When you import from a previous course in Canvas, that course’s announcements arrive with everything else. That’s different from NMC’s previous experience with Moodle, and it can catch instructors off guard.

If you’ve used weekly announcements or frequent course updates, a full course import will bring all of them into the new course shell. That’s not necessarily a problem, but it does require you to plan ahead to a certain degree. In particular, if students are already active in the new course and your imported announcements don’t have availability dates attached, Canvas will immediately post them. In some cases, students could receive a flood of old announcements all at once.

The simplest way to avoid this scenario is to consistently add an availability date to every announcement you create. Even if you intend to post it immediately, setting a date ensures that when you import the course in the future, those announcements won’t be sent out until you adjust the availability dates. After the import, you can quickly adjust dates, language, or links to match the new semester. This approach works especially well for instructors who use structured, repeatable announcements that can be refined and reused term after term.

On the other hand, if you prefer to write announcements fresh each semester, you can exclude them during the import process. Instead of running a full course copy, choose the option to select specific content and simply uncheck Announcements. This allows you to bring over everything else (assignments, modules, pages, and files) while leaving past communications behind.

Whether you reuse announcements or start from scratch, being intentional during the import process will help you avoid confusion and ensure students receive only the messages you want them to see. Watch the video above to learn more.