Canvas: Getting Started With Blueprint Courses

A blueprint course is a special type of course in Canvas that serves as a template for other courses. The content and settings in the blueprint course can then be pushed out to courses that are associated with the blueprint. At UW-Stout Learning Technology Services can create a blueprint course and associate your course sections.

Overview of Blueprint courses

Canvas provides an introduction to Blueprint course video: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Video-Guide/Blueprint-Courses-Overview/ta-p/383201 

Content locking

When a blueprint course has been created and associated the instructor can choose the locking settings. These will determine what attributes teachers in the associated courses will be unable to change for each object that you lock. (You will select which individual items to lock or unlock separately, as described below.)

  1. You can specify for locking any combination of content, points, due dates, and availability dates in either of the following ways:

    • General Locked Objects: Applies the same locking settings in all tools
    • Locked Objects by Type: Allows you to set separate locking settings for Assignments, Discussions, Pages, Files, and Quizzes
  2. Click Update Settings to save your selections.

Content and settings

Before associating courses with your blueprint course, create the content that you want to sync with the associated courses and review the course settings in your blueprint to make sure they are correct. Course settings, which include the navigation menu and course start and end dates, are included in the Blueprint Manager course sync by default.

Lock individual objects in a blueprint course

Once you enable the course as a blueprint and select your locking preferences, as described above, you can lock or unlock individual objects (content items) in the course. Locking an object will apply your blueprint locking preferences to the item in all associated courses. If you leave an object unlocked, teachers in the associated courses will be able to modify it. For instructions on how to lock and unlock objects, see How do I lock course objects in a blueprint course as an instructor?  

For information on how to work with and manage content in associated courses, see How do I manage content for a course associated with a blueprint course?

Tips for working with blueprints

  • Announcements can only be locked if General Locked Objects is selected in the Blueprint course settings.
  • If items are published in a Blueprint course, they will show as published in the associated course. Instructors in the associated course have the ability to unpublish published content.
  • If there are unlocked items in your Blueprint course, do not lock them after they have been synced unless you are certain they have not been modified in the associated course(s). Locking an item after a sync will overwrite changes made to the item in the associated course(s).
  • If a locked object (discussion, assignment, page, etc) has a file attachment or a link to a file stored in the Files tool, be sure to lock the file as well; otherwise the file can be deleted from the associated course(s), breaking the attachment or link

Next steps

Instructors interested in using Blueprint courses should open a self-service ticket at Technology Help Desk. Please include the name of the courses and any required associated sections.

See Also


Keywords:
canvas, rename, course, settings, people, Blueprint 
Doc ID:
106873
Owned by:
Marty W. in UW Stout
KnowledgeBase
Created:
2020-10-28
Updated:
2023-10-30
Sites:
UW Stout