Creating sections of the same class

[elscherman]

I teach four identical sections of English 101. However, rather than create four sections of the same class, my college's online learning center team insists on creating four entirely separate classes, claiming that 1) students in one section can 'see' students in another section, which violates FERPA, and 2) It's too much work for them to create separate sections of the same class.

Are either of these claims true? As you can imagine, having to go into four completely separate classes to make updates and fix errors, rather than doing it from one master class, costs me many hours of time.

I will respectfully share what you tell me with my online learning team.

[Ron_Bowman]

@elscherman 

You can cross-list all 4 courses into one of the courses that you pick to be the parent course.  That solves half your problem - the admin creates the 4 courses and you roll them all into one.

However, I am not sure about the people viewing aspect.  I believe if you do crosslist the course, all students are visible to the others.  I am not sure if there is a way to set it up so that does not happen.

[kmeeusen · Accepted solution]

Hi @elscherman 

@Ron_Bowman has answered part of your questions, the second concerning FERPA is trickier. The FERPA issue is real, andyour school is correct that making sure students don't see each other when sections are cross-listed is challenging. Bottom line is that you must follow school policy on FERPA, and your school must have a policy under FERPA and they must follow it. You can learn more about the FERPA issue at New FERPA requirements for cross-listed courses.

Good luck,

Kelley