Copy Course Content From One Canvas Shell to Another

For instructors needing to move content they own from one Canvas shell to another. 

Refer to this guide in the Canvas Instructor Community for official documentation about copying content in Canvas

How do I copy content from another Canvas course using the Course Import tool? 

1. Navigate to the destination course.  This is the blank course that will have content added to it. 

2. From this destination course, go to Settings using the course menu options. 
    

3. On the settings page, select Import Course Content from the menu on the right. 
    

4. From the Content Type drop-down menu, select Copy a Canvas Course. 
    

5. From the Search for a course dropdown options, select the source course that contains the content to be copied. 
    

6. Canvas provides the option to either copy all the content or to select the content to be copied.  From the Content selection, choose if there is a need to be selective about what content is copied. 
   For more details about using specific options, please refer to the official Canvas documentation linked at the top of this section. 

a. All content will skip the selection process and copy everything. 

b. Select specific content will provide an option later in the process to specify the items that need to be copied.  If uncertain, select this as it will provide the most flexibility when copying content. 
 

7. Under Options, check the Adjust events and due dates if there is a need to update the dates for a new term. 
   For more details about using specific options, please refer to the official Canvas documentation link at the top of this section.  

8. Click Import 
   The warning text is alerting that copying multiple times may cause an issue.  For an initial copy, it can be ignored. 
    

9. Upon click import, the page will refresh, showing the copy process.  This process may take a few minutes, and the status will be automatically updated on the page. 

a. If the option to select specific content was not selected, the process will complete.  Please refer to step 14 in this section. 

b. If the option to select specific content was selected, a button will be presented to make that selection.
 

10. Clicking the Select Content button will open a pop-up window allowing the selection of content to be copied. 
     

11. Types of items can be selected as a group or expanded to show individual items.  Those items with a check beside them will be copied into the destination course. Those without will not be copied. 
    For more details about using specific options, please refer to the official Canvas documentation link at the top of this section. 
    It is common not to select announcements as they are often contextual and may need to be created as required throughout a term. 
     

12. Once the items to be copied are selected, click Select Content to complete the copy process. 
     

13. The page will update with the status until the copy process is complete. 
     

14. If there are no errors, it will show Completed in green.
    If there are errors, it will show Completed in yellow and will have an issues link to the right. 
     

15. Clicking on the issues link will expand the list of issues and links to each item to be addressed. 
    For more details about using specific options, please refer to the official Canvas documentation link at the top of this section.