Importing Course Content in Canvas

Courses should be copied into a new, empty course shell when you want to use or repurpose previously created content including course settings, syllabus, assignments, modules, files, pages, discussions, quizzes, and question banks.

Importing lets you reuse previously created content, including course settings, syllabus, assignments, modules, files, pages, discussions, quizzes, and question banks.

Our current course retention plan is to have six years of courses available in Canvas and delete anything older than that each summer.

1. Open the new course. 
2. Select Settings from the Course Navigation Menu.
3. Click the Import Course Content link.
4. In the Content Type drop-down menu, select the Copy a Canvas Course option.
5. In the Search for a course field enter the name of your previous course, then click the course name when it appears.
6. Select the Content you want to copy into the new course shell.
   • Select the All Content radio button to import all content from the course.
   • If you want to select specific content, click the Select specific content radio button.
7. If you want to adjust the due dates associated with the course events and assignments, click the Adjust events and due dates checkbox.
   Note: we recommend you remove due dates on this screen so the assignments aren't copied over with a due date in the past.
8. Click the Import button.
9. The Current Jobs section displays the status of your import. Running reports display a progress bar indicating the time remaining to complete the import.
   • If you chose to select specific content in your course, the current job would show as Waiting for Select, which means you must select the content you want to import.
   • The import may also display other status indicators as part of the import process. Learn more about course import statuses.
10. Check your new course to ensure content imported correctly.