Western Online:
Copying Content from Another Course

Welcome

Welcome to the Western Online: Copying Content from Another Course online tutorial brought to you by the Center for Innovation in Teaching and Research. This tutorial contains information on how to copy your course content from one D2L course into another D2L course.

Objectives

After completing this tutorial you will be able to:

• Copy content from one D2L course to another
• Set the custom homepage as the active homepage
• Activate the new course

This tutorial uses TextPoppers. TextPoppers are words or images that you can hover over to get more information. Hover over the words TextPopper below to see an example.

TextPopper

Tutorial Outline

• Page 1:
• Welcome
• Objectives
• Page 2:
• Introduction
• Page 3:
• Copying Content From one Course to Another
• Page 4:
• Set Your Custom Homepage as Active
• Page 5:
• Activating a Course
• Changing the Start and End Date
• Page 6:
• Self Check
• Page 7:
• Summary
• Feedback

Use the links above and below to navigate through the tutorial.

Introduction

In Western Online you have the ability to copy content from one course to another. This prevents you from having to rebuild your course sections every semester. If your course contains custom header and footer widgets that you created and put into a new homepage, it will not automatically use that homepage.

The sytem defaults back to WIU Course Default homepage. So your homepage with the custom widgets will need to be set as the active homepage. Otherwise the course default homepage will remain active and will not contain your custom widgets.

Copying Content from One Course to Another

To copy content from one D2L course to another do the following:

• From within your blank course (the course you want to copy the content into) click Course Admin in the nav bar.
• In the Course Administration page click Import / Export / Copy Components under the Site Resources section.

• Under the What would you like to do? section the Copy Components from Another Org Unit and Include protected resources options will be selected by default. Leave these options selected.
• Under Course to Copy click the Search for offering button.

• In the window that pops up select the course you want to copy the content from and click Add Selected.

• To copy everything in the course click Copy All Components at the bottom. Now all your content has been copied over

• To only copy certain items click Select Components.
• Select the components you want to copy and click Continue.
• Click Finish.

Set your Custom Homepage as Active

Please note that if you do not have any custom widgets or homepages you can skip this step.

Now that all your content has been copied over, you may notice that things still do not look right on your homepage. As mentioned earlier, if you have custom widgets in the course you copied from, you will not see them on the home page. That is because your course is still using the course default homepage. You simply have make your homepage the the active home page.

To make the new homepage active do the following:

• Click Course Admin in the nav bar.
• Click Homepages under the Site Setup section.

• You will see a list homepages. In the list you will see the custom homepage that you created in the older course you copied from. Click the Active Homepage drop down menu and choose your homepage.
• Click Apply. This will make your homepage the active homepage for the course.

Activating a Course

Your courses will automatically appear in your My Courses widget each semester. This happens about half way through the previous semester. For example, half way through the fall semester you will see your spring semester courses start to appear. However, this does not mean they are active and visible to your students. To make a course active do the following:

• Login into Western Online.
• On the system home page you will see a My Courses widget. Here you will find a list of all your courses. Find the course you want to activate and click the title to go into it.
• Click Course Admin in the nav bar.
• In the Site Setup section click Course Offering Information.
• About half way down the page under Active put a check next to Course is Active.
• Click Save.

Changing the Start and End Date

In this same window (see image above) you will see a Start Date and End Date. This date is set automatically by the STARS system. However, you have the ability to change them if you like. Perhaps you would like students to have access to the material a few days before the semester starts. In this case you could change the Start Date. If you have an incomplete and need to extend the End Date, you can do that as well.

To change the Start Date and End Date, do the following:

• If the check boxes for Course has start date and Course has end date are not checked, check which ever one you are wanting to make a change to.
• Click the Calendar icon for the Start Date or End Date to choose a new date.

Once you've made your changes to this page click Save.

As long as the course is activated and you are within the start and end dates, your students will have access to the course in their Western Online.

Self Check

Self Check Question 1

Self Check Question 2

Self Check Question 3

Summary

Congratulations! You have completed the Western Online: Copying Content from Another Course online tutorial. You have learned how to copy content from one D2L course to another, set the custom homepage as the active homepage, and activate the new course.

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