Merging Sections in Canvas

When you merge sections in Canvas, you are simply taking the students in one section and moving them into the main section. The same applies when you are merging courses. Within Canvas, the process is called “cross-listing."

If you are teaching “cross-listed courses” as defined in the FRC schedule (i.e., SOC/POL), those courses will appear separately in Canvas until you “cross-list” them in Canvas.

Important Points

Keep in mind these important points for merging:

• You are not moving any content from one section to another; you are just moving students. Your main course (the one you are merging others into) is where you should create content.
• If the course that you are merging into the main course has content, that content will be lost. It's best to merge right after your courses appear in Canvas. It's cleaner that way, and you don't have to worry about losing any content.
• If you merge after the semester has begun AND students have completed work in the course you are merging from, all student work in that course will be lost. 
• If you merge sections that are officially cross-listed by FRC, all of the students will be able to see and interact with each other. 
• If you merge sections that are NOT officially cross-listed by FRC in the course schedule, interaction between students will be limited. This is in compliance with FERPA laws. 
• If you do not want students to be able to see which sections their classmates are enrolled in from the People page, you can hide the sections in that page. To do this, go to Course Details in the course that students will access, click "more options," check the box that says "Hide sections on the People page from students," then click Update Course Details at the bottom.
• Rename your merged course to encompass multiple sections so students know what course they are logging into (i.e., if you are merging a SOC section into its POL counterpart, rename the merged course SOC?POL <<course name>>.

Instructions

• Find the course number for the main section of your course (the section you want all the students to be in) from your course Dashboard.

• Find the Canvas code for the course (this is not the same as the CRN number). You can do this in two ways.

  • Hover over the course, and looking at the BOTTOM of your browser window – there will be a small pop-up on the bottom left of the screen (or the top) with something like: https://frc.instructure.com/courses/10857  (in this example, the 10857 number is for ART 100, which I want to merge with HUMN 100)

  • Open the main course. Then in the URL line you will see this: https://frc.instructure.com/courses/10857

• Open the course that you want to move into the main section. For example, if you want to move HUMN 100 into ART 100, you would open the HUMN 100 section in Canvas.
   
• Once in this section, click Settings.
  
   
• Then, click on the Sections tab. Here you will see that section of the class. You'll see your section linked. Click on this section. Do NOT add a new section. 
  
• Click on the Cross-List this Section option on the right. 
  
• Type in the Course ID number: you can search for the course you want to cross list, or you can just type in the course ID (which you grabbed in the first step). 
   
• Enter the course ID from step #1, then click Cross-List this Section.  
  

If you want to see all the students in the class, you can click on People. You will notice that there are students from both sections.   

You can then change the name of the merged course so it reflects the cross-listing. You can do this by going into Settings, then Course Details. Type a new course name, then copy and paste that name into the Course Code box.  

Just make sure your students know how to identify the course easily when they log into Canvas.  Scroll down to the bottom, and click Update Course Details.