Improve user experience around course copied LMS app assignments

[mattdricker]

This is an intentionally generalized issue because it highlights an uncomfortable concern that instructors using Hypothesis in LMSes where we have groups and files integrations have a significantly worse experience when their courses are copied to a new term than instructors using Hypothesis for the first time.

Background

Hypothesis provides API integration with Blackboard and Canvas LMSes which currently allows for the following features:

• Instructors can use PDFs stored in LMS file storage for their assignments
• Instructors can leverage native LMS group functionality to allow a single Hypothesis reading to be annotated by multiple distinct student groups

These are heavily used and highly desirable features for instructors in Canvas and Blackboard, and still remain among our most requested features among users of other LMSes.

The problem

When the courses are copied to a new term, the Hypothesis assignments that have been configured to use our files or groups integrations no longer work properly. The assignment launch URLs contain file and group identifiers that point back to the previous course instance, breaking the assignment for current students.

We have implemented a solution for Canvas files where, as long as the instructor launches a Hypothesis assignment in the new course once, we match up files in the current course to the file ids in the previous course and rewrite the current course assignment launch URLs appropriately.

However we have no such workaround in place for Blackboard files assignments, or for groups assignments in either LMS.

In those cases an instructor must manually edit the Hypothesis assignment -- or, for Blackboard, create an entirely new assignment -- and reconfigure the assignment to use a file or groupset in the current course.

Support has written KB articles talking instructors through the various workflows required:

• Blackboard Course Copy and Hypothesis
• Using Hypothesis with Canvas Course Import or Blueprint Courses

The solution(s)

We have tickets written for each of the specific issues:

• #1219
• #1390
• #1218

Thinking thorough the user experience around course copy is important at a holistic level also, as we decide how to solve the individual problems, as well as rolling out new features to come.