyone else can repeat this issue. 

[Chris_Hofer]

Now that our CSM has enabled Blueprint Courses for us in our Beta environment, I'm getting a chance to try things out.  In the course Settings, I chose the option Locked Objects by Type, expanded the row for Pages, and then selected Content.  I then went to the Modules screen expecting to see the new lock icon.  Since many people build their courses using Modules, it seems to me that the new lock icon should be available on the Modules index page, too.

It currently appears that I would need to either:

1. Visit the actual Pages index page to select which page(s) I wanted to lock.  This may require either recalling what the name of the page was or having another browser window open to reference the Modules index page.
2. Click on each content page from the Modules index page, and then click on the new button to lock it.

Interestingly, once I return to the Modules index page after locking some content, I am able to unlock the content I just locked.  The new lock icon turns gray.  I left the page and returned to the Modules index page to see if was hidden or remained, and I now see the gray lock icon.

I would be willing to submit this as a Feature Idea or submit it as a bug (if that's what it is).

[EDIT] This functionality has been resolved and icons display in the Modules page.

[themidiman]

Chris, I seem to think that additional fine grained locked content areas should be considered. In addition to your assertion that Modules needs to be a lockable area, one that comes to my mind is rubrics, but I'm wondering if Assignments takes care of that already?? If I can get the blueprint course association to find a course for me to link to, I can proceed but for now it's not working. Are you having any luck in this area?

[EDIT: Rubrics cannot be locked but assignment point values are not affected if a rubric is updated.]

[myerdon01]

OMG, OMG, so far I am loving this!

[kmeeusen]

Well, I can at now answer my first three questions; but as I said, I am sure I will have more.

• How will this work with SIS integrations? According to our state system's SIS Integration Guru, Blueprint courses do not work with integration, meaning we can not create an entire terms courses via integration and have them automatically sync with their blueprint counterpart. this makes sense, and is what I expected. He seems to feel that this could be done after integration using API calls, but has not experimented yet.
• For those of us unable to use API, how labor-intensive will a manual sync be? It is all manual outside of API calls, so for us, the use of this feature will need to be limited to small numbers of courses, because we are a small dept. However, we have already identified some areas where this will be very handy!
• Can the Syllabus page be locked? The answer is "No", and this is an additional feature that would be highly desirable by most schools with a standardized syllabus.
  

As the great  @Chris_Hofer ‌ noted above, it would be very handy to manage the locking from within the Modules page, since the vast majority of our faculty organize their content around modules.

Of Note:

• I got an error message when trying to associate a page to another course, but this is driving another question.With the ability to associate located on the sidebar of every page, does this mean that each page of a course must be individually associated with another course, or can the entire course be associate. Clearly more experimenting is needed.

Back to the lab for more experiments Dr. Frank N. Stein!

Kelley

[akinsey]

Thanks  @Renee_Carney ‌! I appreciate it. One follow up.

Even though blue print courses cannot be synced across trusted accounts, could the course still be viewable? So could a course in trust A still see the course in trust B, it just would not update based on syncing for those students. Is that correct?

[myerdon01]

I am not sure if syncing across terms is possible, and if not, this is how I hope to use it. 

1. In classes that use the same course content (say ENG1020), have a Master Blueprint Course for ENG1020 and have a lead instructor be in charge of the content for that class, this person updates content each term
2. Each term as the Canvas admin, I will associate that term's ENG1020 classes to the Blueprint Course (and un-link previous courses) and sync

But, I also have this questions: Would content from Blueprint Course have to be copied into all new ENG1020 classes first? In other words, if the new course is blank, content doesn't sync (copy over) just because it is associated with the Blueprint course? If it did, that would be awesome!

[emily_allen]

Hi again,  @myerdon01 ,

When you set up the association, content should be synced. I just tested this by creating a brand new course from my dashboard and associating my new course in the blueprint course. The content from my blueprint course was copied into my new course! I hope this helps!

Thanks!

Emily

[jschaffer]

While playing with this, I was reading the API notes, and there does not seem to be a way to make a course a Blueprint master currently.  I checked both the Blueprint Templates notes as well as the Course Settings notes and I could not find a way to engage that feature via the API.  Is there a plan to update this or am I missing the call somewhere in the notes?

Also, I noticed when I ran an API to associate a course to a template (v1/courses/some_course_id/blueprint_templates/default/update_associations?course_ids_to_add=template_course_id), it does not appear that the course is associated, at least not in the course itself.  However, when I go to the template, it shows that the course has an association to the copy I made. 

[sadenniston]

I would like to see the ability to lock all parts of an assessment, such as grade type and, in particular, rubrics.

We are using rubrics to measure outcome scores across assignments, so it would be detrimental if a teacher was to delete a rubric from an assignment.

[crafte]

I can see this becoming an even bigger problem for anyone enabling the new feature where the home page option in new courses defaults to Modules. 

