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Departments can request a Blueprint Course from the Canvas Admin to streamline the management of course content across multiple sections or courses. A Blueprint Course acts as a master template, allowing you to create and maintain course materials in one central location. Any updates made in the Blueprint Course can then be synced to all associated courses, ensuring consistency and saving time.

Why Request a Blueprint Course?

A Blueprint Course is especially useful if you:

  1. Teach multiple sections of the same course — Keep content, assignments, and settings consistent across all sections.
  2. Collaborate with other instructors — Provide a shared course structure that multiple instructors can use as a starting point.
  3. Standardize course design — Ensure a consistent experience for students by using the same layout, navigation, and content in all sections.
  4. Easily push updates — When content needs to be changed mid-semester (like updating a syllabus, adding resources, or fixing errors), you can make the update in the Blueprint Course and apply it to all associated courses at once.
  5. Minimize course setup time — Quickly copy and deploy pre-designed content without starting from scratch each semester.

Important Consideration

In order for a course to function as a Blueprint Course, it must only contain the instructor and have no student enrollments or other instructors. If the other enrollments already exist, the course will not qualify as a Blueprint Course.

How to Request a Blueprint Course

To request a Blueprint Course, fill out the request form. You will need:

  • The Dept (ex. BIOB)
  • The Course # (ex. 160)
  • The Course Title (ex. Principles of Living Systems)

After Getting Bluepring course...build , merge, and tell us when you're ready (locked content?), and then you're on your own

What Happens Next

After your Blueprint Course is created, you will build and organize your course content, then let us know which courses should be associated with it. Once everything is ready, we’ll complete the initial sync.

From there, you will manage updates in the Blueprint Course and sync changes to associated courses as needed.

For step-by-step instructions, please see the Blueprint Course management page.