Courses are often offered more than once. In Blackboard Learn, you can merge courses and manage multiple sections and crosslisted courses from one central location.
About multi-section managementInstructors sometime teach multiple sections of the same course. System administrators can merge the rosters of those courses into one master course. Merging the rosters allows the instructors teaching multiple sections of the same course to manage the content, course management, and communications tasks for all sections of the course from one central location.
The Merge Courses tool is generic in its approach and its applicability, and appropriateness will differ by local law and policy. In the United States, many institutions interpret FERPA to mean that merging cross-listed sections is acceptable because in a face-to-face context, these students would meet and interact with one another. Most of these same institutions have determined that FERPA restricts merging sections that aren’t cross-listed unless interactive tools are configured so students can't see the information of students outside their section. This could mean requiring that tools like the Roster are turned off, and interactions are limited to groups where memberships can't span sections. Administrators considering use of the Merge Courses tool should review policies and check with institutional legal counsel when determining appropriate use, policies, and tool settings.
More on how to merge and separate child courses
About crosslistingInstitutions commonly offer a course under multiple programs. For example, an advanced literature course might be available for credit in an English degree program as well as a Journalism program. Instructors and registrars are challenged with managing student enrollment, grading, and content being used in a single course. Crosslisting is the act of delivering two or more courses/sections as a single combined course. In physical world terms, students with different courses listed on their timetables would show up in the same classroom and get taught at the same time. In Learn terms, students would see a course they are enrolled in on their My Courses tabs, but when clicking to enter it, will share the same course content as all other students across all combined courses.
