Blueprint Courses

Purpose

Blueprint courses allow a course coordinator to copy a course into multiple sections. Parts of the course can be locked. Additional content can be pushed to all courses throughout the semester. Read more.

Access

Access is only available to George Mason faculty/staff who are Canvas Admins. Canvas Admin access can be requested via the Canvas ITS Help form.

Retention Policy

Do not expire. However, users are encouraged to request a new Blueprint for each semester in order to allow for changes in content between semesters.

Requesting

Access is only available to George Mason faculty/staff who are Canvas Admins. Request a Canvas Blueprint course via the Canvas ITS Help form.

Community Courses

Purpose

Community courses (similar to Blackboard Organizations) are available for activities that support: student training, student program or degree resources, student cohort sites and instructional technology training. For additional information please review the Canvas Use Guidelines.

Access

Access is only available to George Mason students, faculty, and staff and is managed by the Community leaders.

Retention Policy

Do not expire. Community courses can remain open indefinitely and are not limited by an academic term.

Requesting

Must be faculty or staff. Complete the ITS Canvas Help Form. Note: Choose your affiliated school/college on form. This helps us organize Canvas, but does not restrict who you can add to the site.

Development Courses

Purpose

Development courses are for the development of a course expected to be used as a source course for most sections of a course – often managed by a department/course coordinator or course designer. The course is jointly accessible and is not tied to one specific user.

Access

The faculty requestor and any additional faculty that are enrolled. Account admins also have access.

Retention Policy

Do not expire.

Requesting

Must be faculty or staff. Complete the ITS Canvas Help Form.

Major/Degree Courses

Purpose

These courses are populated with all students of that major or degree. The student population is updated daily as student add or change majors or graduate. Departments can use this Canvas site to communicate with students, post documents, encourage discussions, etc.

A separate site is created for every:

• Undergraduate major, with separate sites for fully online programs
• Graduate degree (Masters, Doctoral combined) – with separate sites for fully online programs
• Non-Degree students

Note that major course sites can be combined if you want several majors in the same course, or to combine online and on-campus students, etc.

Access

Students are automatically added. Faculty/staff can submit a ticket (choose Canvas > Question) to ask for instructor access to the course. Once in the course, this person can add others in any role.

Retention Policy

Do not expire.

Requesting

These courses are automatically created. Faculty and staff can request access by completing the ITS Canvas Help Form.

Migrated Courses

Purpose

Migrated courses are copies of Blackboard courses that have been transferred to Canvas through an automated process. Instructors can edit the course using the migration cleanup guide to prepare to copy into a semester course.

Access

Students cannot be added to migrated courses / course cannot be published.

Retention Policy

There is currently no date for migrated courses to be removed.

Requesting

Bulk migration are being done automatically in 5 phases, from Summer 2024 to Summer 2025. Additional information about course migrations can be found on the project site.

Sandbox Courses

Purpose

Sandbox courses are where instructors can explore the tools and features of Canvas without disturbing a course that will be used for instruction. It can also be used to prepare courses and/or modules layout before copying them into live courses. Sandbox courses come with the Mason default template and sample module content, including a sample announcement, assignment, discussion, and quiz.

Courses can be reset by the instructor.

Access

Students cannot be added to sandbox courses / course cannot be published.

Retention Policy

Do not expire.

Requesting

Must be faculty or staff. As part of the Canvas implementation project, a sandbox site has been created for all instructors. Request additional sandbox courses via the  ITS Canvas Help Form.

Semester Courses

Purpose

Live semester courses are those created through Banner/PatriotWeb and are populated with your enrolled students in a fall, spring, summer, or continuing and professional education term.

Access

Registered students will have access when the instructor publishes the course (i.e. makes it available to students).

Retention Policy

View the course retention policy.

Requesting

Semester courses are created based on the Banner student information system. Contact your department/scheduling coordinator for questions.