Canvas @ Western Carolina University

Cross-listing Canvas Courses

by | Mar 23, 2021 | Blog, Canvas | 0 comments

Cross-Listing in Canvas is the process of combining the enrollment from two or more courses in Canvas. Before requesting courses be cross-listed in Canvas, instructors will need to determine which course will serve as the primary course and which course(s) will be cross-listed (moved to primary course).

 

Before requesting courses are cross-listed (or de-cross-listed) in Canvas:

Cross-Listing must occur before courses are published and students submit work. If you Cross-List after students have already submitted work, all Cross-Listed enrollments will lose any associated assignment submissions and grades which is why courses cannot be Cross-Listed if student submissions exist.

Cross-Listing must occur to courses before adding content. Content in any of the secondary courses is lost once cross-listed. We recommend that you copy the content from a Development Course into the new Primary Course after Cross-Listing. When the Cross-Listing is complete, you will no longer have access to the secondary course spaces and all data will be gone.

De-Cross-Listing must occur before courses are published. All student submissions, grades, etc. will be inaccessible after De-Cross-Listing.

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Other things to consider?

Pros

    • One place to create content with less updating. Any content added or content updated in the cross-listed course will pass to other course sections.
    • Complete course roster in one place. All Students in the cross-listed course sections will show up in the course Gradebook and under People. (Note: By default, the Gradebook shows students from all sections. To view just one section, click “View” then “Filters” then “Sections” and that will show a drop-down menu. Click “All Sections” and then choose a specific section to view the grades just from that one section.) 
    • Section-specific assignments, events, graded discussions, and quizzes can be assigned or common activities can be assigned to all sections.

Cons

    • No reversing if courses are published. Once the course is cross-listed, the courses/sections cannot be separated without losing all student submissions and grades. 
    • Creating section-specific content may be more time consuming. Files, pages, and discussions can be set up with student groups for each section then content added within the group pages, similar to Groups in Blackboard. (All sections will see the content you add to course content areas if student groups are not being used.) 
    • All sections will be exported if you export the Gradebook into Excel. (However, section views can be filtered under People and in the Gradebook in Canvas.) 
 

​What is displayed on your Canvas Dashboard after courses are Cross-Listed?

When you Cross-List courses, all of the other associated courses will disappear from Courses/Dashboard in Canvas. However, you can modify which courses show up in Canvas manually.

    1. Login to Canvas.
    2. Click on Courses on the left. A menu should extend out to the right.
    3. Click on the All Courses link at the bottom- you may need to scroll down.

The first time you access this page, no courses will be starred. By default, all are displayed. Once the star icon is selected next to at least one course, Canvas will only display starred courses on the dashboard going forward. (NOTE: There is no save button to click. When you are done starring courses, click on the Dashboard button on the left and you will see your preferred courses and dev shells.)

How does this align to Canvas training materials?

Canvas logo“Priming the Canvas”

Additional Resources: 

Our next article will highlight the Canvas Commons and Importing Content; visit Canvas Blog to see all our Canvas articles.