Merged Canvas Courses

Under certain circumstances, you may request to have multiple course sections merged in Canvas. Only courses meeting the following criteria are eligible to be merged in Canvas:

  • Course sections must be cross-listed in the official PCC Schedule of Classes.
  • Courses that are not cross-listed but have unique circumstances which make a merged course shell absolutely necessary for the course to function, may be merged with special permission from the Dean.  

Note: Course sections must be merged prior to the course start date. 

How to Request a Merged Canvas Course

Email Canvas course merge requests to pcconline@pasadena.edu. Please CC your dean on the email to expedite the approval process.

FERPA Compliance in a Merged Canvas Course

According to Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) regulations, students cannot have access to student information (including the fact of their enrollment) of students in course sections other than their own. Because of this requirement, students are not allowed to interact within a Canvas course with students from another course section.

Canvas limits the visibility of students from other sections in a merged Canvas course. However, this does not cover all Canvas tools, so if you request to merge Canvas courses, you’ll need to take additional steps to protect your students’ privacy, as outlined in this document.

What Canvas Does for You

In Canvas courses merged upon faculty request, students are prevented from seeing students in sections other than their own in

  • the full roster view of the People tool,
  • and the Inbox (Conversations).

What You Must Do to Maintain FERPA Compliance in a Merged Canvas Course

Click Settings in your course menu and:

  1. Under the Navigation tab, be sure that the Chat and Conferences items are hidden from students. If they are active (appearing in the top grouping of navigation items), drag them to the lower grouping or click the gear icon at the right of each and click Disable. Be sure to scroll down and click Save at the bottom.

  2. Under the Course Details tab, scroll down and click more options. Make sure that:
    - Let students create discussion topics is NOT checked
    - Let students organize their own groups     is NOT checked
    - Disable comments on announcements IS checked

    Click the Update Course Details button at bottom.

Ensure that each section has its own separate discussion:

  1. For graded discussions, restrict each discussion to an individual section using the Assign to option. See Canvas guide for details Links to an external site.. 
  2. For ungraded discussions, use the Post to option (immediately below the discussion description) to select an individual section for the discussion.
  3. Note – if you want each section to engage in discussions about the same topics, simply Duplicate the original discussion and modify it so it is available to a different section of students.

If/when you create Groups:

Select the option to Require group members to be in the same section when creating a group set. See Canvas guide for details Links to an external site..

If/when you create Collaborations:

Be sure to add students to Collaborations who are enrolled in the same course section. The Collaboration setup screen doesn’t display section information for students, so you will need to refer to the People area.

If/when you send a Canvas Inbox message to students from multiple sections:

Select the option to Send an individual message to each recipient. This will send a separate copy to each recipient and hide the names of the recipients in the message header. You may also compose messages addressed to all members of a specific course section.

If/when you offer synchronous (live) online sessions (e.g. use Zoom):

Hold separate synchronous meetings with each section, unless your sections are scheduled to meet at exactly the same day and time in the official schedule of classes. When you record a synchronous meeting, share the recording only with the section that participated in the meeting.

Get Support

If you have further questions or need assistance with combining courses in Canvas, please email pcconline@pasadena.edu. 


Acknowledgements: Portions of this document are adapted from material originally developed by Seattle University Links to an external site. and modified by the Grossmont-Cuyamaca Community College district. Additional portions are adapted from material developed by Indiana University Links to an external site., modified by Cornell University Links to an external site. and Mira Costa Costa College Links to an external site..