[ARCHIVED] Copying Pages into a course, why do they duplicate?

[anne_marenco]

Why can't imported pages write over existing pages?  Why do they have to have a -2 on them?  This is so frustrating that I have to 1. delete the page without the -2, 2. rename the page with the -2 to remove that -2, 3. re-link all of the pages.

[rmurchshafer · Accepted solution]

Hi Anne,

I understand your use case and how you would like it to overwrite existing pages with the same name, but I'm pretty sure in most cases that is not how people would expect it to behave and overwriting existing content would be problematic. 

What is your specific use case?  There might be another way to manage the course which removes the need to import updated versions of a page like it appears you are doing.  If you are teaching multiple courses with the same content (multiple sections of the same course) and copying from one to other, you might consider cross-listing the sections together in Canvas so you only need to maintain a single course site.  How do I cross-list a section in a course as an instructor? 

Another option which requires an Admin to get set up initially is the use of a BluePrint course.  A BluePrint course is like a master course which syncs with Associated courses.  Initially it copies all of the content and then as you make any changes to the BluePrint course you can sync those changes to the Associated courses.  By syncing, it updates the content instead of importing new copies of a page which you are experiencing.  Here is an overview video from an Admin perspective  

I don't know if either of those are realistic options in your case but might be worth taking a look at. I will say that if you are already in the middle of teaching these courses you probably don't want to implement either of those things I mentioned.  They really need to be set up before courses are taught; making a change now could result in lost data and/or student information.  

Hope that helps,

Rick