Preparing Your Courses for Spring 2027 Guide

If you are developing a new course, what you will do is relatively straightforward. 

Step 1: Once the Spring shells are made, check your Canvas dashboard to see that your new course is there. 

Step 2: (Ideally) Use the template pages that are available to you to create your new course. This includes but is not limited to: 

• Picking one of the four homepages that are available to you in the template, then updating that page with the relevant information (like a nice headshot, email address, etc.). You can find all four homepages by clicking on "Pages," then selecting "View All Pages" in the upper left hand corner of the page: 
   

  
   

• On the homepage there are buttons like "Getting Started," or "Office Hours." Please click on these buttons and update the pages that they link to. This is especially important with the "Getting Started" page, as it shows up for students on their module page as well. 
• Use the "Modules" tab to create modules where students will access their course materials. You may easily use pre-branded, pre-accessibility tagged pages that are at the top of your modules page in a module titled, "Template Module (Keep Unpublished)." To use them, simply duplicate the page that you want, then drag the new copy to whichever module you want to use it in. You can find the duplicate button by clicking on the three dots to the far right of the page title:

Step 3: When your course is completely built out and ready to go, publish the course for the students to see. If you need help with this, you can reference the following guide: https://support.oc.edu/hc/en-us/articles/52202835691540-How-to-Publish-Unpublish-Courses-Modules-Assignments-and-Discussion-Boards

Scenario One

When your new Spring 2027 shell was created, it automatically received the basic OC template. Because you already have the template in the previous course you taught in Canvas, and in order to avoid duplicating a bunch of pages and buttons and icons, you need to first delete the template out of your new Spring 2027. 

Step 1: Go to your Canvas dashboard, locate your Spring 2027 course, then click on it. 

Step 2: Click on "Settings" at the bottom of your left-handed course menu. Then select, "Reset Course Content." 

Resetting your course will delete out the template from it. Sometimes this takes between 30 and 60 seconds to complete. Once complete, your Spring 2027 shell is ready to be copied into. 

Step 3: Since you are already in the "Settings," of your 2027 Spring Shell, you can now click on "Import Course Content" from the right hand menu: 

Step 4: On the "Import Content" page, select the dropdown menu titled, "Select Content Type," and then select "Copy a Canvas Course." 

Step 5: Once selected, you will see two fields appear where you can search for your course. If you select the dropdown menu "Select a Course," then you should be able to choose from all the courses you have been an instructor previously. If for any reason you do not see it, then use the "Search for a course" box to the right of it. We recommend searching for the Course ID exactly as it is (for example, 2023FA_BIBL-1113-01). Once you have selected the appropriate course, click the button "+ Add to Import Queue" below. 

Step 6: Wait a few minutes for the process to complete. You now have your past Canvas course in your 2027 Spring shell without any unnecessary duplication. 

Step 7: Update your syllabus page. Because you copied from a past course, you likely have the wrong syllabus in the 2027 shell. Navigate to the syllabus tab, delete the old syllabus, then navigate to https://facultytools.oc.edu/Syllabus to upload your new syllabus. Once uploaded at faculty tools, your new syllabus should be automatically put into your Spring 2027 shell. 

Scenario 2

If you have had content imported into Canvas from Blackboard, but you have never touched it nor taught it in Canvas, then there are a couple ways forward. The template that your course was imported into is almost certainly not up-to-date with the current template, has broken links, and could use a refresh. 

Option 1: 

You could re-import your content from Blackboard directly into the 2027 Spring shell. Since the Spring 2027 shell already has the updated template, you will be enabled to get the course ready using the updated template. You can find instructions on how to import a course from Blackboard in the article "How to Import a Course from Blackboard to Canvas" and you can find instructions for how to prepare your Blackboard course in the "Clean Up Your Blackboard Course Guide." 

Option 2

Delete some of the outdated template items from your past course, then copy the course into your new 2027 Spring shell. This preserves the content that came over from Blackboard but also allows you to use the refreshed template. If you need help with this, you can contact one of the piloteers, come to the North Institute course support sessions that will be announced, or you can schedule an appointment with North Institute directly (as a last resort). You can find course copy directions in the "Scenario One" section of this article. 

If you need to import a course from Blackboard, there are several steps: 

• You will need to clean up your Blackboard course first. You can do that by following the directions found the "Clean Up Your Blackboard Course Guide." 
• Then, import your course using the article, "How to Import a Course from Blackboard to Canvas."
• Then, you will need to convert your Classic Quizzes to New Quizzing using the article, "How to Convert Classic Quizzes to New Quizzes"