Instructors who teach multiple sections of the same course may prefer to manage those sections through a single parent course with associated child courses. Active courses—courses with student submissions—should never be made into a child course of a merge course relationship.

In the course listing, parent and child courses are always displayed together. Child courses are indicated by an up arrow in the status column, pointing to the parent course. New content must be managed from the parent course. Child courses are marked as unavailable, but can be managed through the parent course.

To edit or manage a child course individually, it needs to be separated from its parent course.

After being merged, all enrollments in the child course are replicated in the parent course. Any future enrollment changes in the child course are also synchronized automatically with the parent course. Duplicate student enrollments are reported and ignored. Users in other roles, such as grader, teaching assistant, or guest, are assigned roles based on the last time they are added to the parent course.

Merge courses

You can merge courses in two ways. One method is to select courses and merge them into a new parent course.

  1. On the Administrator Panel in the Courses section, select Courses.
  2. Point to Create Course and select Merge Enrollments.
  3. Edit the course properties as if you're creating a new course.
  4. Select Browse next to Add Child Courses and select the courses to be merged.
  5. Select Submit.

The second method uses an existing course as the parent course that you add child courses to. You can add additional child courses to a parent course that already has one or more child courses.

  1. On the Administrator Panel in the Courses section, select Courses.
  2. Search for a course.
  3. Point to the course ID of the course that is or will become the parent course and open the menu.
  4. Select Edit.
  5. On the Course Settings page, select the check box for Select Courses to Merge to show the Child Courses section.

    You don't have to select this check box for existing parent courses.

  6. In the Child Courses section, type the course ID of the child course to add to the parent course. You can type multiple course IDs separated by commas. Alternatively, select Browse to open a pop-up window and search for courses.
  7. Select Submit.

Separate courses

Separation removes a child course from a merged set of courses. The course itself is not deleted, but becomes a distinct course. The course is no longer associated with the merged set, and contains no material from its former parent course. The separated course retains both its content and enrollments from the moment it was separated out.

  1. On the Administrator Panel in the Courses section, select Courses.
  2. Search for a course.
  3. Child courses are listed with their associated parent courses and are designated with an arrow in the status column.
  4. Open the child course's menu and select Separate.
  5. On the Separate page, select an option for managing the child course's existing enrollments in the parent course:
    • Remove Parent Enrollments removes any enrollments that were added to the parent course when the child course was originally merged with it. Choose this option if you don't want users enrolled in this course to remain enrolled in the parent course. For example, choose this option if the course to be separated was accidentally merged into the set.
    • Retain Parent Enrollments keeps the enrollments in the parent course, but marks them as unavailable. Choose this option if you have user data such as grades or assignment submissions that you want preserved in the parent course.
  6. Select Submit.