How do I set up a re-run of my course?

If you have Organisation Admin permission on Course Creator, you can add re-runs and import content.

Please note: if your course has been set as on-demand you no longer need to create new runs for your course, it will stay available to Learners, for their convenience and yours. The only time you would create a new run is if you have evaluated the content and are making significant changes. 

How does it work?

If you have Organisation Admin permissions, there are 3 steps you need to follow to set up a new run of your course: 

1. Add a course run (by duplicating the previous course run)
2. Set a provisional date for when the course run will start
3. Import content into the new run, from a previous run.

This functionality gives you more freedom to plan and schedule your courses. However, FutureLearn will still need to open your course for enrolment so once you've completed the following steps, please contact us via the support request form and ask for the course to be published. 

1. Adding a run

To add a new run of a course, click the 'Add run' button on the Manage Courses page.

After clicking 'add run', you will see a screen asking you to confirm if you are happy to continue. Adding a run means copying across all the content that is required to open a new run for enrolment. This content is copied from the most recent run. Please let your Partnership Manager know when you are ready to open the run for enrolment.

2. Setting a provisional date

Once a run has been added, you will see the 'edit course run' page. On this page you can choose to set a provisional date for when the course run will start. This is useful if you don't have an exact date in mind but have an idea of the month and year.

3. Importing content to a run

There are several ways of importing step content from one run to another. You can import the entire run, a specific activity, or step. This guide will take you through each scenario.

How do I import an entire run?

When you are ready to update the new run with content from the previous run, there are two methods you can use.

Option 1:

1. In Course Creator, navigate to the course run, and click on the Content tab on the top right. This will take you to the Course content overview page.
2. Click on the Import content to this run link at the bottom of the screen. This will take you to the Import content page

3. Select the run you wish to import your content from. This will import all of the content from the specified run into the current run.

Please be aware that this will delete any content that exists in the current run.

Option 2: 

In Course Creator, navigate to your organisation and select the content tab. This should give you a list of all your past and current courses. Find the course you are looking for, locate the upcoming run and import the content by clicking the link in the content status column.

This will take you to a screen that lists out the content you are about to import. Content that will be imported:

• Steps and activities
• Weekly and additional emails
• Certificate and statement information
• Lead generation (where applicable)

As the number of courses and runs grows on the platform, we hope that this will help you to manage your courses without the need to ask your point of contact at FutureLearn to create a new run each time.

You can now easily see if a run contains content in Course Creator via a 'Content' column on the Courses tab:

Please note that you will be unable to import content from another run less than two weeks before the run start date. For invite-only courses you can import content up until the start date.

How do I import an activity?

1. In Course Creator, navigate to the week of the run you wish to import an activity into.
2. You will see an Import activity button on the right of the Activities header
3. Clicking the button will reveal a form: select the run and the activity you wish to import.

4. When you submit the form, the activity will be copied and added at the bottom of the Activities list.

This action will not delete any content. Links in the content will automatically update to point to the new run.

How do I import a step?

1. In Course Creator, navigate to the activity of the run you wish to import a step into.
2. You will see an Import step button on the right of the Steps header.
3. Clicking the button will reveal a form: select the run and the step you wish to import.

This action will not delete any existing content. Links in the content will automatically update to point to the new run.

Can I import every type of step?

Currently, the following steps cannot be imported:

• Group steps
• Peer review steps
• Tutor marked assignment steps

The above step types rely on the presence of other steps and must be created in a certain order. If you wish to import these step types, please consider importing an activity.

Once you have completed the three steps of adding a run, setting a provisional date and copying over content, please read the following re-run checklist before asking for your course to be published:

Re-run checklist