{"id":10433,"date":"2016-12-28T07:16:56","date_gmt":"2016-12-28T13:16:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/?p=10433"},"modified":"2017-01-05T10:20:34","modified_gmt":"2017-01-05T16:20:34","slug":"bb-tip-175-merging-courses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/bb-tip-175-merging-courses\/","title":{"rendered":"Bb Tip #175: Merging Courses"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><div align=\"center\">\n<a href=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/WhyMerge.png\" title=\"why merge\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/WhyMerge.png?resize=250%2C250\" alt=\"why merge road sign\" height=\"250\" width=\"250\"><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p>Faculty can request to have two or more of their courses combined into a single course. Combining courses can be useful when you are teaching multiple sections of the same course or when you are teaching a course that is cross-listed. Merging courses allows you to have all the students in a single Blackboard course which can be useful for collaborative work. Merging courses reduces the number of courses an instructor has to manage within Blackboard, especially when each section has identical content.<\/p>\n<p>Once your courses are merged, you can upload your course content and assignments into the merged course; communicate with the students in the merged course; setup collaborative course work; and have one gradebook for the merged course. You can create groups within your merged course that correspond to the original course sections. This way you can target a particular course section (group) of students for specific things (e.g. send email to a specific group, make content available to specific group, enter\/view gradebook entries for a specific group, etc.)<\/p>\n<p><em><strong>NOTE:<\/strong> Merging of courses is typically done at the start of the semester before content is added and before students submit course work. You should wait to request your courses be merged if there is a possibility that there will be last minute changes to instructor course section assignments. You can request a <a href=\"http:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/bb-tip-174-master-copies-of-courses\/\">Master Course Shell<\/a> to build your course and then transfer the content into your merged course. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>You should carefully consider whether merging courses is right for you. Some disadvantages to merging courses are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Course enrollments for the merged courses will be combined which can make grading student work a challenge. You can use <a href=\"http:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/bb-tip-114-grade-center-smart-views\/\">Smart Views<\/a> to make grading easier.<\/li>\n<li>If you decide you want to unmerge courses after students have submitted course work, student work and grades will be lost. Only student enrollments are retained when courses are unmerged.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Follow these steps to do it.<\/h3>\n<p><strong>NOTE: Currently, the section merge tool is no longer available.<\/strong> <\/p>\n<p>A system administrator will have to merge your courses. Send an email to Yamlak Tsega (<a href=\"mailto:ytsega@xula.edu\">ytsega@xula.edu<\/a>) if you want to merge courses. You should include the course ID (including CRN) for all the courses you want merged together. The course merge process requires that a brand new empty Blackboard course be created that will serve as the primary course for all the merged sections.  If you have any course content that needs to be retained in one of the courses to be merged, it will have to be exported and then imported into the newly created combined course.  Please include that information with your request to merge courses.<\/p>\n<h3>Want more information?<\/h3>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/Section-Merge-Not-Working.pdf\">How to merge courses (PDF)<\/a>.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/01\/HowToManageMergedCourses.pdf\">How to manage merged courses (PDF)<\/a>.<br \/>\nExplore Blackboard\u2019s <a title=\"On Demand\" href=\"http:\/\/ondemand.blackboard.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">On Demand Learning Center<\/a>.<br \/>\nTry these <a title=\"Bb How-to\" href=\"http:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/blackboard-documents\/\">Blackboard How-To documents<\/a>.<br \/>\nCheck out help for instructors at <a title=\"Instructor help\" href=\"http:\/\/help.blackboard.com\/en-us\/Learn\/9.1_SP_12_and_SP_13\/Instructor\" target=\"_blank\">help.blackboard.com<\/a>.<br \/>\nVisit the <a title=\"Bb FAQs\" href=\"http:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/blackboard-faq\/\">Blackboard FAQs<\/a> for additional blackboard information<br \/>\nor <a title=\"Schedule 1-on-1\" href=\"http:\/\/jflorent.youcanbook.me\/\">schedule a one-on-one session<\/a>, <a title=\"Send email\" href=\"http:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/mail\/?to=31\">email<\/a>, or <br \/>call Janice Florent: (504) 520-7418.