When you have a course that has not been given before (for example: courses that are part of an entirely new program, or courses that have been changed completely to fit the new curriculum), the course must be built from scratch in Brightspace. The Basic Course Template works as an aid to help you build your course and provides detailed instructions on how to build your course. It also ensures that you adhere to the THUAS structure.

The Basic Course Template will be added below the current Units in the content part of your course. Are your current Units empty? You could delete them already if you want to. Have you already added content to it that you would like to keep? Then don't delete them just yet.

To import the Basic Course Template, you first need to download it. Make sure you always go here to download it to make sure you have the latest version of Basic Course Template. Click the link below to find the Basic Course Template for a course. Note that this is the English version of the Basic Course Template; if you wish to download the Dutch version, please refer to the Dutch version of this article.

• Go to your course
• Go to Course Tools - Course Admin
• Select Import/Export/Copy Components
• Select Import components and click Start
• Upload the Zipfile by selecting it from your pc or dragging it to the Upload box
• Click Import all components if you are sure you want the entire Basic Course Template. Click Advanced Options if you want to make a selection first, for instance if you already know you aren't going to use all parts of the Basic Course Template
• The converting and importing may take a while
• Click view content to see the results once it's finished
• Delete and/or move the pre-existing content as needed

It is possible to copy both the structure and/or the content (modules and documents) from one course to another. You need to be an Instructor in both courses to be able to copy content. This way you can re-use (parts of) a course that you have built for another year. Additionally, it is also useful for transferring draft versions of (parts of) your course from your Sandbox to the actual course when it is finished.

Manually copying an existing course is a good idea if you have a course from the previous year or semester that will be given again in the upcoming year or semester with very little to no changes. When you manually copy an existing course, you get to pick and choose exactly which parts of the course you'd like to keep.

The old built course will be referred to as the source course. The new course will be referred to as the target course. 

• Navigate to the target course. 
• Open Course Tools in the navbar of the course.
• Click on Course Admin.
• Click on Import/Export/Copy Components.

1. Select Copy Components from another Org Unit to copy from the source course to the target course.
2. Then click Search for offering. A pop-up window will appear where you can search for the source course. You can search by code or name. Select the correct source course and click Add Selected.
3. Make sure the box Include protected resources is selected.
4. Click Copy All Components to copy all components from the source course to the target course. This way, all content and almost all settings of the source course will be transferred correctly.
5. Wait for Brightspace to confirm the copying procedure was successful. This may take a while, depending on the size of the course.

1. Navigate to Review and Manage Dates to check and alter all restrictions and data at once. You can adjust the due dates, availability dates, and all other dates by clicking on them. 

Also:

• Go to Course Tools and click on Assignments and check whether all desired assignments have been copied. Remove assignments that are abundant. Ouriginal links have to be regenerated.
• Go to Grades and then select Manage Grades. Check whether all grade items have been copied correctly as well as whether they have been connected to the right grade schemes and assignments. 

• Navigate to the target course. 
• Open Course Tools in the navbar of the course.
• Click on Course Admin.
• Click on Import/Export/Copy Components.

1. Select Copy Components from another Org Unit to copy components from the source course to the target course.
2. Click Search for offering. A pop-up window will appear where you can search for the right course. You can search by code or name. Select the right source course and click Add Selected.
3. Make sure the box for Include protected resources is selected.
4. Click Select Components. You will now see an overview of all Course Components that can be copied.

Select the components you wish to copy. You can specify per component, which parts you want to copy by checking Select individual items to copy. 

Within the components, you can Select individual items to copy. For instance, you can choose to copy specific modules or sub-modules from the Source Course to the Target Course.

Refine what content should be transferred by clicking on the '+' symbol. This expands the modules to include to sub-modules within your course.

In the example above you can check which parts from the module General Information you want to copy to the target course. 

By clicking Finish, the selected components will be copied to your target course. Brightspace confirms the copy completion on a new page and offers you to:

1. Copy Another Package
2. View Content
3. Review and Manage Dates