Copying a previous course is a great way to save time in preparing your course. However, copying can also create some problems. But with a few steps, you can streamline your course prep and have a fully functioning course.

Keep in mind when you copy a course, everything can be copied. That means all assignments, tests, discussions that appear to the students in the course as well as those that are visible only to the instructor. That can mean confusing due dates – they copy exactly from the previous offering, extra columns in the grade center and grades that don’t display properly.

LIT has prepared a checklist to help you through this process:

1. Check Content, Revise/Replace Documents as needed. Make sure content is in the appropriate location. Consult your department for any specific requirements.
2. Use Link Checker to Check all External Links
   Documentation for Link Checker: http://tinyurl.com/zsgz9s6
3. Check all links embedded in content items – Link Checker does not check these links.
4. Check YouTube and other Mashup Content, is the media still available? Choose replacements as needed. Check other third-party content like Atomic Learning and Lynda/Linked in videos, too. As we refine the academic technology toolkit, some tools may be replaced and content will also need to be replaced.
5. Check Quizzes/Tests/Assignments – Revise/Replace as necessary.
6. Revise and Replace Syllabus – Don’t leave a previous semester’s syllabus in your course. Please include the word “syllabus” in the name of the file and attach it in the content item’s “Attachments” section.
7. Grade Center Clean-Up – Remove any unneeded columns (from quizzes/tests/assignments that have been removed) and make sure grade calculations include the correct columns/categories and weighting. If you are adding assignments, make sure the grades calculate properly. CPCE courses are based on 1000 points added assignments can inflate this value.
   Remove any grading Schemas not in use: https://wp.me/a68PO8-qu
8. Run Date Management and correct due dates and release dates associated with items.
   Documentation for Date Management: http://tinyurl.com/z9p25gg
9. Check to make sure settings on Discussion Forum are appropriate for your course and allow students to create new threads. We discourage allowing students to delete their own posts because most online and hybrid courses require students to reply to other students’ posts and deleting posts with replies could impact grades.

This information is available as a pdf.

Follow these steps and you’ll be off to a good start of the semester.

If you routinely copy courses in Blackboard, you may find that although we corrected the grading schema in all fall term courses in August, your grades may not display correctly when using the WIT grading schemas. You may have a schema with the old grade equivalencies.

How can you get the grades to display correctly? You’ll need to remove the old schema(s).

1. Navigate to the course in Blackboard that has been copied (or where you notice the letter grades don’t seem correct).
2. Open the Full Grade Center.
3. In the Full Grade Center, select Grade Schemas from the Manage Menu.
4. From the Grade Schemas action menu, select Edit for the Schema you want to examine.
5. In the Edit Schema Menu, examine the settings and determine if the schema is the old or new schema and then change the name or enter a description indicating which schema is old. In the example below the description is modified. Do not modify the name of the correct schema, it must remain “WIT Undergrad Letter” so the Banner Grade Submit tool recognizes it. If you have a Graduate course, the “WIT Undergrad Letter” Schema must still be in place. Do Not Delete the current undergrad schema.
6. Save the schema. Repeat for any additional schemas.
7. Back on the Manage Schemas page, select Delete from the Grade Schema action menu to remove old schema from your course. Remove any schema named “Letter” these predate the Banner integration and are not correct.
8. Now the Banner Grade Submit should correctly display letter grades.

Here’s a pdf containing the steps with illustrations.