According to FERPA regulations, courses can only be merged if they meet these criteria:

different sections of the same course
taught by the same instructor
meet at the same time and place

If your course sections do not meet all three of these criteria, the following requirements must be completed after the merge and before the course is published to ensure FERPA compliance.

Click on each requirement to view instructions:

Syllabus Statement

Add a statement to the course syllabus indicating that students from multiple sections are enrolled in the course.

Example:

Note: This course combines students from multiple sections into a single learning experience; however, the instructor has implemented measures to keep sections from interacting with one another where appropriate.

Course Menu Tab Removal

In the Course menu, please make sure the following tabs are hidden so students from different sections cannot interact: Chat, Conferences, Collaborations, and People

To hide tabs in the course menu:

- Select the Settings tab in the course menu
- Select the Navigation tab across the top of the window
- Students can see tabs for the top bundle of tools - drag and drop the tools you want to hide from the top bundle of tools to the bottom bundle, or click the three dots associated with the tool and select 'disable'
- Click the Save button

Groups for Sections Only

If using groups in the course, when you enable/create the groups, check the box to require group members to be in the same section:

Discussions for Sections Only

You can use groups to keep sections separated, or

Use the “Assign To” field to assign discussions to individual sections.

Create a discussion board for each section
When in Edit mode, scroll to the bottom of the page to see the "Assign To" box
Start typing in the box or click the dropdown arrow to see all the sections in the course, then select one section to assign the discussion board to:
Create a different discussion board for each section - once you create one discussion board, you can use the Duplicate option (available in Modules or Discussions areas) to make one for each section:

Canvas Inbox Individual Messages

When composing a new message in the Canvas Inbox, make sure to select the “Send an individual message...” option so students cannot see other recipients on the message:

Additional Course Settings

Make the following adjustments to the course settings:

Select the Settings tab in the course menu and scroll down the bottom of the page to see a list of options. You can set them as you like but make sure to set these four as listed:

- Check "Disable comments on announcements"
- Uncheck “Let students create discussion topics”
- Uncheck “Let students organize their own groups”
- Check “Hide sections on the People page from students”

Additional Considerations:This list is not exhaustive. As Canvas and integrated tools continue to evolve, please be mindful of any additional features that could allow interaction between students from different sections and consult IDD before enabling any new Canvas tools or features in merged courses.

Contact idd@gonzaga.edu if you have any questions or would like help enabling these requirements.

If you prefer not to manage these FERPA-related settings but would still like to avoid building multiple course sections, IDD can copy your course content into each section after you build out one course shell.