If you are teaching a course with multiple sections, we recommend a couple of different options for setting up your bCourses sites for them, depending on how you and your teaching team would like to manage your course materials and student enrollments.
Option A: One site for all sections (Recommended for most situations)
In this set up, there is one site that has all of the rosters, as well as the course materials and activities/assessments (e.g. Files, Announcements, Discussion Forums, Assignments, etc.). Many instructors of multiple-section courses use this method.
Advantages
- One site for all students, course materials, and grades -- which means potentially less confusion from students about where course materials and activities are than if there were multiple course sites for each section.
- Consistency in access and availability of resources
FAQs about this setup
Q: Will I be able to filter to a particular section, so that I don't have to look through the entire roster of students to find the ones in my section?
A: Yes! You can filter to a section in the Gradebook, Speedgrader, as well as in the Inbox tool, see screenshots below:
Section filter in the Gradebook
Section filter in the Speedgrader
Section filter in the Inbox (bCourses email tool)
Q: Why do I need to include the DIS/LAB rosters in this site if the LEC roster will have all of the students?
A: Including the DIS/LAB rosters in the site in addition to the LEC roster allows instructors to do the following:
- Filter the Gradebook by section
- Create Differentiated Assignments by section (assignments that are only assigned to a specific section)
- Post Announcements that are only visible to a specific section
- Create Discussions that are only visible to a specific section
- Send Inbox/Conversation messages to just a specific section
Including all section rosters will ensure that students who are not enrolled in the LEC or a DIS/LAB section will have access to the course site.
Q: Since all students have access to this site, can I restrict access to certain files by section so that students from other sections don’t see them?
A: No, files or folders in the Files tool cannot be restricted to a particular section of students. If you need to restrict files by section, you may want to create a group for your section (see How do I add a group set in a course? for instructions) or consider choosing Option B (read more below).
Option B: Separate sites for each section
In this set up, each section roster is in its own course site. These sites are not at all connected to each other. Also, for the majority of students who are enrolled in both the LEC and DIS/LAB sections, they will have two sites to go to.
Tips for using this set up
- Re-name your course sites so that students can tell between the LEC site and the DIS site. You can do this during the course site creation process (Step 4 in How do I create a Course Site?), or after the site created (see Canvas Guide: How do I change a course name and course code?)
- Ensure that all instructors of the course (lecturer/faculty + GSIs) are aware that there will be multiple sites for the class and that this is the way that the course will be managed online.
Multiple Section Features Comparison
| I want to... | OPTION A | OPTION B |
|---|---|---|
|
Create one assignment that will be submitted by all students (LEC + LAB/DIS sections) |
✔︎ | ✘ |
|
Create one assignment for a specific section |
✔︎ | ✔︎ |
|
Make files available only to a specific section |
✘ | ✔︎ |
|
Filter the gradebook by section |
✔︎ | ✔︎ |
|
Post section-specific announcements |
✔︎ | ✔︎ |
|
Send section-specific messages via the Inbox/Conversations Tool |
✔︎ | ✔︎ |
|
Grade all students in one place |
✔︎ | ✘ |
|
Restrict a discussion forum to just a particular section (no one else can view or participate) |
✔︎ | ✔︎ |
If you have any questions or would like guidance on how to set up your course site, we'd love to help! Please contact bcourseshelp@berkeley.edu.
Related Articles:
- Getting Started with bCourses: Site Setup and Management
- How do I add or delete a section roster from my course site?