Managing Grades in a Cross-Listed Course

[sima_tarokh]

Dear Canvas Community,

I am a Canvas administrator and instructor. We have three course sections that need to be cross-listed into one course shell. Two sections follow an 8-week schedule (Part A: Weeks 1–8 and Part B: Weeks 9–16), while the third section runs for 16 weeks (Weeks 1–16). The course content is designed for 16 weeks, with instructors initially publishing modules for Weeks 1–8 and then releasing the remaining modules (Weeks 9–16) at the start of Week 9.

Cross-listing works smoothly for grading during Weeks 1–8, as both the 16-week section and Part A section run concurrently. However, starting in Week 9, we face a challenge with the Part B section:

• The 16-week section requires midterm grades.
• The Part A section requires final grades.
• The Part B section begins in Week 9, meaning students in this section should not yet have any graded assignments.

We are looking for a solution to manage this cross-listed setup while ensuring students’ grades remain accurate and appropriately reported. If anyone has experience handling a similar situation or suggestions for best practices, we would greatly appreciate your insights.

Thank you!

[Gabriel33 · Accepted solution]

I don't have that situation, but what I'd suggest is the following:

• First, use assignment groups with weights that are not dependent on the section: For example, have one assignment group for "Homework" that applies to homework for both sections, another for "Exams" that have the midterm and the final, and so on. It is important that every assignment group has at least one assignment for each 8-week section.
• Second, use the "assign to" policies in each quiz/assignment to assign the tasks only to the relevant section. So a "week 3" homework will be assigned only to the 16 week section and the part A section, while the final exam (in week 16) will only be assigned to group B and the 16 week session.

I think these two should be enough to get what you want.

This way, at the end of week 8, the part A section will have a grade for every assignment group that can be then used to calculate their final grade. Because none of the tasks for the second half is assigned to them, their grade will not be changed anymore.

For the part B section, they will not have missed any assignments yet, since they weren't assigned to any.

The 16-week section will have their current grade based on the past assignments, but that will be updated as new assignments are graded.

[sima_tarokh]

Thank you so much for your suggestion, @Gabriel33 ! We had a similar idea, but the way you clarified the solution makes perfect sense. Thanks again!