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Add content from a past course in myCourses

You can save time at the beginning of a new term, and make sure that your course content stays consistent, by copying components of a past McGill course. You can choose to copy all course components or selected components, such as assignments and quizzes, from one or more courses. Student activity from past courses, such as their discussion posts, cannot be copied.

You can only copy components to and from courses in which you have one of these roles: Instructor, Course Coordinator, Course Designer, Course Exporter, or Teaching Assistant (Designer).

Copy all Components

This method will allow you to copy all components from a past course without any further steps. If you are using the Announcements tool, you should not use the Copy all Components method because students in your new course will receive notifications for all copied announcements.

  1. On the myCourses My Home page, select your new course (or the name of the course that you want to copy components to).

  2. On the Course Home page, select Course Admin on the Navigation Bar.

  3. Select Import/Export/Copy Components.

  4. On the Import/Export/Copy Components page, click Search for offering.

  5. In the pop-up window that appears, search for the offering name, code, department, or term of your past course.

  6. Select the course that you want to copy from and click Add Selected.

  7. Click Copy All Components.

  8. After all components have finished copying, click View Content.

When copying all components, the date and time restrictions from the past term (such as hidden content or activities, quiz or assignment deadlines) are included. You can easily change these dates for the new term to have Items become visible to students on the correct date using the Manage Dates tool.

If your original course included a lecture recording link, that link will still point to the past course/term after the content is copied. You will need to update the link in the Navigation Bar to point to the new lecture recordings. 


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Copy Selected Components

This method allows you to select which components you want to copy from a course. It also allows you to deselect the Announcements tool to prevent students from receiving notifications of copied announcements.

  1. Follow steps 1-6 in the Copy all Components section.

  2. Then, click Select Components.

  3. Select the checkbox beside each component you want to copy. Deselect Announcements unless you have expired the announcements you are copying.

  4. For each selected component, select one of these options:

    1. Copy all items: Copies all items for the selected components, such as all quizzes or all assignments.

    2. Select individual items to copy: Copies individual items, such as one quiz or two assignments.

      You can export the release conditions of the course. You will no longer need to re-create these release conditions when you import the course package.

      If you decide to copy the Content from a past course, select Include associated files to avoid having broken links in your course.

  5. Click Continue at the bottom-left corner of the page.

  6. On the Select Course Material page, if you chose Select individual items to copy, click the Expand All link to view all items in the selected component.

  7. Select the checkbox beside each item you want to copy.

  8. Click Continue.

      If you chose Select individual items to copy for more than one component, you will need to repeat steps 6-8 for each component.

    On the next page, you will see an animated progress icon beside each component while it is being copied. You will know content has been copied successfully when all components have a green checkmark icon beside them. This may take several minutes if your past course contains a large amount of content.

  9. After all selected components are successfully copied, click Done.

  10. If you copied the Navigation Bar or Course Home page from the past course, the newly created copies will be available within the new course, but they are still not “active.” To activate them:

    1. Set the newly copied Navigation Bar as “active” for your new course. (See the Edit the navigation bar (Navbar) in myCourses article.)

    2. Set the newly copied home page as “active” for your new course. (See the Customize your course home page with widgets in myCourses article.)

If you are copying linked or associated components, you must copy all of the related components at the same time. For example, if a discussion topic has release conditions based on the results of a quiz, you must copy all three components - discussions, quizzes and release conditions - at the same time. Similarly, if you have a quiz associated with a grade item, you must copy both the quiz and the grade item at the same time. As long as the associated components are copied together, links between them are retained.

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Copy individual Assignments

  1. Go to the Assignments tab of the course containing the assignment you would like to copy.

  2. Click on the arrow next to the item you want to copy and select Copy to Other Courses

  3. Select the courses you want to copy the item. Check Include Rubrics and Include Grade Item if you want this attributes copied too.

  4. Click on the arrow next to the course name and choose the ModulePlacement, and Visibility.

  5. Click Next and Copy.


The copied assignment will retain the following attributes:

  • Assignment folder and properties, including instructions, assignment category, and visibility

  • Assignment properties including description, attachments (direct file attachments, uploaded from Google Workspace or OneDrive, and audio and video files), and category

  • Grade item and grade category, grade calculation options (Grade System, Final Grade Released and Grade Calculations), gradebook display settings.

  • Availability dates

  • Submission and completion information, including the Optional Grade item and the course scheme if used.

  • Number of Groups – No Auto Enrollments

  • Rubric(s) associated with the assignment. When copying an assignment that uses a shared rubric, instead of linking a copied assignment to a shared rubric, the rubric is also copied. The copied assignment links to the copied rubric. If an assignment uses a rubric that is archived, the rubric is copied and retains the archived state in the destination courses. 

The following attributes are not copied:

  • Instruction quick links and attachment resources created with the Attach link to existing activity action.

  • Instruction images added using Insert Image that were saved to course files.

  • Availability Release conditions and special access settings

  • Submission and completion information including group assignment designation.

  • Content topic associations (for example, if the assignment is linked from content)

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While this resource is accessible worldwide, McGill University is on land which has served and continues to serve as a site of meeting and exchange amongst Indigenous peoples, including the Haudenosaunee and Anishinabeg nations. Teaching and Learning Services acknowledges and thanks the diverse Indigenous peoples whose footsteps mark this territory on which peoples of the world now gather. This land acknowledgment is shared as a starting point to provide context for further learning and action.

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