Course copy | How to copy a course (or course components)

This article will show the steps you need to take to copy all or few components of a pre-existing course into another one.

Please, check first the article About course copy in Brightspace to find all the information about what course components can be copied from one course page to another. You can also learn more about copying courses containing rubrics in the article How to copy a course with Rubric.

In this article you will learn about:

Remember that you need to be enrolled in both courses (as staff) in order to copy components from one course to the other.

Follow these steps to create a course copy:

1. Navigate to the course where you want to copy the content into

2. Navigate to Course Tools

3. Click Course Admin. This will open the Course Administration homepage

Click Course tools, then Course Admin

4. Click Import/Export/Copy Components under the section Site Resources

Click Import/ export / copy components

Import/Export/Copy Components Homepage

5. Select Copy Components from another Org Unit

6. Click Search for offering. This will open a pop-up window

Select option Copy Components from another Org Unit, then Click grey button Search for offering

7. In the search box of the pop-up window, type the course code of the course you want to copy

8. Click Search. The search results will appear in a table below

9. Click the selectbox of the desired course

10. Click the button Add Selected

In the pop-up window enter course code and then magnifying glass. From the Search results click the Selectbox of the course you want to copy content from

The pop-up window will close and you will be back to the main page Import/Export/Copy Components. Now you have two options:

  • To copy all the course content, go to step 11.
  • To copy only a selection of course components, go to step 13.

Keep in mind that when copying all course content, all the course items dates are copied as well. If you are copying a course from a past period, you will need to update the course dates. You can check how to do this in the article How to manage dates.

11. Check the option Include protected sources

12. Click Copy All Components to start the copying process. Then, go to step 20

                                                             OR

13. Click the button Select Components to select only certain components of the course to copy. Then, go to step 14

Tick the selectbox of Include protected resources

Select Components

Steps 14-15. Copy course Components


14. Select which items need to be copied to the target course. For every Component you can select to : 

  • Copy all items 
  • Select individual items to copy

15. Click Continue

If you selected Select individual items to copy in any course component, continue to step 16. Otherwise, go to step 18

It is not possible to copy locked rubrics from the source course to the target course. (Locked rubrics are rubrics associated with assignments that have already been used to grade an assignment). This is why you have to create a copy of the specific rubric in the source course first. For more information see: How to copy a course with Rubric

If you select in Content video’s to copy, be aware that you need to copy the corresponding External Learning Tool Links as well. If you don’t it will create broken links in you course

Choose components to copy from the list

Select individual items to copy

Steps 16-17. Select Content Modules and Topics

If you checked the option Select individual items to copy in any course component, you will redirected to the following widow.

16. Select in the next screen the specific items you want to copy from that category

17. Click Continue

Select the specific items to copy from the list

Select Course Material

In the next screen you can confirm the components selection to be copied to the target course.

18. (Optional) Click Modify if you want to make any changes in the current selection.

19. (Optional) Check the box Offset all dates of copied components if you want to offset the dates of the components. Here, you can select between:

1. Offset by direction and range

This option will move forward or backward all the dates specified in the course content by the number of days and hours you type in the Range boxes.

You can find helpful information about offset ranges in the article Offset dates in a course copy

A course taking place once a year and always in the same period will have an offset range of approximately 365 days.

Set offset dates range in the days and hours boxes
2. Calculate range between two dates

This option allows you to calculate the number of days and hours that the course dates will be offset according to the difference between two given dates.

Below the date boxes, a sentence will appear specifying what will be the offset range.

Set the first and the last datesof the offset range to offset

20. When the component confirmation and dates offset are finished, click Finish

confirm items to copy. select offset dates if you want to offset the course items dates

The course copy will be queued. This might take a few minutes, depending on the size of the course and the current load on the system. A green icon will appear after the course copy has been successfully completed.

Copy completed

When the copy is completed, check the content in the target course to make sure nothing is missing, and all dates are set properly.

In addition, check the YuJa channel (Course Tools > Manage Videos (YuJa)) of your course to make sure the videos are available in the channel. If they are not, you can contact [email protected].

Take special notice of elements that are copied but will have reverted settings by checking the article section What will be copied?.

Copy course components history

Now, the course copy has been completed and you can select one of the following options :

Copy Another Package

This option will take you back to the Import/export/Copy Components homepage from where you can start again the process to copy course content.

View Content

This option will take you to the content page of your course.

Review and Manage Dates

This option will take you to the Manage Dates homepage. You can see here an overview of all the course items, their visibility and their start and end dates. Learn more about this in the article How to manage dates.


Congratulations! Now you know how to copy a course page into a new course page in Brightspace!

Do you want to know more about course copy in Brightspace?

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