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Tips and Considerations When Merging Two Courses Together
This document contains tips and information to keep in mind when merging courses. When class sections that do not meet together are combined into a single Canvas course, instructors should take steps to ensure student privacy and FERPA compliance.
An individual Canvas course shell is automatically generated for each official scheduled section.
Instructors can request to have multiple course sections combined together into a single Canvas course, while still retaining distinct section enrollments.
When sections are combined, the instructor can still view student enrollments for each section, filter the Gradebook to display only a specific section, differentiate due dates per section, and more.
Before You Combine Sections
Consider whether combining sections is actually necessary. Canvas includes several features for easily copying and moving content between different courses, while keeping them separate.
Content items can be quickly copied from one course or another throughout the semester using any of the following methods:
Import Content From Another Course
This feature includes the option to import either an entire course, or multiple specific content items. Useful for copying many content items at once.
Duplicate
This feature creates a copy of a content item in the same course. The content can then be modified to be used elsewhere.
Legal Considerations (FERPA)
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects the privacy of a student’s education record, which includes a student’s course schedule.
When different sections are merged in Canvas, it allows students to see other students who are enrolled in a separate class. Combining class sections in Canvas can violate students’ right to privacy by sharing protected information.
Steps for Maintaining Student Privacy When Two Different Sections are Merged
There are several areas of a merged course that can be used to efficiently manage multiple sections in a single course, including Gradebook filtering,
Notify Students in Advance
You can send a message to the entire class, notifying students of the presence of other sections in the Canvas course.
Course Menu
Disable the following tools in the Course menu (hidden from students):
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People
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Chat
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Collaborations
See the Canvas Guide:
How do I manage Course Navigation links?
Course Settings
Confirm the following options are configured in the course Settings as shown:
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DO NOT “Let students create their own discussion topics”
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DO NOT “Let students organize their own groups”
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DO “Hide sections on the People page from students”
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DO “Disable comments on Announcements”
See the Canvas Guide:
How do I use course Settings?
Separate Discussions
Discussion topics are not affected by section limitations and can be viewed by any student. Below are some tips on how this feature could be restricted by section
Create a single Discussion with instructions, grading and settings configured.
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Use Duplicate to make a copy for each course section.
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Use the “Assign To” option to restrict each Discussion to a single section.
Due and Availability dates can be set to be the same, or different for each section, as needed. Each section will have a separate column in the Gradebook.
See the Canvas Guide:
How do I duplicate a Discussion in a course?
Assignments
If necessary, assignments can have a different Due and Availability date for each section. Use the “Assign To” feature to configure separate dates for each section.
See the Canvas Guide:
How do I assign an assignment to a course section?
Messaging Students
Use the option to send a message to one section at a time.
When sending a message to the entire class, use the option to “Send an individual message to each recipient”.
Grades
Grades for each section of students can be viewed separately. Use the Filters option in the Gradebook to add a “Sections” filter for easily view students and grades for one section at a time.
See the Canvas Guide:
How do I filter columns and rows in the Gradebook?
Special thanks to Butte College for use of their merged courses documentation.
https://tmi.butte.edu/tmi/tmi-guides/combine-sections/