Canvas: Blueprint Candidate Interview
Canvas Blueprint Candidate Interview
A Blueprint course is a special type of course in Canvas that serves as a template for other courses. The content and settings in the Blueprint course can then be pushed out to courses that are associated with the Blueprint.
Blueprint – a template course pushes/syncs its content with associated child courses.
Merged – two or more courses that are joined to share the same content.
Build-and-copy – Build in one course and either copy the whole course to another course, or export and import “selected content” into another course.
Commons –package, describe and export content to a UBC folder in Commons for another instructor to import.
Review the following table to determine if your course merits a being a Blueprint course.
| Question | Answer | Implications |
| How many instructors and how many sections will this course have? | > 3 instructors, sections | Blueprint favours an economy of scale. You need lots of sections, students and instructors to merit maintaining a separate Blueprint course. |
| < 3 | Blueprint is like a third template course needing considerable admin overhead to set it up and run it | |
| How many students in total? | < 100 | Smaller enrolments favour a merge or build and copy. |
| > 100 students | Larger classes with more than 2 instructors favour separate course shells over a merging. | |
| Were there a number of TAs helping with grading? | > 2 TAs | Maintaining separate sections make it less likely TAs have difficulty grading their sections. |
| No | ||
| Have you or someone else taught this course before using Canvas? | Yes | This means that the design has been tried and there are findings about how it worked. This favours Blueprint. |
| No | This means there might NOT be: • Agreement about how to design the course. • A common schedule of course events. • Time to prepare or coordinate a Blueprint before term starts. Blueprint is not recommended. |
|
| Is there an instructor who knows the content and course more, or is in charge of the course? | Yes | This favours a Blueprint or build and copy. |
| No | The instructors will need to collaborate to determine the content, how much they each can do independently, and whether someone oversees the content that needs to be identical across the sections. | |
| How much of the content needs to be identical across the sections? | Most | This favours building centrally (maybe Blueprint) |
| Little | This favours using something other than Blueprint. If it is just a few elements, they can be shared through an import or Commons. | |
| Was it merged last time? | Yes | What worked or didn’t work, what has changed? Perhaps there are features that could have made merging work |
| No | Consider merging as you answer each question | |
| Will most if not all of the content be built before the start of the term? | Yes | Content is a large part. Before the term you can copy to other courses. |
| No | If you build as you go, more effort goes to coordinating the building and distribution of each part. Sessional tutorial or lab instructors (also clinical instructors, TAs) may need to see content in the course when they arrive because they are not familiar with Canvas, cannot be expected to create the content, or don’t have time. Also, if you want to control branding and quality over the term you may want control over what is in their courses. This favours using Blueprint. | |
| How often will common content be added to the course sections or announcements made during the term? | < 3 times per term | If the sections run independently except for a few times, then it may be easier just to import or use Commons to get the updates |
| Often | If there are a lot of separate sections and instructors that means a lot of copying, and this favours a Blueprint. | |
| Are your Files organized in folders with each file having a unique name? | Yes | Blueprint requires the Canvas Files to be organized with proper folder and file naming to distinguish between which files are locked or not locked by the Blueprint, and for instructors to know the difference. |
| No | For example, if a file is not locked in a Blueprint, the file can be altered in the associated course. Also, if Blueprint locks a file and syncs it but the local instructor saves a different version to another folder to show students, there will be two versions and the purpose of the Blueprint is compromised. | |
| Do you have good/regular communication with the other instructors? | Yes | You need good regular communication if you are merging or co-teaching, and it is more likely that you will be working together. If someone is in charge of a Blueprint, it is possible they may not be teaching or in regular contact with the instructors, and will need to actively contact instructors about what updates are coming and when. If not students may see conflicting information in a section. In Blueprint it is best to sync unpublished content and have section instructors publish it. |
| Is the content that is updated during the term huge file size or small? | Small | Sometimes an email update to each instructor will work. Sometimes the update can be an exported Canvas zip to import as long as the receiving instructor clicks the “select content” option when importing. |
| Large | If large, you could consider Commons as well as Workspace or Blueprint. | |
| Do you want to share a menu homepage? | Yes | Homepage menu links need to be edited in whatever course they are imported to. Blueprint doesn’t help this |
| Do you want to have common Assignments or Quizzes? | Yes | You can share them by a number of means but each section has to set the attributes of who has to do the assignment, when, when due etc. Merged sections can also have assignments assigned to separate sections, groups, students, etc. If you use Blueprint, locking quizzes and their attributes will block the associated course instructors from customizing instructions, handling exceptions during the quiz, or re-scoring when problem questions are found. |
| Do you want common Modules and Pages? | Yes | These can be shared any number of ways other than just by Blueprint. If the common pages or files are unlocked in Blueprintand edited in the associated/child courses, the next sync will not update them. |
| Do you use Groups? | Yes | Groups have to be set up in the associated/child courses–not in Blueprint. There are no students in a Blueprint. |
| Do you want to control the navigation menu? | Yes | Navigation order and hide/show is controlled in the sections – not in Blueprint. |
To learn more about Tool Name, contact ctl.helpdesk@ubc.ca.
Updated MONTH 2020