Work with a copied course

Updated 18 Sep 2025

You should examine your copied course, especially to check its assignments and settings.

Characteristics of a copied course (what's copied and what isn't copied in a same edition copy)
New edition copies (requirements, updated assignment content, and more)

Checklist before you teach with a copied course

You may need to make a few adjustments before you teach with a copied course.

Section instructors, time zone, & announcements

Setting/info	What to check or change in the course copy
Course title	Change the course title from Copy of <Course Title> before you open the course to students.
Section instructors	Add any section instructors to the new course and check their privileges. (Any section instructors and their privileges from the course that you copied are not included in the new copy.)
Time Zone	Check the time zone setting, which applies to all assignment dates in the course.
Announcements	Consider adding course announcements to the new course. You can also send announcements as email to all students who have joined the course.

Assignment content and due dates

Assignment type or dates	What to check or change in the course copy
Adaptive Follow-Up assignments	If you’re using Adaptive Follow-Ups, be sure to: Delete any copied assignments that you don't intend to use in the new course so the items in those assignments won’t be sequestered (prevented from being included in Follow-Ups). Include any new-edition items, if you copied the course to a new edition and these were not updated automatically.
Assignments	Review course assignments, add or edit assignments, or delete assignments you don't want to use. In particular, review any assignments that have had retired items removed or updated as the result of a course copy. How to identify assignments that have had items removed or updated in a copied course See which assignments had an item removed. Open the Assignments list page, then select Show assignments in the message (top) to see a list of assignments that have had items removed or updated as well as the number of items remaining. marks each assignment that has had an item removed in the assignments list or calendar view . The marker disappears once the assignment is available to students. Course Home reminder in Assignments area — For 2 weeks after the new course is created by copying, the Assignments area on the Course Home reminds you to review assignments that have had items removed. Select your assignments to jump to the Assignments page. Add points and/or items to match the assignment points in the original course If your copied course contains assignments that have had items removed (), you may want to match the point values of the assignments from the original course. Open the original and copied courses in separate browser tabs or windows. Compare the assigned points in a assignment with the same assignment in the original course. Either adjust the current point values for each assignment in the copied course or, for each removed item, add a different item and set its point value to match the removed item. If the copy was to a new edition... Any links to eTextbook pages that instructors add as assignment instructions in the original course do not get updated automatically in the new edition course. You can edit these, if needed.
Assignment dates	Update assignment due dates if you chose to make the dates blank or check the availability dates if you set a new date from which the assignment due dates should begin. In particular, check that due dates in the new course don't conflict with any holidays. (For availability, the default From date is one week before the Due Date/Time, and the Until date is the end date of the course.)
Dynamic Study Module assignments	If you copied the course using the same textbook, adjust the assignment due dates for assigned Dynamic Study Modules if needed—that is, if you’re teaching the new course in a different semester/term or on a different day in the same term. (All Dynamic Study Modules are assigned in the course copy with the same settings as in the original course. Modules automatically remain available through the end of the course.) If you copied a course to its new edition, add and assign the Dynamic Study Modules into the new course. (Dynamic Study Module assignments in the original course are NOT copied into the new edition course.)
Learning Catalytics	Enable Learning Catalytics for the new course and prompt students to confirm or purchase access. (All Learning Catalytics modules associated with the original course are available in the copied course, whether the course is based on the same or the new edition textbook.)
My Items	Specify new chapters and sections for your My Items in a course copied to a different or new edition textbook. My Items are copied to the new course in the No Chapter Specified area of the Item Library filter—even if you had associated them with chapters or sections in the original course. No follow-up action is needed if you copied the course to the same edition. In that case, all My Items remain in their original locations in the new course.