How do I allow a colleague to access a course I taught in a previous semester? OR, how can I add a colleague to my old course?
Answer
Canvas courses are closed/archived one week after the semester is over. An archived course can only be viewed and its content be copied by the course Instructor; adding a new member can only be done by Canvas Admin by re-opening the course. If an archived course is re-opened, however, students enrolled in the old course can see the course again, which in the past caused confusion to some students about whether they had truly completed the course. Additionally, adding a colleague to the old course may inadvertently allow access to student grades, which can cause privacy concerns.
There are better ways to share course content, including
- The instructor who is willing to share may export his/her course from a previous semester and download and share the .imcss file with the requesting instructor. The requesting instructor can import the content (or selected content items, such as quizzes, modules etc.) into his/her current Canvas course or a manually created course (the "target course"), and make edits.
- Alternatively, the requestor can add (from "People" link in the target course) the instructor who is willing to share as Teacher. The added teacher can copy his/her old course content into the target course. The added teacher may then be removed (through the "People" link) by the requestor from the course.