[jschaffer]

 @sadenniston ‌,

I believe you can already lock this via the Permissions Page in Canvas.  Have you tried adjusting the instructor permissions here:

Jason

[ryan_corris]

I was also thinking how nice it would be if instructors had the ability to do some of this too.  For example, the science department at a high school where several teachers teach the same course.  If there are just minor changes to be made every now and then, it would be a bummer to need to have the district admin make those changes.  Once this scenario is spread over multiple departments, that could be a lot of little changes being made over time by the district admin, if I am understanding this correctly.  This sounds like a great feature, and I am hoping their may be additional flexibility in the future.

[Chris_Hofer]

I've had some time today to play around with Blueprint Courses and Associated Courses some more.  Here's the scenario...  We have a term set up called "Master Term" where we house a "master" version of every single course that we build (mostly online and blended/hybrid courses, but at times we build traditional/face-to-face curriculum into Canvas, too).  In the "Master Term", we enroll one (maybe two) of our full-time faculty with the "Teacher" role.  They have full access to edit the "master" course content as needed.  We also have a "Viewer" role (based off of the "Teacher" role type), but this role is a bit more limited in that other faculty and adjuncts assigned to a "master" course with this role cannot edit any content.  They can only view the contents of the "master" course.  Both roles can use the Course Import Tool to import content from the "Master Term" to their own courses.

The new Blueprint Courses feature is interesting.  However, if we were to utilize Blueprint Courses by locking certain parts of a course, it seems like we may be taking away the ability for instructors to copy their own course content if they are to be using "Master Term" courses as their "source".  From what I've gathered thus far (and please correct me if I'm wrong), the ability to associate a Blueprint course with one or more "child" courses is left up to admins.  Maybe I'm missing something, but it would seem to me that someone with the "Teacher" role should also be allowed to associated a Blueprint course with "child" courses (??).  Otherwise, each semester admins are left to select which courses should be associated with a Blueprint course...a potentially large undertaking?  Again, I may be missing something, so please feel free to correct any of the above.

EDIT: I just noticed that in the revisions to this document, it now includes the "Designers" role.  Would it be better to enroll our faculty that have editing rights to "Master Courses" with the "Designer" role instead?  But then, how would our instructors import content to their own courses?  Dual enroll with both roles?

[tom_gibbons]

Why wouldn't you just add the instructors to the Blueprint Course as instructors (or maybe just a lead instructor)? Then they could make their changes and sync to the associated courses. Instructors in Blueprint courses can adjust lock settings and sync content out to associated courses. Or, at least, that's what I'm gathering from the Note in the Admin Blueprint Management section, above. You'd have to set up the course associations, but other than that, they could do everything else. 

[tom_gibbons]

Ooh. Hey. The Pages index page doesn't list what modules a Page is associated with. WHY? 

[bmerkel]

I am interested to understand how blueprint syncing will work with past/concluded courses. We are organized similar to  @Chris_Hofer ‌ 's set up. We have master courses that are cloned into teaching sections each term. If we found a use case for blueprints (in addition to copying courses) our main concern would be historical record. I've been through enough accreditation, review audits, and grade disputes to know the value of preserving courses in the state they were taught.

Would we have to automate breaking the association at the end of a term to ensure that future synching would not affect the integrity of the historical record?

Excited to jump in and see what's possible.

[EDIT] Courses must be managed manually. As long as a course is associated with a blueprint course, it will receive any synced updates regardless of course status.]

[ptart]

We gave our instructors the ability to cross-list their courses through a Google Form by putting in the course number in the URL. The form was scripted so that it validated the courses were in the same term, their name was on the course, they were the teacher of the course... 

We are looking into scripting another Google Form to allow the same functionality but with Blueprints. The form eliminated the need for Admin intervention with cross-listing almost 100%. Hopefully, we can pull that off with Blueprints as well.

 @jacob_standish ‌ had a great InstructureCon 2016 session about Canvas API Calls with Google App Script.

[kblack]

I was curious about this very thing,  @tom_gibbons ‌, and it appears that this will work.  I made a course a blueprint master and made the necessary course associations.  But then I "masqueraded" as the instructor for that course, and indeed she was able to push out a newly-made page to the other courses it was associated with.  This is good news, because I can think of several faculty who I would trust making a "master of a course" but certainly not a subaccount manager!

[jschaffer]

 @bmerkel ‌,

We are the same way.  Although, we would likely use a process where we copy out a "coordinator" course first prior to every term.  This "coordinator" would be a copy of our master, but be placed in a term or area that is isolated from the actual Master.  From there, we can use the "coordinator" as the BluePrint template to parse our content to our various live sections. 

We use this process with a few of our mastery systems and it allows us to have a centralized Master that our designers can work on and update term over term, while also keeping a fully in-tact and integrated coordinator to push out updates from.  It is an extra step, but if you have to push updates even once, it is well worth it. 

Jason

[bmerkel]

So basically, since your coordinator course is in a term it will conclude/enter read only mode along with all of its children and thus all would be preserved?

