Before You Merge Courses
Please consider the following important information before merging any courses:
- After merging, you will no longer have access to the original course spaces or any content within those spaces, unless you choose to unmerge.
- If you merge courses with the same students in more than one of the original course rosters, those students will show up multiple times in the People section but only once in the gradebook. This will not affect the content in the course or the gradebook, but it will affect how students appear in the People section.
- Students will be able to see the names of students in other sections after merging (primarily through the Canvas Inbox). If you must prevent students in one section from interacting with students in other sections, you will need to hide/disable certain settings in your merged course. See the "settings" section later in this tutorial for more information.
Prepare Courses for Merging
- Find the course sections you intend to merge on your Canvas Dashboard or All Courses list. Ensure those sections meet the following criteria:
- You must be enrolled as a teacher or course admin in each section to be merged.
- All sections to be merged must be from the same semester.
- Sections to be merged must be unpublished, cannot have any student submissions, and cannot be Master Courses or Sandboxes.
- Sections to be merged should not have any content, as this content will be lost during the merging process.
- Make note of the SISID of each section to be merged to help you identify those sections in the Merge Course Manager.
NOTE: The SISID can be found on the Settings page within each section, and consists of the Semester Code followed by the LionPATH Course Number. - Save a copy of the rosters from each section to be merged so you can check the roster in the merged course against those copies when the merge is complete.
- Ensure that there is no course content (e.g., pages, files, modules, assignments, quizzes, announcements, etc.) in any of the sections you intend to merge.
NOTE: You will not be able to access any content in these sections after they are merged unless you unmerge. Please export or copy any content in these sections before merging. - If you do already have course content in any of the sections you intend to merge and want to save that content before merging, do the following:
- Copy any content from the course section(s) to be merged into a Master Course OR export the course content from the section(s) to be merged, and save the course export file to your computer.
- After the courses have been merged, you can then copy the content from your Master Course into your new merged course OR upload the course export file you saved to your computer in a previous step to the new merged course.
Merge Course Sections
After completing the course preparation tasks listed above, use the following steps to merge two or more Canvas courses:
- On the Canvas Dashboard, click the Merge Course Manager button.
- Read and accept the Confirmation of Educational or Pedagogical Purpose of Canvas Section Merge.
- You are now viewing the Merge Course Manager main screen.
Merge Course manager main screen - In the New Course Name field, enter a name.
NOTE: Create a standardized naming convention for your merged courses that includes all of the section numbers or course names to prevent confusion for students and faculty. (Example: ACCT 100 FA2017 Section 001/002/003). - From the Create course based on drop-down menu, select a base course (one of the courses to be merged).
NOTE: The content in the base course will not migrate with the merge. Ensure content is exported or copied to a Master Course or exported before merging. Also, ensure the base course is from the same semester as the other sections to be merged. - Using the check boxes, select all sections to be merged, including the base course you selected in the previous step. Sections are listed in the following format per the display key you will see on the merge course page: Course Name(SisCourseId(Semester)-Campus-Method Subject-Course Number-Section Number).
Example: HRBusStrategyTools(21781--14329(201718FA)-WC-WBHRER-825-001)
Example section listing - Click Merge Courses.
- You will receive a notification that "Course Merge was Successful."
NOTE: The merged course may not automatically appear on the Dashboard. To add it to your Dashboard, see adding courses to your dashboard.
Unmerge Course Sections
You can unmerge course sections as long as the merged course is unpublished and contains no student activity (e.g., assignment submissions).
Use the following steps to unmerge your courses in Canvas:
- On the Dashboard, click the Merge Course Manager button.
- Select the Remove Merged Section tab.
- Select the course from the Merged Course Name drop-down list.
- Check the check boxes for all of the section(s) you want to remove from the existing merged course.
- Click the Remove section(s) button.
NOTE: When you click this button, the sections you unmerged will be returned to the original course shells that were created for these sections via LionPATH. Check your Dashboard or your All Courses list to view the unmerged sections.
Add Another Section to a Merged Course
You can add a section to a previously merged course, even when the merged course is already live. Adding the new section will not overwrite any existing content within the merged course.
- On the Dashboard, click the Merge Course Manager button.
- Click the Edit Merged Course tab.
- Select the existing merged course from the drop-down menu.
- Check the check boxes for the section(s) you want to add to the existing merged course.
- Scroll to the bottom and select the Add Course(s) button.
After Merging Courses
Please review the following information about specific features and settings in your merged course:
Gradebook
- You can sort the gradebook by section in the top right drop-down menu by changing Showing all sections to the section you wish to view.
- In merged courses that have the same students enrolled in multiple sections, those students will show up multiple times under People, but only once in the Gradebook.
Assignments and Discussions
Attendance
- See the original sections listed on the top right of the Roll Call screen.
Inbox
- You can send messages to specific sections from the Inbox.
- In a new message, select the course from the Courses drop-down menu. Then, click the People button, and select the course sections you would like to message.
- Always select the option to send an individual message to each recipient to prevent students from using "reply all" to send messages to everyone in the section.
Groups
If you intend to use student groups in your course, and you want to limit the membership in those groups to students enrolled in the original sections, you will need to do the following:
- Create a group set.
Create Group Set screen - Check the box for Allow self sign-up.
- Check the box for Require group members to be in the same section.
NOTE: You must have the People link in the course menu enabled so the students can self-enroll.