How to easily reuse directions across several graded items within a single course in Canvas
May 06, 2020
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If you have ever wanted to be able to easily reuse directions for several assignments with just a few minor tweaks for each assignment, now you can! Design Tools offers the ability to reuse directions from one gradable item (e.g., assignments, quizzes, and discussions) to another within the same Canvas course, even if you didn't use a Design Tools template when typing in the original set of directions. This means that you can rapidly create multiple assignments with similar directions. To get started:
- Select Assignments on the course navigation menu.
- Click the garnet + Assignment button in the upper right of the screen on the Assignments page.
- This will take you to the "Create New Assignment" page containing the Rich Content Editor. Click the rocket ship icon in the upper right corner of the page to launch the Design Tools menu.
- Select Create/Edit Content on the Design Tools menu.
- Select Copy Existing Content on the Design Tools menu.
- From here, you can select content from a variety of different sources. However, for the purpose of reusing assignment directions, we recommend the "All Course Assignment Descriptions" option.
- All Course Assignment Descriptions will allow you to select any set of directions from existing graded items within the course site (i.e., within the course site you are currently working in).
- All Course Pages will allow you to copy from Canvas content pages in the course site.
- Institutional Templates allows you to pull description templates that are maintained by your department or FSU. These templates will not contain specific directions, but are instead page templates, so they are more useful when you are typing up new directions than when you are trying to reuse existing directions.
- Copy Content by URL allows you to pull descriptions from other course sites you own (i.e., outside the the course site you are currently working in).
- Select the assignment directions you want to reuse from the All Course Assignment Descriptions drop-down menu.
- Once the content is selected, it may take a moment to load up the requested content.
- Once it has loaded, the selected description will appear in the Rich Content Editor. If you selected the wrong set of directions, don't worry: Simply select a different assignment from the All Course Assignment Descriptions drop-down on the Design Tools menu and the newly-selected description will appear.
- Make any adjustments needed to the assignment description and settings, and then scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Save button to save your changes, or click the Save & Publish button if the assignment is ready to be published and made available to students per your selected settings.
