How to Clone

Watch the video above and then follow the steps below to create a clone of a Model Course to adapt for your own course.

  1. Log in to your OpenLab account.
  2. Find a model course from the list in the right hand menu. You may wish to right-click (command-click) to open the link in a new tab and keep this tab open to follow the rest of instructions.
  3. While viewing the model course, scroll down to the footer at the bottom until you see the text “Sharing.” Click the link “Clone this Course” to start the cloning process. You may also choose to navigate to the Course Profile and click the gray “Clone this Course” in under the avatar (image).
  4. Follow the “Create/Clone a Course” step-by-step process, starting with “Step One: Create Profile and Site.”
    • Create New or Clone Existing? In this box, the second option “Clone an Existing Course” should already be selected, and “COMDXXXX Model Course” should appear in the box next to it. No need to make changes.
    • Course Name (required). Type in a name for your course. You can use any name you like but bear in mind that students will be using the name to identify your course. We suggest using the name of the course and the section. For example “Graphic Design Principles 1 – DXXX”
    • Course Description (required). Replace the Model Course description with a description of the course you are teaching. You can use the description from Course Catalog if you wish.
    • Sharing Settings. Click the box if you’d like other people to be able to clone your course, once you have created it.
    • Faculty/Primary Faculty. You OpenLab name should already appear here, below the box. No need to make changes.
    • School (required). The boxes for Arts & Sciences and Mathematics should already be checked. No need to make changes.
    • Course Information. Fill in the Course Code, Section Code, Semester, and Year.
    • Site Details. The checkbox “Set up a site” should already be checked. The option “Name your cloned site” should be selected.
    • Name your cloned site. This is a unique site URL, so we suggest using the following convention: FacultyLastNameCourseCodeSemYear. Remember to remove spaces and change to lowercase: “spevackcomd1100fa20”
    • Review the copyright note and click “Create Course and Continue”
  5. Complete the next page, titled “Create/Clone a Course, Step Two: Privacy & Member Role Settings” by filling in information as follows:
    • Privacy Settings: Course Profile. Use this box to choose privacy settings for your Course Profile. Public is selected by default. This setting makes it easiest for students to find your site and for you to share work that you and your students are doing with the world.
    • Privacy Settings: Course Site. Use this box to choose privacy settings for your Course Site. “Public/Allow search engines” is selected by default – this setting makes it easiest for students to find your site and for you to share work that you and your students are doing with the world.
    • Member Role Settings: You can leave these setting as is. No need to make changes.
    • Scroll down and click “Next Step” to continue.
  6. Complete the next page, titled “Create/Clone a Course, Step Three: Avatar” as follows:
    • The avatar is a visual image that represents your course on the OpenLab. You can skip this step (or come back and make changes later), but we highly recommend changing your avatar to help students identify your course.
    • Click “Choose File” to select an image from your hard drive. Make sure it’s a web-ready image at least 220×220 pixels.
    • Then “Upload Image”.
    • After the image uploads, you will have a chance to “Crop”, or select a portion of the image to display. Drag the corners and edges of the box to change the selection, then click “Crop Image”.
    • Click “Next Step” to continue
  7. Complete the next page, titled “Create/Clone a Course, Step Four: Invite Members” as follows:
    • If you wish, you can search for your students names and invite them to the course. Alternatively, when you are done setting up your course you can simply send your students an email with a link to your course and ask them to Join. Access the student roster with email addresses from CUNYFirst.
    • Click “Finish” to continue.

Congratulations!

You have cloned a model course!

Right now, you are looking at the Course Profile page. You may not use this page much, unless you want to change any of the settings that you selected in the process above. Choose “Settings” in the menu on the right.

Most of the action during the semester will be in the Course Site. You can reach the Course Site by selecting the link “Visit Course Site” on the right.

Go and explore!

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