How to change course owner using Classroom.Courses.patch() - google-apps-script

Question

I'm trying to use Apps Script to change the owner of a Google Classroom course.
According to the documentation I can do it using .patch(). This is the relevant script:
var body = {
ownerId: owner
}
var mask={
mask:'ownerId'
}
var optArgs = (mask, body);
var course = {
name: classname,
courseState: state,
description: desc,
descriptionHeading: descHead,
room: room,
section: section
};
Classroom.Courses.patch(course, courseId, optArgs )
When I run it to update the owner I get the following error message
Could not be updated Invalid JSON payload received. Unknown name "ownerId": Cannot bind query parameter. Field 'ownerId' could not be found in request message.
Just to demonstrate a contrast, when I run .update() instead:
Classroom.Courses.update(course, courseId)
...the rest of the course details are updated perfectly, however .update() doesn't allow you to change the owner; it has to be a .patch() to do that.

Answer 1

Just had the same problem, the issue is the optArgs - you just want the mask in there, not your changed data.
var optArgs = { mask: 'ownerId' };
var course = {
name: classname,
courseState: state,
description: desc,
descriptionHeading: descHead,
room: room,
section: section,
ownerId: owner
};
Classroom.Courses.patch(course, courseId, optArgs );

Answer 2

I just tried this a few moments ago and it worked. Take into account that, for this to work, the user must already be a teacher in the specific class, and then this will make that teacher the owner.
function changeTeacherOwner() {
var course = { 'ownerId': "EMAIL OF TEACHER" };
Classroom.Courses.patch(course, "COURSE ID", {'updateMask':'ownerId'});
}

Answer 3

Based on documentation, this is working as intended.
courses.update has no ownerId parameters, only id.
But if you check courses.patch it has the updateMask parameter which accepts ownerId as a valid field.
For detailed information on this service, see the reference documentation for the Classroom API.