Sections and Modules

[john_preston]

I've been reading about Sections but don't quite understand them.  My issue is I am teaching two classes concurrently.  Each Canvas course correlates to a three week in-class session for one class then the second class rotates in for the same material.  Rather than create a separate Canvas course for each class I am trying to use Sections to separate them for the specific purpose of publishing Modules as the course progresses.  I hate having the second class start and having all of the Modules unlocked on the first day because the material builds on itself throughout the course.  Is there any way I can leave Cohort A Modules unlocked after they complete the class so they can reference back to them but leave the same Modules locked for Cohort B to be unlocked as the course progresses?  Thanks!

[jnine98 · Accepted solution]

You can assign the modules separately to each group.  If they're in sections because you crosslisted them, then you need to do nothing.  If they're not, create sections and assign separately. 

Also, in modules, set requirements.  This paces students.  They cannot open one module until they've completed the first one.  You can control what they see.  You can make one assignment in the module with an older date, then the students cannot move past that until you change the date and you complete it.  Go into Canvas help in your global navigation and take a 30 minute instructional workshop on the topic if you need help.  It's really not hard to do.  Good luck.

[john_preston]

Great answer but I don't know how to separately assign modules.  I'll try to find the time to watch the video, hopefully that will answer some of my questions.

[Chris_Hofer]

@john_preston ...

As far as I know, you cannot assign modules to a specific person or groups of people within your course.  However, you can assign groups of students to things like assignments, discussion topics, and quizzes (both Classic Quizzes and New Quizzes).  You cannot assign content Pages to certain students.

When you cross-list two or more courses together, you are only moving course enrollments...not course content.  So, for example, if you had two courses on Building a House that had the same curriculum, you could cross-list these two courses together so that students from both courses are in one course.  One course is sort of considered the "parent" course, while the other course(s) is/are considered the "child" course(s).  All enrolments from the child(ren) course(s) move into the "parent" course after the cross-list happens.

Cross-listing should normally happen before the course(s) begin at your school so that you don't run into any issues...such as students who may have already submitted assignments to you in one of the child(ren) course(s).  And, there may be FERPA issues with cross-listing that you'd want to check with your school's Canvas administrators about.  I'd recommend reaching out to your Online Learning / eLearning / Distance Education team to have further discussions about cross-listing to see what your options are.

Good luck!