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Faculty can request to have two or more of their courses combined into a single course. Combining courses can be useful when you are teaching multiple sections of the same course or when you are teaching a course that is cross-listed. Merging courses allows you to have all the students in a single Blackboard course <a href=\"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/bb-tip-175-merging-courses\/\" class=\"more-link\">...continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> \"Bb Tip #175: Merging Courses\"<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[207],"class_list":{"0":"post-10433","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-blackboard","7":"tag-merge","8":"h-entry","9":"hentry","10":"h-as-article"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p82MQk-2Ih","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1012,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/bb-tip-43-merging-courses\/","url_meta":{"origin":10433,"position":0},"title":"Bb Tip #43: Merging Courses","author":"Janice Florent","date":"August 13, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Blackboard has a Section Merge Tool that allows faculty to combine two or more courses into a single course. Previously you had to request ITC merge courses for you. Now you can merge courses yourself. Using the Section Merge Tool to combine courses can be useful when you are teaching\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blackboard Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blackboard Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/blackboard\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6799,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/bb-tip-136-merging-courses\/","url_meta":{"origin":10433,"position":1},"title":"Bb Tip #136: Merging Courses","author":"Janice Florent","date":"May 25, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Blackboard has a Section Merge Tool that allows faculty to combine two or more courses into a single course. Faculty do not have to make a request to the Information Technology Center to merge their courses. Using the Section Merge Tool to combine courses can be useful when you are\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Blackboard Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Blackboard Bits, Bytes, and Nibbles","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/blackboard\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13100,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-72-merging-courses\/","url_meta":{"origin":10433,"position":2},"title":"Brightspace Tip #72: Merging Courses","author":"Janice Florent","date":"December 15, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Faculty can request to have two or more of their courses combined into a single course. Combining courses can be useful when you are teaching multiple sections of the same course or when you are teaching a course that is cross-listed. Merging courses allows you to have all the students\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Brightspace Small Plates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Brightspace Small Plates","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/brightspace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"why merge road sign","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/WhyMerge.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":12420,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-49-merging-courses\/","url_meta":{"origin":10433,"position":3},"title":"Brightspace Tip #49: Merging Courses","author":"Janice Florent","date":"August 7, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Faculty can request to have two or more of their courses combined into a single course. Combining courses can be useful when you are teaching multiple sections of the same course or when you are teaching a course that is cross-listed. Merging courses allows you to have all the students\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Brightspace Small Plates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Brightspace Small Plates","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/brightspace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"why merge road sign","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/WhyMerge.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":17822,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-286-merging-courses\/","url_meta":{"origin":10433,"position":4},"title":"Brightspace Tip #286: Merging Courses","author":"Janice Florent","date":"January 1, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Faculty can request to have two or more of their courses combined into a single course. Combining courses can be useful when you are teaching multiple sections of the same course or when you are teaching a course that is cross-listed. Merging courses allows you to have all the students\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Brightspace Small Plates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Brightspace Small Plates","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/brightspace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"why merge road sign","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/WhyMerge.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":18973,"url":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/brightspace-tip-365-merging-courses\/","url_meta":{"origin":10433,"position":5},"title":"Brightspace Tip #365: Merging Courses","author":"Janice Florent","date":"January 2, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Faculty can request to have two or more of their courses combined into a single course. Combining courses can be useful when you are teaching multiple sections of the same course or when you are teaching a course that is cross-listed. Merging courses allows you to have all the students\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Brightspace Small Plates&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Brightspace Small Plates","link":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/topic\/brightspace\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"why merge road sign","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/WhyMerge.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10433","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10433"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10433\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10483,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10433\/revisions\/10483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10433"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10433"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cat.xula.edu\/food\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10433"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}