The functionality to copy plans is very useful. However, we are limited to creating only one copy of any given plan. The purpose of this limitation is to "help" educators create new plans regularly instead of just copying out-dated plans.

Problem

I need a copy in the following scenarious:

I already made a copy but I am unhappy with the adapted copy for the upcoming term so I need to delete the new plan and copy the old plan again, so I can start over.

I teach more than one class so I copy one plan to the other classes but since I make changed during the term, I would need to copy the plans again to maintain the different tracks which is not possible.

Several teachers share a plan but only one of them can make a copy.

Consequences

The "one copy only" limitation is inappropriate. It actually causes the opposite effect of what was intended. Since I cannot create a second copy of a plan, I typically start by copying my plan manually instead. This is still more efficient than starting from complete scratch.

However, this costs me an unreasonable amount of time and lots of wrist pain from all the clicks that are involved. Over a 16 week semester with 5 days of teaching per week, I have 80 days to copy. Every day consists of 7 fields, so that amounts to 560 fields to copy. Some of these fields cannot just be copy-and-pasted because they hold information this is not just text. Examples are date fields, study materials, exercises, etc. that all involve multiple clicks per field.

I end up clicking thousands and thousands of times doing mindless work.

Also, imagine how many mistakes I make during this process. Mistakes that would not happen if I could have the system create an exact copy.

And that's just for one class. I happen to teach more than one class, so the problem grows exponentially since I have to - manually - take logical dependencies between classes into account as well. This results in more wasted time and more errors.

Since all this is robotic work, I cannot actually be creative and create new and exciting plans for my students because I spend my time doing trivial copying field by field. If the system allowed me to copy my previous plan without limitations, I would instantly be able to be creative and adapt the new plan to the upcoming term - just like your intension originally, and rightfully, was.

Suggestion

Therefore, I strongly suggest that you allow unlimited copying. I fully understand your intention. But unfortunately, you are actually creating the exact problem that you were trying to help me avoid. It also increases risks of errors. Consequently, this one-copy-only "feature" causes me to spend unproductive time doing manual copying instead of being a passionate teacher for my student. They deserve that I use my time and my brain working for them instead of doing the work I mentioned.