In K12 institutions, cross-listing can be used for instructors who are teaching the same subject in more than one class. For instance, an instructor is teaching Algebra during 1st, 3rd, and 7th period. These periods can be set up in Canvas as three separate courses, and students are enrolled in the course according to which period they are taking. Rather than enter and manage course content three different times, two of the courses can have a section (or multiple sections) cross-listed into the third course before the course is published. So if the sections created in the courses for the 3rd and 7th periods were cross-listed into the course created for 1st period, the instructor only has to update the first course, which now includes all three periods as individual sections.
In higher education, the same concept applies. Many times one course taught by one teacher is shown for course credit across multiple departments. If an English 1010 course is spread across four different departments with different names, institutions can create separate courses for each department's enrollments (e.g., English, Business, Psychology, and Education), then open those courses and cross-list their sections into one master course.
Managing one course with multiple sections provides flexibility for instructors all while managing content in one location. Instructors can use sections to create differentiated assignments and section-specific due dates, create self sign-up groups where students must all be in the same section, and specify that enrollments can only interact with other users in their section.