Cross listed courses/sections aren't assigning to "Everyone" by default?
I have cross-linked several sections of the same class to my "master" 1st period class. Shouldn't the Assign to Everyone tag all of those sections by default? Canvas won't list more than 3 sections (which is ridiculous) in the list, and continuing to type 5 or more long strings every time I want to assign something is a real waste of time and effort. I need help on this! Support has given me the runaround through at least 8 people to do this simple task.
TODD, can you clarify your question and the issue you're running into? I've used cross listed sections for years (and I've usually had four, all of which show on the list) and "Everyone" was always the default, just as Kona Jones explained earlier in this conversation and as is stated in the guide ("By default, Canvas will set your assignment dates for everyone in your course"); I never had to type any strings of any length to assign an activity to "Everyone." "Everyone" is defined as "every student enrolled in all of the sections that are cross listed in the course."
So do you intend to assign the same assignment with the same due dates to everyone (all students enrolled in all sections)? And if so, what is happening when you leave "Everyone" as the default?
As an aside, the Canvas nomenclature is "cross listed," not "cross-linked."
...and upon further experimentation, I see what you mean about only three sections showing up in the dropdown field...but having said that, there's a difference between sections that are created locally and sections that are created via SIS and cross listed by an admin. And, I didn't have to type too much to get the other sections to show up.
So, a follow-up question: How were your sections initially created, and how were they subsequently cross listed?
All sections were created by SIS. I added all appropriate ones to my 1st period "master" class where I want to create/assign all assignments.
I did not see the assignment show up in the other sections when I assigned it to "Everyone" from my 1st period. This is what has me vexed. Since I have two sections for three of my 5 periods of the course, the drain that "Everyone" not meaning "Everyone" is more than I care to mess with. For all of its faults, MyBigCampus made this process quite easy. I keep hoping that Canvas does this easily, too, and that I am just not doing it correctly. Another possibility is that the SIS admin need to set some pointers instead of me.
TODD, different schools handle this in various ways--and I'm sorry that you're experiencing this problem, because it really should be easy. My school created multiple courses in Canvas via SIS that corresponded to the SIS sections and then, upon request, handled the cross listing of those courses/sections at the Admin level, which resulted in all of my sections residing in one umbrella course in Canvas. Once they completed the cross-listing process, I only had to add content to one Canvas course one time, and I was always able to allow the default Everyone setting to remain. Is it possible for you to double-check the process with your SIS admin?
And at the risk of muddying already-murky waters, have you seen this? How are courses and sections related?
That linked document was very clear and helpful! I have tried to get answers from local people, but they are learning, too. We had a very short summer, and the move from MBC was not timed for our convenience at all. We also just deployed Google SIS integration today, so it's no wonder that answers are in short supply.
For now, I just want to be able to assign a quiz to all of my sections. I made the linkages but cannot prove that they carry the assignment out from the parent section. Canvas support was random and had too many handoffs to really get my specific situation addressed. Ugh!
Thanks for continuing to try to help!
My sympathy, TODD; the first days of a migration to a new learning platform are always fraught for everyone--but especially for a teacher who is trying to manage multiple sections and multiple periods. Without knowing the particulars of your school's setup I suspect the entire cross-listing process must be done at the (school) admin level rather than in your course settings, and I hope they are able to straighten this out for you.
My real question now is whether or not my teacher-level patches should be able to function until/if the admin level stuff ever happens.
TODD, for me, you're in uncharted territory with this. I'm going to tap in some of my fellow coaches as they can bring in their varied experiences across multiple institutions and systems: Kona Jones, Chris Hofer, James Kocher, Adam Williams, Robbie Grant Admin, as well as James Jones, who seems to possess a unique understanding of courses-sections-cross-listing--any ideas?
Sorry Stefanie... we don't use "Sections" at our Technical College inside of Canvas. Although we do have a small handful of courses that we cross-list, we don't use Sections. All of our course shells in Canvas are created out of our Banner SIS. Each course number has it's own shell, so Sections isn't something we utilize in Canvas.
How do I tell if I have courses or sections?
If you have sections it will show up under your course settings (bottom left in your course) under the Sections tab.
All of what I would call SECTIONS in real life have been created by the SIS as courses with different name strings. I thought I was supposed to link the ones I wanted to share data with my first class by adding their names to that class as sections. They are now listed under that course as sections, but they show zero users, and assigning something from that first class to "everyone" does NOT add it to the other courses.
Can I link COURSES so they share content, or not? This should be so easy, but it may not even be possible.
TODD, what you've described gets to the heart of the matter. At my school, "sections" are created in Canvas as "courses," and the ability to cross list is disabled for anyone with the teacher role. Admins take care of the cross listing process, as described later in this post.
Teachers employ Canvas features such as Differentiated Assignments as necessary--or can allow all Assignments to default to "Everyone"
So, without knowing the particulars of your school's exact admin setup, and with the understanding that it might be too late for you to do this now, I suspect that your cross listing would benefit from a fresh start: (1) Copy all of your content into a sandbox course, or export it into an .imscc file to preserve it; (2) Reset the course you're working in; (3) Ask your admins to cross list your sections (actually SIS-generated courses) at the account or sub-account level (this will populate a single course with all of your students, separated only by "section," but still able to view all of the content in the course); (4) re-import the course content from the .imscc file into the new course that contains all of your sections (cross-listed Canvas courses).
And, because this discussion has moved from a question about "Everyone" to a specific examination of the various permutations of cross listing, I wonder if you'd mind if I were to branch this question out to a new discussion that takes the form of an unanswered question? The new branched discussion will preserve the questions and replies thus far, starting with your first post of August 17, but will reside under a different and more immediately relevant title, and having it in the "unanswered" state might enhance its visibility in the Community.
Great idea about branching the question! I approve!
How do you cross list without using the add section function?
Is there a difference between a "section" created by the SIS and a "section" created by a teacher? It seems that all of my "courses" from the SIS should really be "sections" assigned to unique "courses" based upon content of the class title.
All three are actually the same content. The first is my PERIOD 1 10th grade English class for 1st semester. The second and third ones have the same content but meet during 3rd period (I know that the name part suggests it is a different course, but it actually isn't this time).
I THINK that Canvas wants a single COURSE named something like ENG 10 F-Callen that would have SECTIONS for 1, 3A, and 3B. In that scenario, I would create content in the ENG 10 F-Callen COURSE and assign it to sections(students) 1, 3A, and 3B. Am I getting this right?
TODD, I think you've got it exactly right. My courses in Canvas start out being called something like HUM2250-171-12345, HUM2250-172-12346, .... corresponding exactly to my sections in SIS, and after I submit my cross-listing request and the admins work their magic, I am left with a single COURSE in Canvas called something like HUM2250-X-LIST_FA15. That's the course in which I build my content. All of the "sections" remain available to me, and the "Assign to" field always defaults to Everyone; I still have the option to assign to specific "sections" from the dropdown or to individual students using the Differentiated Assignments feature. Have you been able to loop in your admins on this one?
Trying to relay info to them. It is possible that they already know this now, but maybe not.
Am I right that ONLY the admins can do what needs to be done? It looked like I could do it myself for a while in the Add Section dialog, but adding the other COURSE names did not bring the students along like it sounds like a SECTION would have been able to do.
TODD, I wish I could give you a definitive answer. Based on the setup you've described and what is occurring when you try to assign an assignment to "Everyone," I think you are right. However, I'm surprised that the cross-listing option has not been disabled for the teacher role at your school; having that option available to you is definitely one source of confusion.
Just learned today in a PD that you can use the 4-digit course number code if sections are not being used. This may be the ticket forward!