OK, we were going around. Now to your original question:
> How should we handle the new course changes, keeping the old version with old users?
You should know how _your_ will handle the situation. I can tell you what an institution with the same requirement, i.e. "keeping the old version with old users", does:
> How should we handle the new course changes, keeping the old version with old users?
You should know how _your_ will handle the situation. I can tell you what an institution with the same requirement, i.e. "keeping the old version with old users", does:
When the new semester starts the teachers get fresh courses for the subjects they teach. They are free to start the way they want. For half of them its is _restore_ a backup file (mbz) without user data from the previous course.
You ask, "Why would I want to go through backup/restore for a live course when I could use copy?" Why not? Is it too much work? Well, teaching is work, isn't it?
For the other half, it is building the course anew by copying individual pieces of content from their "collected works", aka "library course". Their point is that they don't (want to) have the full course on day one. Depending on the class they knit the course together as the course progresses. They are happy with an add-on called https://moodle.org/plugins/block_sharing_cart.
You ask, "Why would I want to go through backup/restore for a live course when I could use copy?" Why not? Is it too much work? Well, teaching is work, isn't it?
For the other half, it is building the course anew by copying individual pieces of content from their "collected works", aka "library course". Their point is that they don't (want to) have the full course on day one. Depending on the class they knit the course together as the course progresses. They are happy with an add-on called https://moodle.org/plugins/block_sharing_cart.
Full disclosure: The "knowledge" in this post are in MoodleDocs, in plain text.