How to Copy Content from One Canvas Course to Another?

Canvas course copy best practices:

Do not copy “All Content” when copying from one course to another. You will end up with more than you bargained for.
Use caution when copying Calendar Events. It will copy events from the past that you likely don’t want in your future course.
Do not copy things more than once into the same course. If you copy the same item to the same course more than once, the item you previously copied will be overwritten with the newly copied item.
Run the Link Validator Links to an external site. after a copy to check for any broken links or links pointing to the wrong course.

How to copy content from one Canvas course to another:

Go to the course you want to import the content into.

Open Settings

In Course Navigation, click the Settings link.

Import Content into Course

Click the Import Course Content link.

Select Content Type

In the Content Type drop-down menu, select the Copy a Canvas Course option.

Search for a Course

In the Search for a course drop-down menu [1], select the course you would like to access. Courses are ordered alphabetically by most recent term. You can also choose to include completed courses by selecting the completed courses checkbox [2]. The Include completed courses checkbox is selected by default.

To search for a course by name, enter the name in the Course Name field [3]. Click the name of the course when it appears.

Note: If you have access to more than 100 courses, the search page only displays the Course Name field.

Select Specific Content

In the Content section, click the Select specific content radio button.

Adjust Events and Due Dates

If you want to adjust the due dates associated with the course events and assignments, click the Adjust events and due dates checkbox.

View Content Import Warning Message

When importing content, a message displays explaining that importing the same course content or export package more than once overwrites any existing content in the course.

Import Course

Click the Import button [1].

A progress indicator displays the upload status by percentage [2].

Select Content

In the Current Jobs section, click the Select Content button.

Select All Group Content

Content can be individual items [1] or a content group [2]. Content groups show the number of items within the group. To view content within a group, click the group's expand icon [3].

To import all content for a content type, click the checkbox next to the content name [4]. If the content type is a group, Canvas automatically selects all items within the group.

Select Specific Group Content

To import only a few items from a content group, expand the group and select the specific items to be imported [1]. Canvas places a dash in the content group checkbox [2], indicating not all items are selected within the group.

Select Thin Common Cartridge Content

If you imported a Thin Common Cartridge file (Common Cartridge import), this file type is imported directly as module content. The structure can be expanded to view a nested layout that simulates the content structure. Learn how to select content with Thin Common Cartridge files.

Select Content

Click the Select Content button.

View Current Jobs

The report displays a menu bar with the time remaining to complete the import. View the content from any completed imports by accessing any link in Course Navigation.

The import may also display errors as part of the import status. Learn more about course import statuses.

The following items don’t copy or don’t copy well, so expect to recreate these items from scratch:

Turnitin assignments
3rd party integrations (Flipgrid, publisher content, etc.)
Hypothes.is Links to an external site.
Calendar items
Zoom meetings

YuJa Videos and Quizzes:

If YuJa Video Quiz is embedded with External Tool in Canvas see Embedding a video quiz after Canvas Course Copy Links to an external site. for instructions on re-embedding content.

Things to check now that your course copy is complete:

Run the link validator Links to an external site..
Check and adjust due dates (there is a way to bulk update due dates Links to an external site.).
Confirm that any links to Google Drive/Office 365 content are working (if not, then you will need to recreate the links).
Confirm that your question banks and rubrics transferred (if you have them).
Need to set up your Gradebook?

2/10/25 SB