Course Website Versioning
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You can create multiple course websites for a single course in order to provide appropriate content to different cohorts of learners (e.g. Class of 2022, Class of 2023).
After a course website has been built for a course and you want to create a new version of the course website you can simply roll forward the existing website and make it available to the enrolled audience in a new curriculum period. Please note that different pages types will copy forward differently. For default page types, content will copy (for both the templated pages and additional pages added). For most other page types, the page titles will copy (e.g., Class Discussion Board), however the structure within each page will not be copied forward (e.g., Forums, Threads, Folders, etc.). This is expected behaviour as we anticipate that audiences based on new curriculum periods will have new announcements, discussion boards, etc.
If you do want to have the structure and content of other page types copy forward you can speak to a developer who can make database changes to support this (note, this is not a setting option, rather developers will need to change column values in several tables). Note that if you opt for copying page structure and content it is currently an all or nothing option. You can't copy just Discussion page forums and not the actual posts. Similarly you can't copy Shared Document page folder structure, but not the files.
To minimize the risk of error in copying a course website, this tool is only available via Admin > Manage Communities (i.e. a user can't copy forward a course website from the community's management interface). As such, this feature is available to staff:admin users.
Navigate to Admin > Manage Communities. (Available to admin users only.)
From the cog icon beside the community you wish to roll forward, select 'Rollover versions.'
Alternatively, you can navigate to the community you wish to roll forward and click Manage Community, then Details, then Rollover versions. (Option for faculty users who are administrators of a course website community.)
You will arrive at a Rollover screen.
The course website version you are rolling over will display under 'From Curriculum Period.'
If you check "Do not rollover from curriculum period above" you will simply create a versioned course website using the original community template used for the course.
Edit the name for the community as desired (e.g. MEDS 100 for Class of 2023). This will display to users. Including a cohort in the name is optional and may not be necessary for your users. Learners will automatically see the course website for the curriculum period they are enrolled in and not the websites for other curriculum periods. Faculty or staff who have access to multiple course website versions will have a curriculum period switcher in their sidebar.
Select the new Curriculum Period for which you want to create a course website. (Note, you must have the curriculum period you want to use assigned to a course enrolment to access it to roll forward to.)
Click Rollover.
You will see a green success message and be directed to the newly created course website. You should see the appropriate pages--either those from the original template or those from the course website you selected to roll forward.
Note that course website community members and administrators will be copied when you rollover a course website. However, the Course Audience will be dictated by course enrolment. Also, once you have multiple course websites, you must manage membership for each website individually (i.e., if you have websites A and A1 and add someone as a community administrator to website A, they won't automatically inherit community administrator rights to website A1).
Not every page in a course website template currently supports curriculum period versioning. If you use the Course Description and Director's Message on a course Content tab, that information is not currently tied to a specific curriculum period and whatever is supplied via Manage Courses will display for all users in all versions of the course website. To provide custom text for different cohorts on the templated "Background" page, edit the text through the Manage Pages tool in the course website.
