Managing Course Content Using Canvas Blueprints

CMTS Support

Updated October 14, 2024 16:23

Overview

Blueprints allow for a simple, consistent way to maintain multiple course sites in Canvas that share the same content. With Blueprints, course settings and content can be stored in one course site which has other course sites associated with it, allowing the content to be copied over to them. It is also possible to setup a Blueprint so that assignments, discussions, pages, files, and/or quizzes are locked and are not editable in the associated course sites.

Only courses that begin with BLUPT can be used as Blueprint courses. To have a Blueprint site created, email CMTShelp@jh.edu. In your request, include information about which version of the course you would like us to copy into the Blueprint site for you to begin working with.

Note: Users who are granted Program Admin permission in Canvas will have access to all Blueprint courses and will not need to be enrolled to manage them. They will also have the ability to associate Blueprint sites with academic course sites and will not need to submit requests to do so when needed.

Managing Content as a Blueprint Admin

Users can be enrolled in Blueprints as Designers so that they can act as the Blueprint Admin. After requesting to have the Blueprint site associated with the relevant course sections, Blueprint Admins will be able to manage content within the course, lock/unlock objects as desired, and Sync changes from the Blueprint to the associated sections. If desired, other users can be enrolled in the Grader role to review the changes that are made in the Blueprint before they are pushed to all of the associated courses.

Managing a Blueprint Course

Once you have been provided with the Blueprint site, you will want to make as many updates to the course content as you can before associating the Blueprint with course sections. Any updates you make after should sync to associated courses but should ideally be minimal to avoid possible syncing issues. It is not recommended that Blueprints be used on a course that is having content developed and synced after the course has started.

Locking Content (Optional)

Before associating the Blueprint with course sections, you will want to decide what types of content (if any) you would like to lock so that they cannot be edited in the courses they are copied to.

After you are granted access to your Blueprint site, you can begin editing content as you normally would when preparing your course for term start.
When ready to lock content, click Settings on the course menu.
When locking content, you will see two options: General Locked Objects and Locked Objects by Type. These will control what aspects of the objects are unable to be edited in associated courses: Content, Points, Due Dates, and Availability Dates.

The General Locked Objects setting will cover the locked behavior for all objects in the course. Alternately, if more granularity is desired the Locked Objects by Type option allows for locked settings for each object type:
After making these selections on the Settings page, you will see the blueprint lock icon on other items throughout the course.
If you choose to lock items one by one instead of entire categories, select the blueprint lock icon on whatever content you would like to make uneditable.
Once content has been updated/locked, the blueprint can be associated with courses and then synced.

Associating Courses to the Blueprint

If you are a Blueprint Admin and have Program Admin permissions in Canvas, you will have the ability to associate courses to blueprints and can follow the steps provided. If you do not have permission to associate courses in the blueprints menu, please email CMTShelp@jh.edu to assist with this process.

After a course has been designated a blueprint course a blue square will appear in the upper right corner. Click to expand the Blueprint menu.
Click Associations on the Blueprint menu to open up the list of currently associated courses and a search bar to add other associations.
If you are adding new associations, be sure to remove any old associations by clicking the X next to their name, so that new updates you make do not affect past course content.
To add an associated course, simply use the search bar to select the course(s) you want to associate, then select them under the courses tab.
- Note: Associated courses must reside in the same subaccount where the Blueprint course resides.
Any new courses you add will show up in this screen under the To Be Added section alongside any courses that have been previously added. There will be an indicator that allows you to publish any of the courses you are newly adding
- Note: This will not publish any unpublished courses that were previously associated
When you are finished making new associations or removing old ones, click the Save button.

Syncing Course Material

When you initially associate a course with a blueprint, Canvas will automatically sync material for ALL courses, not just those you have added. This is why it is important to remove past associations before adding new courses to sync updates. After initially adding courses, you will need to manually sync courses for any updates that are made. The sidebar will indicate when there are any unsynced changes.

To start the manual sync, open the Blueprint menu. It is usually best to review the Unsynced Changes by clicking the link on the menu, to ensure all of the updates are captured that you are expecting.
Review the Unsynced Changes and confirm you want to make these to all associated courses. Please note that you cannot remove changes from this list.
When you are ready to push the updates through to your associate courses, click the Sync button. If you choose, you can also select the option to send a notification and message to the faculty in the associated courses.
Important note: When you choose to sync, any locked objects in the blueprint will override those objects in associated courses.
Before moving on, review the Sync History (in the Blueprint course and in the associated course(s)) to ensure that everything synced without any errors.

Tips, Best Practices, etc

Blueprint courses cannot have students or observers enrolled.
Rubrics can be updated and synced as part of blueprint courses. However, if points have been locked for an assignment, updating the rubric’s point value does not affect the assignment point value.
After a sync, it is best to check any 3rd party tool settings in the associated courses as they can be affected.
You cannot sync from associated courses into blueprint courses.
When you first associate a course and trigger a sync, that sync will run for ALL associated courses, not just the one that was newly associated.
If a locked item has a file associated with it, make sure the file is locked as well.
Items that are published a blueprint course are allowed to be unpublished by instructors in any associated courses regardless of locked status.
For Panopto lectures, add the original lecture to the Blueprint Panopto folder and then embed them into the Blueprint. If embedded after associating the Blueprint, you'll need to sync the content.
When adding a File to a Module, it should be inserted onto a Page instead of linked directly into the Module. Linking the file directly into the module will result in syncing issues across sections.

Managing Content as Course Faculty

Faculty who are teaching courses that are associated with Blueprints need to keep that association in mind when making updates to their course content, so that the connections to content are not broken. If faculty make certain types of changes to synced content from the blueprint course, future syncs will no longer work on the updated content and any updates they need will have to be manually copied over.

Instructors in associated courses are unable to modify attributes of locked objects based on the admin settings in the blueprint course. They will see an indicator showing what attributes of the object are locked.

Tips for Updating Content in Associated Courses

Updating items that are synced from the blueprint course can result in their connection to the blueprint site breaking. Only update items that the blueprint manager has indicated you are free to update because they will not be updated from the blueprint.
Any objects manually added to an associated course will NOT be added to the blueprint course, and if they need to be retained/share across all sections instructors should work with the admin for the blueprint course to have them added.
If modules or module items are rearranged in an associated course, the module order will be updated to match the blueprint course structure in the next sync. If a module item in an associated course is moved to another module, the module item will exist in both modules.
Modules created from a blueprint course and deleted from an associated course will not be restored in additional course syncs.

Additional Resources

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