What's on this page
Please read this entire post before copying your course. While the process is easy, it is also important to avoid common mistakes.
When to Use Course Copy
The course copy process can be used to copy an entire existing course, including all tests, lessons, pages, documents, assignment drop boxes, etc., from one course to another. The most common case is copying a course you teach from one term to a newer term.
When NOT to Use Course Copy
There are also some cases in which course copy may not be your best action:
- If you have not built in Blackboard before, please use the instructions to import a course structure.
- If you want to move tests or pools from one course to another, please follow the Blackboard Tests and Pools Export/Import Instructions.
If you’re unsure which process suits your needs, Online Learning 503 491 7170 can help.
Before you Begin
The course copy process must be completed before any other content is added to the course and before any edits are made to the course.
- After submitting your course copy (see below), DO NOT make ANY edits to your course until you receive a confirmation email that the course copy process has completed.
- If your copy does not look as intended, DO NOT COPY AGAIN. Contact Online Learning for help.
- Do NOT copy a course more than once into the same target shell or copy multiple courses into the same shell. This will result in duplicate content, duplicate grade center columns, etc. Contact Online Learning for assistance if you need to copy elements from different shells.
To copy course content…
- Enter the source course. This should be the course shell with existing content you want to copy.
Enter the source course - From Course Management Menu in source course, select Packages and Utilities
- Choose Course Copy
Choose “Course Copy” - Copy Type is fixed by default to the correct copy option.
- Browse Destination Course
Browse destination course - You may see a long list of courses. TIP: Use search tools to narrow options
Use search tools to narrow browsing options - Select Destination course and hit Submit
- “Select ALL” Course Materials.
Select ALL Course Materials - Highly Recommended: Do not change any settings except the options listed below. If you want to change a setting please contact Online Learning first.
- Discussion Board: Select “Include only the forums with no starter posts” (the second option) to make sure you do not copy old student and instructor posts into the new course.
- Announcements: If you do not re-use announcements from term to term, deselect Announcements.
If you accidentally copy your discussion threads, check out
How to Delete Old Discussion Threads in New Class
- Keep “Copy Links and copies of the Content (include entire course home folder)”
- Submit
Submit - You will be sent an email confirming that the course copy is complete. Most courses will finish copying within 20 minutes. During times of high volume, it may take longer. Be patient.
- ABSOLUTELY DO NOT CLICK SUBMIT MORE THAN ONCE.
- WAIT FOR THE CONFIRMATION EMAIL BEFORE PROCEEDING WITH ANY OTHER EDITING IN YOUR COURSE.
