Bulk Resetting Course content using an API call

[alunsfor]

I have a group of about 90 sandbox courses that I need to reset the course content so they are ready to receive new content this summer.  I noticed in the API documentation when using the 

POST|/api/v1/courses/:course_id/reset_content to reset the course content, it states that it will "Deletes the current course, and creates a new equivalent course with no content, but all sections and users moved over."

Is there a way to reset the course content using and API call but not have it delete the course and create a new one?

if there is another way to reset the content for these 90 courses instead of having to go through each one that would work also.

[JamesSekcienski · Accepted solution]

@alunsfor,

The Reset Course endpoint is the simplest for removing all content from a course.  A nice bonus for this is when someone accidentally resets a course and you need the content restored, you can recover it from the deleted version of the course.  Is there a particular reason you don't want to have the course deleted and a new one made?

Unfortunately, to "reset" a course without deleting it, you would need to go through all the different possibilities for course content (i.e. assignments, quizzes, discussions, pages, files, announcements, modules, etc.) and delete them manually or with API calls.

[alunsfor · Accepted solution]

I guess the biggest thing would be having to find the names of the new courses and rename them.  I will have to try one out and see how it works.  Thanks for the advice.

[JamesSekcienski · Accepted solution]

@alunsfor,

The Reset Course endpoint is the simplest for removing all content from a course.  A nice bonus for this is when someone accidentally resets a course and you need the content restored, you can recover it from the deleted version of the course.  Is there a particular reason you don't want to have the course deleted and a new one made?

Unfortunately, to "reset" a course without deleting it, you would need to go through all the different possibilities for course content (i.e. assignments, quizzes, discussions, pages, files, announcements, modules, etc.) and delete them manually or with API calls.

[alunsfor · Accepted solution]

I guess the biggest thing would be having to find the names of the new courses and rename them.  I will have to try one out and see how it works.  Thanks for the advice.

[JamesSekcienski · Accepted solution]

@alunsfor,

The course settings should be retained too with the reset.  Thus the course names would stay the same.  While the Canvas course ID will change, if you have an SIS ID set on the course, it will also be removed from the old deleted version of the course and assigned to the new reset version of the course. 

Also, if I recall correctly, the response you receive from the Course Reset request would include the new course information, so you should be able to get the new Canvas course ID from that if you need it.

[alunsfor]

Yep, everything worked.  I was able to reset the list of courses and it saved the course names.  I ran a provisioning report and was able to easily find the new course numbers.  I have a completed process now.  Thanks

[agschmid]

@alunsfor if you have access to CD2, the following query will retrieve courses that have been reset. You will just need to adapt the query according to how/where you access CD2:

SELECT course_id, sis_source_id, course_code,workflow_state, replacement_course_id
FROM courses
WHERE enrollment_term_id = <term_id>
AND replacement_course_id IS NOT NULL