Now this gets me thinking about other testing scenarios like "What happens in blueprint courses with LTI or external tools like Turn It In or Proctoring software or McGraw Hill Connect".

Thanks!

[Chris_Hofer]

 @tom_gibbons ‌...

This seems like a separate discussion that is worthy of a new Feature Idea submission.  To my recollection, I've never seen module names being displayed on the Pages index page.  In searching the Community, I haven't been able to find any Feature Ideas that are similar to what you're asking.  The closest thing I found was my own Feature Idea I submitted in April of 2015, but it didn't get very far: https://community.canvaslms.com/ideas/1092" modifiedtitle="true" title="List the Module Name on Disc....  If you submitted a new Feature Idea about module names on the Pages index page, I'd support it.

[Chris_Hofer]

How would you maintain the list of what courses need to be associated with a Blueprint course each semester?  Who would take on that responsibility?  All our courses are set up via our SIS, but we aren't always notified if a new course section has been set up to accommodate more students who want to take the course.  Would this be up to an admin to maintain (this could be a huge undertaking)?  Left up to the lead instructor?  Maybe enroll a Dean's administrative assistant who sets up the courses in the SIS?

[Chris_Hofer]

Now this gets me thinking about other testing scenarios like "What happens in blueprint courses with LTI or external tools like Turn It In or Proctoring software or McGraw Hill Connect".

I tested this out with the Turnitin LTI.  In a Blueprint course, I went to a course with an assignment that had the Turnitin LTI enabled.  On the Assignments index page, I could click on the new lock icon to lock the assignment to turn it blue.  However, if I clicked on the assignment name to see the details, there were only two buttons on the right side of the assignment: "Edit Assignment Settings" and "Speed Grader" (vs. the four buttons above the details of a non-Turnitin-enabled assignment: "Blueprint", "Publish", "Edit", and the "Settings"/cog wheel).  Further, when looking at the assignment details page, the blue "Locked: Content" banner at the top of the non-Turnitin-enabled assignment was not present in the Turnitin-enabled assignment.  I had to click on "Edit Assignment Settings" in the non-Turnitin-enabled assignment to see this blue banner.  So, from my testing, it seem that the only place you can lock/unlock LTI-enabled assignments (such as Turnitin) is from the Assignments index page.

[mmoore1]

Looking forward to testing this out!

[kmeeusen]

My thoughts also,  @Chris_Hofer , and just what I noted above about maintaining course integrity after term end. We need a deeper filter/sort function, and at least some minimal term-end automation to un-associate courses.

Otherwise, too dang much manual management for my small department.

Kelley

[kblack]

Oh, I agree,  @Chris_Hofer  and  @kmeeusen  .    I happen to be at a smaller institution, though, so right now the process will be something along the lines of  "Hey, Ken--can you make sure that section 3 of ABC 999 gets added on to the blueprint master for this course?"  But we hate to give out too many sub-account rights, as well.  However, I can see interesting things done with this once additional granularity of permissions gets sorted out, which I see was at the top of the list from Khaki 2017.

[myerdon01]

This is how I am going to handle it because I am also at a very small institution and at most I would have to associate maybe 6-8 sections of any class. So, I expect that either the lead faculty would contact me and let me know which to associate, but in reality, we are small enough that I would know which ones to do! Our division admin assistants create and maintain the classes in our SIS and they send out an updated Excel sheet weekly with any class changes or additions. I would just check that and associate any classes based on that.

[dave-long]

Does Blueprints allow for syncing SCORM content across courses?

I set a course with SCORM assignments, and set up a blueprint association for a second course.  The sync completed successfully, and the second course had the same modules and assignments as the blueprint course.  However, after clicking on the SCORM link (either in modules or assignments), I was directed back to the course home page, and a message at the top of the screen that said "Couldn't find valid settings for this link" appeared.  

Adding the SCORM tool to the navigation area and clicking on it returned the following message in bright red: 

Authentication Failed
Authenticating this application failed. Please try reloading the page or contacting your administrator.

I also get the above error message when adding SCORM to a newly created course on Beta, can someone else confirm that SCORM works for them on beta?

[jared]

Yes,  @akinsey ‌ both the original "blueprint" course and all "associated" courses are fundamentally normal courses, and Trust-based enrollments will still work as expected.

It's simply the blueprint-to-associated relationship & functionality that does not currently cross Trust accounts. 

[afelt]

This feature is pretty cool. But one detail that it lacks is an apparent method of showing when an associated course is synced to the blueprint. It shows when push changes are made which is nice, but additionally showing in the UI when a course becomes synced would be nice. 

I was able to find import/export times using an API call from this document here, but still would like to have it available in the UI as well. Blueprint Courses - Canvas LMS REST API Documentation 

[erinhmcmillan]

Hi, Adam,

We're glad you find Blueprint Courses to be beneficial! Our product team is always open to feedback for future enhancements. I'd encourage you to share your thoughts through a feature idea as noted in our Canvas Community Feedback Guidelines.

Thanks!

Erin