{"id":2797,"date":"2026-07-21T11:02:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T18:02:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/elearningfaculty-redesign-dev\/?page_id=2797"},"modified":"2026-07-22T12:18:33","modified_gmt":"2026-07-22T19:18:33","slug":"section-merges","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/elearningfaculty\/canvas-guide\/section-merges\/","title":{"rendered":"Section Merges"},"content":{"rendered":"<section class=\"section section-white body-section-wrapper alignfull wp-block-bc-sitka-spruce-body-section\">\n\t<div class=\"container-xl\">\n\t\t<div class=\"row\">\n\t\t\t\n<div class=\"body-section-content col-md-8\">\n\t\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading has-brutus-blue-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-c2260636f27a0390eb12fe57c54cece1\">Ensuring FERPA Compliance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-mayflower-blocks-lead lead\">All sections that need to be merged must be to sent to the Division DOD. Provide all the necessary information (the Primary course and the Secondary course). The DOD will send Dean-approved section merges to Interactive eLearning. After your sections are merged, please follow the guidelines below to ensure compliance with FERPA regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"callout-wrapper col\">\n\t<aside class=\"callout text-margin-reset \">\n\t\t<h3 class=\"callout__heading card-title-small\">Need Help?<\/h3>\n\t\t<p>If you need help changing your Canvas Course Settings, the Interactive eLearning team will be able to assist you.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"callout__button\">\n\t\t\t\t\n\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/elearningfaculty\/faculty-support\/\"  class=\"btn btn-primary\">\n\t\tFaculty Support\n\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/p>\n\t\t\t<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<hr class=\"section-divider\" \/>\n<\/section>\n\n\n<section class=\"section section-white body-section-wrapper alignfull wp-block-bc-sitka-spruce-body-section\">\n\t<div class=\"container-xl\">\n\t\t<div class=\"row\">\n\t\t\t\n<div class=\"body-section-content col-md-8\">\n\t\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading has-brutus-blue-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-a61b689da24e01c503860d5cd31ac058\">Canvas Course Guidelines<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Use this as a checklist for compliance with FERPA restrictions when you have merged sections in your Canvas course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading has-brutus-blue-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-9174501e8893ba6671d52d85d569fa7c\">Update Your Syllabus<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Add information to your syllabus explaining that students from multiple sections will be in one Canvas online classroom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading has-brutus-blue-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-f5ec3ab173194a2f88d2eda5690f9add\">Publish an Announcement<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Publish an&nbsp;Announcement notifying students of the section merge&nbsp;in your class so that students are aware that two sections have been merged. You should do this in addition to including the information in your syllabus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading has-brutus-blue-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-67a4d59de6b0a055e62cb7d5af8631aa\">Modify Your Course Settings<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Prevent students from organizing their own groups, leaving comments on announcements, and creating their own discussion topics. Thes can be done in your Course Settings and within other areas of the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-mayflower-blocks-panel card bg-light\"><h5 class=\"card-header\">In Course Settings<\/h5><div class=\"card-body\">\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Go to Course Settings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Scroll to the bottom of the Settings page.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Ensure these three options are <strong>unselected<\/strong>:\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Let students organize their own groups<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Disable comments on announcements<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Let students create discussion topics<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">You can also modify two of these settings within other areas of the course:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-mayflower-blocks-row row\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-mayflower-blocks-column col-md\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-mayflower-blocks-panel card bg-light\"><div class=\"card-body\">\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">From the Discussions tool:<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Go to Discussions and click the Settings button (gear symbol).<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Uncheck the &#8220;Create discussion topics&#8221; option.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Save Settings.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-mayflower-blocks-column col-md\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-mayflower-blocks-panel card bg-light\"><div class=\"card-body\">\n<h6 class=\"wp-block-heading\">When editing an Announcement:<\/h6>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">An option to to allow students to leave comments on individual announcements appears below the Rich Content Editor when editing an Announcement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Leave this setting <strong>unchecked<\/strong> in merged courses.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading has-brutus-blue-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-da5d30a4ce197a3c38514a647cb8aa2e\">Disable Specific Canvas Tools<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Disable the following Canvas tools so that they do not appear in the Course Navigation: People, Chat, Collaboration, and Conferences. Go to Settings &gt; Navigation to disable these tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Go to Course Settings.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Select the Navigation tab.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Disable items like People, Chat, Conferences, Collaborations.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Save the settings.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading has-brutus-blue-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-f3043bdcd47923ed8b4969ac59ec71cd\">Ensure Privacy When Using Canvas Inbox<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Avoid revealing students&#8217; names and emails when sending message using the Canvas Inbox. There are two options for sending a message in Canvas and staying FERPA compliant with combined courses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>When composing a message, check the box that says \u201csend an individual message to each recipient.\u201d This will prevent students from sending a \u201creply all\u201d response or seeing to whom the message was sent.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Select the address book in the \u201cTo\u201d box and then select \u201ccourse sections.\u201d This will allow you to send a message to students in a specific section. This is beneficial if you want students to be able to \u201creply all\u201d to fellow section members.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t<\/div>\n\t<hr class=\"section-divider\" \/>\n<\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2741,"featured_media":0,"parent":791,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"template--no-sidebar.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-2797","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/elearningfaculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/elearningfaculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/elearningfaculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/elearningfaculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2741"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/elearningfaculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2797"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/elearningfaculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2847,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/elearningfaculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/2797\/revisions\/2847"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/elearningfaculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bellevuecollege.edu\/elearningfaculty\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}