Separate Discussion Participation Based on Sections in Crosslisted Courses

[ChrisEngland]

When we have cross-listed courses, is it possible to have separate Discussions per section in a single graded Discussion assignment? I know you can control who is assigned, but if you need all sections assigned they can all view and participate in that Discussion.

Due to FERPA, you may not want students from one section seeing another section's students/replies.

If you create multiple Discussions, then it's not 1) a unified discussion thread and 2) a single assignment in the gradebook.

Another option would be to allow anonymous discussions to still be graded.

[Gabriel33 · Accepted solution]

I don't use sections, but I believe this issue could be solved by making groups that completely overlap with the sections.

So you can make a "Groups Section" that splits the class into groups, composed of the members of each section, and if you select the discussion to be a "Group Discussion", choosing the "Groups Section" as the grouping, they should be able to view only messages inside their groups/sections.

--EDIT--

Indeed, that is the recommendation listed in the blue box of this guide: How do I limit a user to only interact with other ... - Instructure Community - 1211

As limiting users from interacting with users from other sections does not apply to discussions, it recommends using groups:

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Discussion topics and Pages are not affected by section limitations and can be viewed by any student. These feature areas could be restricted by creating content in course groups.

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[Gabriel33 · Accepted solution]

I don't use sections, but I believe this issue could be solved by making groups that completely overlap with the sections.

So you can make a "Groups Section" that splits the class into groups, composed of the members of each section, and if you select the discussion to be a "Group Discussion", choosing the "Groups Section" as the grouping, they should be able to view only messages inside their groups/sections.

--EDIT--

Indeed, that is the recommendation listed in the blue box of this guide: How do I limit a user to only interact with other ... - Instructure Community - 1211

As limiting users from interacting with users from other sections does not apply to discussions, it recommends using groups:

---

Discussion topics and Pages are not affected by section limitations and can be viewed by any student. These feature areas could be restricted by creating content in course groups.

---

[ChrisEngland]

Do we not have to add students from each section manually to those new section groups? That seems like a pain when I have 6 sections with 40 students in each. 

That said, I appreciate you finding this solution, it may end up working.

[Gabriel33]

Indeed, if you have a lot of groups it can be cumbersome to create them in the UI.

But you can import a CSV file into the groups, which should make it a lot easier: How do I import groups in a group set? - Instructure Community - 417799

--EDIT--

If you see the image for the course roster CSV file, you can probably just copy the "sections" column (starting at row 2) into the "group_name" column.

[dbrace]

Hi @ChrisEngland,

Unforunately, it is not possible to have a single discussion and separate the conversation that would happen between the different sections in the same course.

You would need to create multiple discusssion (making sure they are named in a way that helps to identify which section it is assigned to) and assign each discussion to each section.

-Doug

[Gabriel33]

Are you saying my suggestion of creating groups that align with the sections (and making the discussion a "group discussion") would not work?

I haven't worked with sections before, but in my experience and understanding, a group discussion makes the posts only visible for students within each group.

[dbrace · Accepted solution]

If I am understanding you, creating groups would be possible but the students would need to be individually assigned to each group in each group set. Yes, it would be possible to use a CSV file to make the process easier.

In my opinion, I would:

1. create individual discussions for each section (making sure they are named in a way that helps to identify which section it is assigned to)
2. in the "Assign Access > Assign To" area of the discussion settings, assign each section to each discussion

Both options require additional steps but, at least in my opinion, creating multiple discussions that are assigned to each section is easier.

-Doug

[ChrisEngland]

What does this do to the gradebook? Would the other section students have a bunch of extra assignments with zero values, or would they not show up? And would that look or function "weird" for me as the instructor, having to bounce around those gradebook items?

Thanks again for everyone's replies!

[Gabriel33]

If you follow that route, you can add each "group of discussions" into an assignment group, so that you will have a column that summarizes all the discussions grades in a single gradebook column (though there will still be 6 different gradebook columns visible to you, with empty grades for most students - not zero, because they will not be assigned).

[dbrace]

Hi @ChrisEngland,

Your gradebook would have multiple discussions (one for each section).

Each discussion would only be assigned to the students in the appropriate section. This means that you will not need to exclude students from the discussions that they are not assigned to and the other discussions will not negatively or positively impact their grade because it was not assigned to them.

Does that help you?

-Doug

[Gabriel33]

If there are one or two discussions (which need to be copied into 6 or 12), then you are probably right, and I'd likely go your route (which @ChrisEngland also mentioned in their original post).

For more than that, the groups route is probably more convenient, as the groups only need to be done once per course (and perhaps updated if students can join later). Slightly more upfront work at the beginning of the term for a simpler process for each discussion, which will also probably be easier to manage when copying them for future terms.

[dbrace]

Yes, this way would also work. Which one to use would depend on: (1) how many discussions you plan on having that need to be separated and (2) how much time you are willing to spend at the beginning of the semester.

You might also want to consider how often or how much your rosters might change. This is because membership in a group in a group set is something that you would need to manually manage and that can be time consuming to do at the beginning of the semester or because of your institution's policies/procedures for late enrollments or withdrawals.

-Doug

[Hildi_Pardo]

Hi there,

I'm in agreement with @dbrace -- using Sections to assign each discussion is most efficient and will limit the conversation and the assignment to those students.  Only they can view that discussion, and only they can interact.  Students who are not in that Section will have a grayed out cell in the Gradebook.    Also, if your course receives your Sections and Enrollments automatically from your SIS, you won't have to worry about adding/removing students from a Group.   It's super easy to duplicate the Discussions (make sure to give each a unique name, as Dbrace suggested) and assign each to each Section.

A "slogan" I like is:  "Groups are for Collaboration and Sections are for Differentiation."    Sections are VERY powerful.

Here is a Canvas Guide:  How do I create a graded discussion? 

• From the Guide:  "Within the Gradebook, a graded discussion appears as a column for all students, but grade cells are grayed out for students who have not been included in the discussion. "

There also is a way to "Limit users to only see fellow section users" -- but the issues with that are:

• it depends on your permissions
• it would require a LOT of clicking (going to each student's course user info and clicking a setting)
• would prevent them from interacting in other types of Discussions that might not be instructional, but may be more social (some teachers have a "Virtual Café" or "Q&A" section that is open to all students and is not graded)

[Gabriel33]

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@Hildi_Pardo wrote:
[...]

There also is a way to "Limit users to only see fellow section users" -- but the issues with that are:

• [...]
• would prevent them from interacting in other types of Discussions that might not be instructional, but may be more social (some teachers have a "Virtual Café" or "Q&A" section that is open to all students and is not graded)

---

Can you please confirm that? According to the guide on limiting users to only interacting with other users in the same section, the 4th paragraph in the blue box says that discussion topics are not affected by section limitations. I can't test it because I don't have multiple sections, but if your experience is different, perhaps it's a bug, or there should be a correction to that guide.

If the guide is correct, then sections are not that powerful, and that feature is not helpful for the OP.

[Hildi_Pardo]

Ah, the devil is in the details, isn't it??    Thanks for sharing that!   It was totally an assumption on my part since we have a project where we specifically use this feature to limiting interaction with other users.

I still find Sections very powerful.  It allows for differentiation of assignments (and due dates and availability), targeting Announcements, and also for filtering the Gradebook and Speedgrader.  In the case of my project (mentioned above), we can limit a Grader or TA to a specific section.

Thanks!

[dbrace]

Something to keep in mind related to the "limit this user to only see fellow section users" feature. The user attempting to use it needs to have at least the "Users - allow administrative actions in courses" permission.