Course Delete SIS

[jschaffer]

Hello All, 

I encountered something odd this morning when trying to delete a course.  I was navigating through one of our sub accounts, found a course that we had to delete and then dupe a new version of (not simply reset, but completely remove), and I found that after deleting it, I was unable to use the same SIS ID when trying to create a replacement course.  I was under the impression that when you deleted a course it removed the SIS, or changed it to something different altogether.  Is this not the case?  

Regards, 

Jason Schaffer

[MattHanes]

I have run into this before. You have to go to the Course Settings, remove the SIS ID field, save settings, and then delete the course if you want to reuse that SIS ID. I think you can use an SIS import to restore the course so you can go back and do all of that. Or you can do what I did and call up Canvas Support and have them do it for you.

[jschaffer]

 @MattHanes ‌,

Thanks as always.  This is frustrating and I would rather have the deleted course have no SIS so I can save a step and reuse the SIS later on.  I think it would be obvious that I do not need that course to have a SIS if I am deleting it.  Maybe I can submit an Idea on this one today.  

Regards, 

Jason Schaffer 

[MattHanes]

Yeah, if I ran into this more than a few times then I would probably just write a script to do it all. It would be pretty simple to write a script that asks for the id of the course, then passes and empty string into the SIS ID, then delete the course. You could even go the extra mile and have it read the course IDs from a CSV or TXT file in case you have to do multiple courses.

[kmeeusen]

Hi jschaffer 

If you noted the course number (Canvas' ID number) before deletion, you can restore the deleted course yourself under Admin Tools in the Admin area. You can learn more at How do I restore a deleted course in an account? 

Also, instead of deleting have you considered what we affectionately cal a "wipe-n-dipe" Reset the course content. This will remove everything except enrollments, and content can be re-added using any number of means, then the SIS ID is maintained. If grades are a concern, the gradebook can be downloaded before wiping. You can learn more at https://community.canvaslms.com/docs/DOC-10408-415257102 

I hope this helps,

Kelley