How to customize course settings

Setup

Use the newcourse tool to create a new course:

clt newcourse <NAME>

Answer the questions. After the newcourse tool creates course files, open <NAME>/_conf/settings.yam.

Default settings

The default settings are shown below, where <USER> represents user responses to the newcourse prompts:

course:
  course_name: "<NAME>"
  course_id: "<USER>"
  course_url: <USER>
discussion:
  discussion_type: threaded
  published: false
quiz:
  hide_results: always
  quiz_type: assignment
  shuffle_answers: true
times:
  unlock_at: "<USER>"
  due_at: "<USER>"
  lock_at: "<USER>"

Change discussion settings

Default discussing settings follow discussion. The Canvas API documentation provides details about other options for “Discussion Topics.” Follow YAML syntax to add other parameters.

Example

discussion:
  discussion_type: threaded
  published: false
  require_initial_post: true
  sort_order: asc

With these settings, the CLT upmod tool will upload discussions that

  1. are “threaded,”

  2. remain unpublished after upload (instructors will need to publish them manually on Canvas),

  3. require students to make a post before viewing other posts, and

  4. are sorted in “ascending” order.

Note

Boolean options take values true or false. One-word strings do not need to be placed in quotation marks (string). Strings with punctuation should be placed in quotation marks ("string: punctuation") to ensure correct parsing.

Change quiz settings

Default quiz settings follow quiz. The Canvas API documentation provides details about other options for “Quizzes.” Follow YAML syntax to add other parameters.

Example

quiz:
  hide_results: always
  quiz_type: practice_quiz
  shuffle_answers: true
  time_limit: 5
  one_question_at_a_time: true

With these settings, the CLT upmod tool will upload quizzes that

  1. hide results,

  2. are practice quizzes rather than assignments,

  3. shuffle answers,

  4. impose a five-minute time limit,

  5. and require students to answer questions one at a time.

Change quiz times

Edit the times following unlock_at, due_at, and lock_at to change the default quiz times.

Note

This may be necessary during a term due to changes to/from daylight savings time.