If you are looking for a way to manage multiple course sections that cover the same or similar content but with different meeting days or times, a Canvas Blueprint course may be the best option. Canvas Blueprint courses offer:
Ability to make updates to multiple Canvas courses via sync button on the Blueprint course
Ability to adjust due dates by section within the associated sections
Blueprints are often used by a course coordinator with multiple instructors using the same content to teach the same course or by an instructor who is teaching several sections of the same course.
Let's say you teach a section English 100 on M/W/F at 8:30 a.m. and another section of English 100 on Thursdays at 4:30 p.m. A Blueprint course will make it so that you can add assignments, readings, page content, etc. to both classes simultaneously.
Note: In order to be connected to a blueprint, the associated courses must be in the same term.
Contact the Instructional Designer and share your intent to use Blueprint and the the google formLinks to an external site. to provide them with the necessary course information.
Include the department prefix and number (i.e. ENGL 100) for the course as well as a list of sections (i.e.30012, 50002, 70103) that you would like to associate with the Blueprint.
Make sure that while you are adding content to the course that the title contains the word "Blueprint." The blueprint icon should also appear in the top-right corner of the screen.
All content (pages, assignments, discussions, and quizzes) will have a blueprint icon next to them.
Click on the icon to lock the content so that it can't be edited in the associated courses. (This trick can also be used if content gets out of sync across the various courses.) Locked content will show an icon with a lock on top.
For more information, see theTips for Using Blueprint Courses section (below)
It is possible to change content that has been synced from a Blueprint course in an associated course. However, edited content will be disassociated from the Blueprint. That means, if you make additional changes to that item in the Blueprint course those items will no longer be synced with the same item in the associated course. To avoid making changes and accidentally disassociating an item, lock it in the Blueprint course.
Students will not receive notifications of new announcements unless they post after the Blueprint has synced with the associated courses. Adding a date and time to delay posting until after you have a chance to sync the Blueprint will ensure students receive notification of the announcement.
If content is built out.If you are teaching only two sections of a class and you already have the majority of the content built before the start of the semester. In this case, it will be less of a hassle for you to copy the content into both sections individually and make a few changes to each applicable section. You won't have to deal with an additional class in Canvas and you won't have to wait for the manual sync process to discover and update changes.
If you are using Canvas New Quizzes.Canvas New Quizzes have not been designed to work in Blueprint classes yet.
If sections should be cross listed.If you are teaching a course that has multiple sections, but all sections are being taught at the same time using the same format then the course should be cross listed in Banner instead. (If you are teaching a fully online course, broadcast course, or a course that is dual listed in multiple departments and you are seeing multiple Canvas courses, those courses can be cross listed in Banner and will be listed as the same Canvas course.)