Cross-Listing and Copying Courses

Another way to get content from your "Content Course" into other courses is to use the import course content tool. This is found in every Course that you create under settings. The option to import appears on the right-hand navigation menu. From here you can import content from any of your other courses into the one you are currently viewing. You can import some or all of your content from a course and you can do this repeatedly as you update content. An important thing to note is that this is all manual - everything you do will need to be done in each of the courses you want to transfer content to. This video will show you how to do this.

1. Go to the Course you want to add content into.

2. Go to Settings

3. Select "Import Course Content" from the right-hand side menu.

4. Select "Copy a Canvas Course" from the drop down menu.

5. Select the Content Course from the new drop down menu.

6. Check either "All Content" or "Select Specific Content"

7. Select "Import"

8. OPTIONAL - If you selected "Select Specific Content," select "Select Content" and pick the items you wish to import using the pop-up window.

9. OPTIONAL 2 - Select "Select Content"

10. Give it time to import (you don't have to stay on the page) and you're done!

Pros

• Non-Destructive. Importing content does not remove or change the original content, all of your progress is saved and safe.

• You have complete control over what you copy into each section, allowing for easy differentiation between periods or courses.

• Fairly straightforward front-end work.

Cons

• Very tedious back-end work. Every change you make will have to be made in each of your periods separately. If you decide to import your content one module at a time, you'll have to multiply that work by each course you import into.

• It isn't instant, depending on the amount of content it can take anywhere from a few minutes to half an hour to import content. 

Cross-listing courses is a way to essentially "link" a course to another by changing one course into a "section" of the main one. A way to think about this is you have a Content Course, a Synergy-generated course where you've put all of your content for a class, and a Period Course, which contains the complete roster of your students from Synergy. In order to cross-list, you'll need to go into each "Period Course" and go into it's settings and cross-list into one of your Synergy-Generated Courses. This is outlined in the attached video here.

1. Go to the specific Course you want to move a section from.

2. Go to Settings

3. Go to Sections

4. Add a section and name it something with "Shell" in the name.

5. Invite yourself as a teacher to the Shell Section.

6. Go back to Settings -> Sections

7. Select the Section you want to move into your (Synergy-generated) "Content Course." The one you want to move courses to.

8. Select "Cross-list this section" on the right-hand menu.

9. Search for your Content Course.

10. Select "Cross-list this section."

11. Done

12. OPTIONAL - Change student viewing settings in the People menu. (See Below)

Pros

• Content is only updated once per "Content Course." You won't have to copy changes into each period or section of the course.

• Heavy front-end workload, light back-end workload. You'll do most of the work before your classes start and afterwards any changes should be easier than the other method.

• Easily divide courses by content - i.e. English 9 for periods 2, 3, 5; English 10 for periods 1 and 7.

Cons

• "Destructive." What this means is that when you cross-list a course into a section, if done improperly, it will NOT save any content from the course it is leaving. Also, if de-cross-listing later (only Admins can de-cross-list), grades and progress will be lost - so make sure to "export grades" before you de-cross-list.

• Any links in text in your course will be accessible to ALL SECTIONS of that course. This means that if you post a Zoom Meeting link in the body of the text of an assignment or page, all of your sections will have access to this link. There won't be any difference between cross-listed sections.

One last thing...

By default, cross-listed sections can see each other. Meaning students in one section can see all of their peers in other sections. To change this, you need to go through a bit of a process. You do not have to change this setting, but you may want to at your discretion.