Renaming Courses

Owned by Luc Richard
Last updated: Feb 12, 2024
2 min read

There are circumstances when an organization may want to change the names for many courses at once. Perhaps it's because they're changing the naming convention. There are two "names" for each course.

  • Course full name: The full name of the course is displayed at the top of each page when you are in the course and in the course catalogue. It is mandatory but does NOT need to be unique.

  • Course short name: The short name of the course is displayed in the navigation, in the subject line of course email messages, in the calendar, and in most reports that try to display many columns at the same time. It mandatory and MUST be unique.

Because the short name is the only one that needs to be unique, it is considered the "key" or identifier for the course. When uploading courses, the system will try to find a course that matches the short name in the CSV file that you uploaded and update all of the information. As such, the existing short name (e.g. the short name currently in the learning environment) must always be in your CSV file when uploading course information and you must use the course action field "rename" to specify the new short name for the course. Below is an example of a CSV file:

shortname,rename,fullname
WHMIS,WHMIS 2015,Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System

Based on the example above:

  • "WHMIS" is the existing short name of the course in the learning environment

  • "WHMIS 2015" is the short name you want to rename the course to

  • "Workplace Hazardous Materials Information System" is the full name you want to rename the course to

As mentioned earlier in this document, if you do not want to change the short name or the full name, you can omit the "rename" or "fullname" columns respectively. But the "shortname" column must be present in your CSV. Once your CSV is defined, you may follow the steps below.

Step-by-step Guide

To rename courses:

  1. Go to Site Administration > Courses > Upload courses

  2. Either drag and drop the CSV file or click the 'Choose a file' button and select the file in the file picker

  3. Select appropriate import options carefully:

    1. Upload mode: Only update existing courses

    2. Update mode: Update with CSV data only

    3. Allow deletes: No

    4. Allow renames: Yes

    5. Allow resets: No

  4. Click on the "Preview" button

  5. Review the results in the preview screen

  6. If the results are good, click on the "Upload Courses" button. Otherwise, click on "Cancel"

Important Notes

  • The status for each course should say "Course renamed" and/or "Course Updated" depending on whether you changed the short name and/or the full name respectively

  • If you have other CSV templates that you frequently use and that refer to the course's short name (e.g. CSV template to enroll users in courses or to register them in classes), remember to update those CSV template.

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