Cross-listing courses combines multiple sections into one course. By default, multiple sections taught by the same instructor will not be cross-listed; however, instructors now have the ability to cross-list their own sections. If you're not sure how, please refer to this tutorial about how to cross-list sections.
Faculty who need to have multiple courses combined, need to have sections taught by different instructors cross-listed, general assistance, etc., can call the Faculty Technology Center at x7230.
Cross-listing a section moves the section to a different course. For example, if you taught sections 1 and 3 of BIO 180, you would cross-list section 3 into section 1.
When sections is cross-listed, one course shell receives the enrollments of the other sections. For example, if an instructor is teaching sections 1, 3, and 12 of BIO 180, the students in sections 3 and 12 would be enrolled in the shell for section 1. The students will still be divided by sections within the one shell, making it easy to assign different due dates to each one (see How Do I Assign Different Due Dates to Sections That Are Cross-Listed?). The Gradebook can also be filtered by section (see How do I filter columns and rows in the Gradebook?).
As you can see from the left animation above, sections 3 and 12 have no content. The students in those sections are enrolled into section 1, which does contain content. In the right animation, content from section 1 is copied into sections 3 and 12.
If you are teaching multiple sections of a course and do NOT want them cross-listed, each course will need to be supplied with content. While copying one course's content to another isn't hard (see How Do I Copy a Canvas Course For Next Semester?), this could still be disadvantageous because any changes made to the course content after copying will need to be made in each individual section's shell. However, if the different sections are supposed to have different content, leaving them separate may be beneficial.
As a best practice, you should plan to not cross-list or de-cross-list a course after a new semester has started. If students have already submitted assignments, and you cross-list sections for that course, student submissions and scores will be lost for the section which is being moved. This can be undone by de-cross-listing the sections.
For assistance with de-cross-listing, feel free to contact the Faculty Technology Center at x7230.
Cross-Listing FAQs
Can I have sections cross-listed if they are taught by different instructors (ex. classes/labs taught by adjunct faculty that all use the same material)?
Cross-listing sections with different instructors is not recommended. If you want multiple sections of a course to have the same content, it may be better to copy the content manually, or create a blueprint course. For help with creating a blueprint course, contact the FTC at x7230.
I teach more than one section of a course, but I only see one on my dashboard. How can I tell if the course is cross-listed?
Instructors and TAs can see which sections are in that course clicking on "Settings" at the bottom of the course's navigation options, then clicking the "Sections" tab at the top.