Schoology Learning
Schoology Learning
Breadcrumbs

Automated course template distribution

Overview

Course templates in Schoology Learning help districts and schools standardize course setup and accelerate course creation. Templates can be marked Active or Inactive to control availability while preserving existing courses.

Templates can be mapped to courses using:

  • The Template Mappings interface

  • Manual import

  • Auto‑imports

This article explains template status behavior, how mappings work, and how to manage mappings through imports.

Turn on course template mapping

  1. Navigate to Permissions in your admin settings.  

  2. From the Course Template section, select the Automated Course Template Distribution permission for the desired user roles.  

  3. Click Save. Users with this permission will now have access to course template mapping. 

Template status and mapping behavior

Active templates

  • Are displayed on the Active tab of the Course Templates page

  • Can be mapped to courses using the Template Mapping interface or a CSV import.

  • Can be used to distribute content and structure to courses

Active templates are intended for current and ongoing use.

Inactive templates

  • Displayed on the Inactive tab of the Course Templates page

  • Cannot be mapped to courses using the Template Mapping interface of a CSV import

  • Are not available for distributing content to courses

  • Do not affect existing courses

CSV import and auto‑imports cannot activate inactive templates.

Managing template status

Make a course template inactive

  1. Navigate to Courses.

  2. Select Course Templates.

  3. Ensure the Active tab is selected.

  4. Select the gear icon for the selected template.

  5. Choose Make template inactive.

  6. In the confirmation modal, select Make inactive.

Inactive templates are removed from future course‑template mappings.

Reactivate an inactive template

  1. Navigate to Courses.

  2. Select Course Templates.

  3. Select the Inactive tab.

  4. Select the gear icon for the selected template.

  5. Choose Make template active.

After it is reactivated, the template will be available for mapping and distribution.

Map templates from the Template Mapping interface

Access the mapping screen

  1. Go to Courses and select My Courses.  

  2. Select Course Templates.  

  3. Select Map course templates to courses. 

This link is only displayed if course templates already exist. If none are created, the mapping screen will not be accessible. 

Map templates to courses

  1. From Map course templates to courses, search for a course template. 

  2. Click Select Courses to begin mapping. Optionally:

    • Sort your course search.

    • Browse all courses to review the full list.

    • Filter by mapped or unmapped courses.

  3. Select courses by:

    • Selecting all courses on the page.  

    • Clicking Select all # courses to select all results.  

  4. Click Review to confirm your selections.  

  5. To map additional templates, repeat the process. Previous selections will remain in draft.  

  6. Click Save Mapping when finished. 

After mapping is saved, new sections created under the mapped courses will automatically have the template applied. The copy process begins approximately 60 seconds after section creation and may vary depending on the template size.

  • Template copies are not retroactive—they only apply to sections created after mapping is saved.  

  • Editing, searching, or filtering resets the course list view.  

  • Grade settings are applied only with the first template distributed to a course.  

  • Archived courses appear in search but will not be affected unless new sections are created. 

  • The course selection max is 150. Choose Select all for a count greater than 150.

Map templates using CSV import

Use CSV import to map templates to courses in bulk.

Access CSV import

  1. Navigate to School Management.

  2. Select Import.

  3. Choose the Template Mappings tab.

Required and optional fields

In the CSV import:

  • Only fields marked with an asterisk (*) are required.

  • All other fields are optional.

Common fields include:

  • Course Name*

  • Course Code*

  • School*

  • Template IDs*

  • Department Name

  • Credits

  • Course Description

  • Location

  • District Course Name

Course creation behavior

  • If the referenced course already exists, the template mapping is applied.

  • If the course does not already exist:

    • A new course shell is created automatically.

    • The course shell is created without sections.

Template IDs

Template IDs are available from the sections export feature.

In the exported file, template IDs are identified by the section name, Course Template. These IDs are used in the Template IDs column of the CSV file to map templates to courses.

Map templates using auto‑imports

Template mappings can also be managed using auto‑imports.

When auto‑imports are enabled:

  • Template‑to‑course mappings are applied automatically based on the import configuration.

  • Only active templates can be mapped.

  • Inactive templates are ignored during auto‑import processing.

Auto‑imports help keep template mappings up to date without requiring manual CSV uploads.

Verify mappings

  1. Navigate to Courses.

  2. Select Course Templates.

  3. Select Map course templates to courses.

Considerations

When using SIS provisioning

  1. Use the SIS app to provision buildings, users, grading periods, and courses first. Do not provision sections yet.  

  2. Map templates to courses.  

  3. Sync sections—newly created sections will automatically receive the mapped template. 

When using CSV import

  • Run the course template mapping import before importing sections.

  • The course template mapping import will create the course shell in Schoology without any sections. 

When applying grade settings en masse

Ensure that templates are using the same grade settings when multiple templates are applied to the same course.

If grade settings are different when applying multiple templates to a course, then the grade settings applied are not guaranteed.