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How do I empty my course or my sandbox?

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You might want to empty your entire course or sandbox in order to redesign it at a later moment. This might be necessary when you accidentally duplicated or copied the wrong content from a different course to your current course, or to your sandbox. It is not possible to delete all content from your course or sandbox with one simple click on a button. You have to do it separately for each component. It is easiest to follow the order described in this article, because this way you will avoid problems with linked components.

After you have deleted all components you will have an empty course. Only the Classlist will remain, meaning your students will still be in the course. You can now start rebuilding your course. You can also copy (parts of) another course to your course using  Copy Course.

1. Deleting Announcements

  • Navigate to Course Home in your course.
  1. Click the arrow next to Announcements.
  2. Click Go to Announcements Tool.
  1. Check the box next to Title to select all announcements.
  2. Click Delete. Then click Yes to confirm. 

2. Deleting Content

  • Navigate to Content in the navbar of your course. 
  1. Click Table of Contents.
  2. Click the arrow next to Table of Contents.
  3. Click Delete All Modules. Then select Permanently delete all modules, topics, and all associated files and activities from the course and then click Delete again.

This way you will not only remove the topics, but also all files and activities that are linked to it.

3. Deleting Files

After you have deleted the content and the linked items, there could be remaining (unlinked) files. These can be deleted the following way:

  • Navigate to Administration in the navbar of your course.
  • Click Course Admin.
  • Click Manage Files.
  1. Select the box at the top left of the table to select all components.
  2. Click on the trashcan icon (Delete). Then click Yes to confirm.

4. Deleting Assignments

  • Navigate to Activities in the navbar of your course.
  • Click Assignments.
  1. Select the box at the top right to select all assignments.
  2. Click More Actions.
  3. Click Delete. Then click Delete again to confirm.

5. Deleting Discussions

  • Navigate to Activities in the navbar of your course.
  • Click Discussions.
  1. Click More Actions.
  2. Click Delete.
  1. Check Select all.
  2. Click Delete.

When you use Surveys and Checklist, you can delete them in the same way as you would delete Discussions. To do this, navigate to Activities, then Surveys or Checklists respectively and then follow the steps described above.

6. Deleting quizzes and questions from the Question Library

  • Navigate to Activities in the navbar of your course.
  • Click Quizzes.
  1. Navigate to Manage Quizzes.
  2. Select the box in front of Current Quizzes to select all quizzes.
  3. Click More Actions.
  4. Click Delete. Then click Delete again to confirm.
  5. Then click Question Library to empty out the question library.
  1. Select the box at the top left of the table to select all folders and questions.
  2. Click Delete. Then click Delete again to confirm.
  3. Click Done Editing Questions to return to Quizzes.

7. Deleting Grade items

  • Navigate to Administration in the navbar of your course.
  • Click Grades.
  1. Click Manage Grades.
  2. Click More Actions.
  3. Click Delete.
  1. Check the box at the top left to select all grade items.
  2. Click Delete. Then click Delete again to confirm.

Grade items that are associated with an Activity cannot be deleted. When you have followed the steps in this article, all associations with Activities should have been deleted, meaning you should have no difficulty deleting the grade items.

8. Deleting Rubrics

  • Navigate to Administration in the navbar of your course.
  • Click Course Admin.
  • Click Assessment and then Rubrics.
  1. Check the box at the top left to select all rubrics.
  2. Then click the trashcan icon (Delete). Click Delete to confirm.

9. Deleting Groups

  • Navigate to Administration in the navbar of your course.
  • Click Groups.
  1. Select the groups (or categories) you want to delete.
  2. Click Delete. A Confirmation pop-up will appear.
  • Click Delete Groups/Categories to remove the selected groups.

Pay attention that when you are deleting groups on Brightspace you do not also delete the connected OSIRIS groups.

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