Fixing calendar errors when copying classes.

[stevec]

In all the years I've been using Canvas, I've never had it copy a course calendar correctly. It inevitably creates a huge traffic jam in the first three weeks of a class, and then leaves assignments off later in the term. It takes hours to fix this each term. It would be great if things could just transfer over---I don't know--like everything for a particular week in Fall Term just moved over to that same week in Winter term??? Or even if it allowed us to move things between months, which now takes several steps and a lot of time? It doesn't seem that hard to me, but maybe there's a reason for this? Sadism? 

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @stevec,

Importing and shifting dates from semester to semester seems like something that should be pretty easy, but in reality there are a lot of variables that come in to play...  Not every semester will start on the same day, or be the same length.  Some semesters may have a break week, while others may not.  Federal holidays can also come into play.  On top of all of those general issues, teachers may have their own preferences as to a regular course schedule (discussions due Tuesday, assignments due Friday, etc).

With that preface out of the way, if you simply want to have somewhat of a "simple" date shift, where all of the days of the week stay the same, but the months adjust (and no breaks, days off, etc are taken into account), you can do that pretty easily.  Here's how...

When you're doing your course import, select the option to adjust dates.  For the source/original course start date, select the Sunday before the term started, and then for the end date select Saturday after the term ended.  Now here's the real trick to make this work...  You need to count how many weeks are between the dates you just selected, as it's important in a second.  For the destination/new course, select the Sunday before the new term starts, and then for the end date select the Saturday that's the same number of weeks away as what you had in the source course.  For example, if your source course had 12 weeks, your destination course also needs to have 12 weeks, otherwise Canvas is going to start adjusting the days of the week to scrunch or stretch out the schedule.

I hope this makes a bit of sense and helps you get your importing done more easily in the future!

-Chris

[SusanNiemeyer · Accepted solution]

I would strongly recommend that you "remove" the dates altogether when you import content into your new course shell. The "shift" dates NEVER works well.

Then to assign new dates, go to your Assignments tab. Then click on the 3 dots in the upper righthand corner. Then click on "Edit Assignment Dates." Now, you can put the new dates in pretty quickly. This method is much faster than editing each assignment one by one.

[chriscas · Accepted solution]

Hi @stevec,

Importing and shifting dates from semester to semester seems like something that should be pretty easy, but in reality there are a lot of variables that come in to play...  Not every semester will start on the same day, or be the same length.  Some semesters may have a break week, while others may not.  Federal holidays can also come into play.  On top of all of those general issues, teachers may have their own preferences as to a regular course schedule (discussions due Tuesday, assignments due Friday, etc).

With that preface out of the way, if you simply want to have somewhat of a "simple" date shift, where all of the days of the week stay the same, but the months adjust (and no breaks, days off, etc are taken into account), you can do that pretty easily.  Here's how...

When you're doing your course import, select the option to adjust dates.  For the source/original course start date, select the Sunday before the term started, and then for the end date select Saturday after the term ended.  Now here's the real trick to make this work...  You need to count how many weeks are between the dates you just selected, as it's important in a second.  For the destination/new course, select the Sunday before the new term starts, and then for the end date select the Saturday that's the same number of weeks away as what you had in the source course.  For example, if your source course had 12 weeks, your destination course also needs to have 12 weeks, otherwise Canvas is going to start adjusting the days of the week to scrunch or stretch out the schedule.

I hope this makes a bit of sense and helps you get your importing done more easily in the future!

-Chris

[stevec]

I'll try it, but if this is a solution, it would help if these instructions were included when copying courses. I don't know anyone who has every had success at copying courses. I understand that different terms change things, but I can't imagine there's any reason for the program to combine multiple calendar days into a single day when copying. It seems to me that a class day is a discrete event, and that no one would ever want to have multiple days combined--especially when it's done nearly at random. There's something very wrong with the way this copying program works. 

[Chris_Hofer]

@stevec ...

At the bottom of any Guide, you can submit your suggestions to the Documentation Team at Instructure if you believe things are not clear or could use some additional explanation.  The Documentation Team will then review your request and determine if any info should be added to the Guide in question.  As an example:

How do I copy content from another Canvas course u... - Instructure Community - 1012 (canvaslms.com)

At the very bottom of this page, you'll find a blue button for "Leave Feedback".  This will open up a window where you can leave feedback specific for that Guide.  This works the same for all the other Guides here in the Community...again, specific to the Guide you are currently viewing.

Hopefully this will be of some help to you.

[SusanNiemeyer · Accepted solution]

I would strongly recommend that you "remove" the dates altogether when you import content into your new course shell. The "shift" dates NEVER works well.

Then to assign new dates, go to your Assignments tab. Then click on the 3 dots in the upper righthand corner. Then click on "Edit Assignment Dates." Now, you can put the new dates in pretty quickly. This method is much faster than editing each assignment one by one.

[stevec]

Chris's solution works pretty well. Still the problem of classes starting on Tuesday this quarter as opposed to Monday of last quarter, necessitating a lot of shuffling things around, but at least I didn't get the "crunch" at the beginning of the quarter. 

[audra_agnelly · Accepted solution]

In addition to the shift dates on import I wanted to lift up the Bulk updated due date screen where you can go through all your assignments at once and update the due dates. I do find a lot of people aren't aware of this feature in Canvas:

• How do I bulk update due dates and availability dates as an instructor?