Assigning students to sections after a course has started

[etbrooks]

My organization has a course that has already started, with active students. I would like to create two sections of the course and divide the students into these sections manually. If I do that with students that have already started the course, but I want to make sure it won't affect their progress in the course. If I assign them to a section now will their progress in the course be lost? 

[mzimmerman · Accepted solution]

Hi @etbrooks ,

It really depends on what kind of "progress" you are talking about.  In general, student's course work (assignment submissions, discussion posts, grades, etc.) is not tied to the specific section they are enrolled in.  However, if you have assignments that are only assigned to one section, or different dates for different sections, that might have an impact if students switch sections.

[mzimmerman · Accepted solution]

Hi @etbrooks ,

It really depends on what kind of "progress" you are talking about.  In general, student's course work (assignment submissions, discussion posts, grades, etc.) is not tied to the specific section they are enrolled in.  However, if you have assignments that are only assigned to one section, or different dates for different sections, that might have an impact if students switch sections.

[etbrooks]

The two sections would have identical content (assignments, discussion posts, dates, etc). I just need to divide students into two groups for data collection and reporting purposes. 

[Ron_Bowman · Accepted solution]

@etbrooks -

Then what @mzimmerman stated is correct.  Just create your 2 sections and assign the students accordingly.  Of course you may want to consider adding students to groups instead of sections.  Not sure how using groups would affect your data collection versus sections.

With sections, you can add students in bulk via the people tab - but students have to accept the invitation to join that section.  With groups the students can just be put into them.

here is the link to the instructor guide where you can find information on creating sections and groups and how to add students to those entities.

Ron