Copying an Existing Schedule of Events
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Elentra allows you to copy existing events, including their curriculum tags and resources, by creating a draft event schedule and populating it with events from a previous course and curriculum period. After you have copied the existing events, you can adjust some of the details like teacher, location, audience, etc. and import the events back into your draft. If your curriculum and course structure are relatively consistent, copying existing events can save significant amounts of time when you begin a new academic year.
Navigate to Admin > Manage Events.
Click 'Manage My Drafts'.
Click 'Create New Draft'.
Provide a logical draft name and an optional description.
Click on the greyed-out words Copy Forward Existing Learning Events.
Complete the required information noting the following:
Copying Learning Resources: Decide which resources should be included in the new draft events and leave the appropriate boxes checked.
Hide files and links: Checking this box will hide all files and links from learners; that means any file or link you want to make visible to leaners will have to be edited after the events are published.
This is a separate feature from time releasing event resources and does need to be checked for event resource time release options to be applied.
Copy event resources as draft: Checking this box will set all links and files as draft in the newly created events; that means once the schedule is published event administrators will need to additionally update each resource to published status to allow learners to view it.
Courses Included: Select the course where the scheduled events are and the course to which your new scheduled events will belong. In most cases, this will be same course. Note that you can add multiple destination courses if required (to delete an unwanted destination course click 'Remove' beside the course name).
Copy Start and Finish: These dates define the start and end dates of the existing events in your source course and should match when the course happened (usually people select the most recent version of the course).
New Start Date: Select the date on which you'd like the copied events to start. Elentra will respect the spacing and timing of all events to be copied.
Automatically assign curriculum period: Optionally get Elentra to assign a curriculum period to all events copied forward. Highly recommended.
Elentra will check the date of the event to try to assign the appropriate curriculum period.
If an event falls on a date that could be in more than one curriculum period you'll likely want to manually set the curriculum period later.
Exceptions to setting a curriculum period are if you have a date that can exist in multiple curriculum periods and you have multiple course enrolment audiences and you want all audiences to attend the event.
As of ME 1.18, you will no longer see the option to copy attached quizzes. If your organization still uses quizzes and you need the copy quiz option back, you will need to speak to a developer.
Click 'Create Draft'.
Review events as needed.
If you copy forward recurring events that have the parent-child id feature enabled, these linkages will be maintained in the copied events.
If there are no changes you wish to make to the schedule, you can publish the draft now. If you wish to change information about the events, see further instructions below.
You can update events manually through the user interface (click on an event and update the required information). You can also export the list of events, edit the CSV and reimport it.
For a draft event schedule import, the following columns are required:
Course Code: This schedules the events in the correct course. You can find course codes on a course setup tab.
Event Types: This defines the event type and can hold multiple event types if needed (e.g., a two-hour session split between lecture and small group work).
Event types must match the list of event types in your organization.
If using more than one event type, and separate them with a semicolon and space (e.g., lecture; small group). Keep the order the same as the event type duration column.
Event Title: Enter the event title.
Date: Enter the date. Multiple formats are accepted.
Start Time: This is what time the event should start. Enter in 24 hr. format.
Event Type Durations: If you have multiple event types scheduled in one event, this column can be used to indicate how much time is allotted to each event type. Enter the time in minutes and separate times with semicolons and a space (e.g., 60; 60). Put the times in the same order as you list the event types.
You must include this field for long events, even if you don't have multiple event types included.
If there are not multiple event types scheduled during an event, this column should be identical to the Total Duration column.
You should also have:
Draft Event:
If you have exported a CSV of copied events, this column will already be populated for you.
Original Event:
If you have exported a CSV of copied draft events, this column will be populated with the unique id numbers of the existing events. This information should not be changed as the original event id will help Elentra know which resources, curriculum tags, etc. to associate with this event.
Note that there are some columns exported which you cannot re-import. These columns can be deleted before uploading data or left for your own reference.
Draft Event* (this is automatically generated by Elentra)
Original Event* (this is the event you intend to copy)
Parent Event
Parent ID (this field will not be relevant on any subsequent draft event import)
Recurring Event
Term
Course Code*
Course Name
Date*
Start Time*
Total Duration
Event Type Durations*
Event Types*
Event Title*
Event Description
Location (Elentra will look for a building ID in the draft event. If there is one, Building-Room will be in the CSV. If not, the Location (Other) a user typed in will be provided (if applicable).)
Audience (Cohorts)
Audience (Groups)
Audience (Students)
Audience (Faculty)
Teacher Numbers
Teacher Names
Objectives Release Date
*= required on import
When you export the events you'll be prompted to select which fields to include in the export; consider the fields you may need to edit or review to help you decide what to include in the exported file.
After you've exported a file you can edit it in your preferred spreadsheet tool.
Additional Considerations
If you need to add new events to an event series, and use the parent child event feature, you should duplicate the lines that represent the child events you want to copy. Then, edit the draft event id to be a unique id for this spreadsheet. You do not need to change the original event id, the parent event id, or recurring event id. Update the event title, audience, location, etc. as required.
If you assign small group audiences to events, make sure to update the small group name to the name for the appropriate curriculum period.
If you assign events to specific buildings and rooms stored in Elentra's Locations tool, please make sure to update the Location column to Location (Rooms). (Elentra uses the same export column for locations manually typed in or those set via site-building-room.)
Tips for adjusting the schedule include using the find and replace function if there are consistent changes across the schedule (e.g. all audience group 2020-1 will become 2021-1, or one tutor is replacing another across multiple events). When you upload your revised CSV, the system will register the changes in the CSV and apply them to the draft schedule.
After preparing your spreadsheet, click 'Import CSV'. You will be prompted to match the column headings from your CSV with the available import fields. The system will try to match this for you as much as possible but you may need to manually move some. To do so, drag and drop the appropriate field name with the column heading from your file.
Click the checkbox beside draft you wish to publish and click 'Publish Draft'.
Click 'Confirm'.
Within about an hour the scheduled events will be live in your system.
