What is the section sync improvement and how does it work? A real-life example explained.

[matekiss]

What is the section setting in Catalog?

In Catalog, sections enable you to offer the same Canvas course across multiple terms without the need to create separate courses or listings for each term. For example, you can create one section for the spring term and another for the summer term, all within the same Canvas course and Catalog listing. This makes managing term-based enrollment far more efficient.

The section setting in Catalog determines where newly enrolled students will be placed. However, keep in mind that updating the section setting only affects new enrollments. Students who are already enrolled or were enrolled in the past will remain in their original sections.

The section dates displayed in Catalog are pulled directly from the Canvas section settings. If no dates are set for the section, Catalog defaults to the course-level dates. Sections labeled "self-paced" indicate that no specific dates have been applied to either the section or the course. To adjust these dates, simply go to the Settings tab within your Canvas course.

Note: if your course or program has a fixed time limit for completion (e.g., "30 days to complete"), this field won't apply. In such cases, each student is assigned their own section with individualized start and end dates.

What has changed with the section sync improvement?

Previously, changes made to section settings in Canvas did not automatically sync with Catalog. This meant that if you updated a course’s section details in Canvas, you would also need to manually update those details in Catalog. This manual process could lead to inconsistencies or errors, causing unnecessary extra work.

The new section sync improvement ensures that any changes made to section settings in Canvas now automatically sync with Catalog. This eliminates the need for manual updates, streamlining workflows, and ensuring that both platforms are always aligned.

Real-life example of how section sync solves a common issue

A common issue that many users faced before this update was related to certificates. For instance, if a student completed a course after the section's end date had passed, you would not have been able to download their certificate, as the system would recognize the section as "closed."

With the section sync improvement, this issue is easily resolved. By simply adjusting the student's section dates in Canvas, the change is instantly synced with Catalog. This means you can immediately download the certificate without any delays—an efficient solution to a previously cumbersome problem.

Can enrollment dates differ from section dates? What’s the difference?

Yes, enrollment dates and section dates can be different, offering greater flexibility in managing course timelines.

• Section date: defines the start and end dates of the course.
• Enrollment date: specifies the time frame during which students can enroll in the course.

For example, your course might have a section date that starts on March 1st, but you can allow students to begin enrolling as early as January 1st. This flexibility enables you to manage course availability and student enrollment periods independently, offering a more tailored experience for your learners.

[KathyPalm]

Really great update, thank you! 😃

[SiphokaziGasa]

amazing update 🙂

[hechla]

Very needed. Thank you for the update. 

[hechla]

Hi @matekiss, I've had some more time to digest this and test. 

One issue we've discovered with using sections for updating Catalog listings is that Student Cap is based on the overall course and not the section the listing is synced with. This can be problematic because if you want to offer a cap of 20 students per section offering, but get less than that every time you offer the course/section, then you have to manually do the math to adjust the new Student Cap so that the new section still allows a maximum of 20 students.

At one point in the past it was possible to deactivate the previous students and that would reset the Seats Taken number in Catalog but that changed in June of this year to no longer works (and I've been told the current way is the way it should have worked all along). 

I've also very recently noticed that there's some confusion (on my part) with regards to a User's Transcript in Catalog. When re-using the same course shell with new sections I'm noticing that the Transcripts are showing a user is still "In Progress" ... possibly because the course is still open even though the section has ended. As I said, the confusion might be on my part but I'm trying to figure all this out. 

Thanks,
Adam

[matekiss]

Hello @hechla 

Thank you for taking the time to thoroughly test and share these insights. I understand how critical it is to ensure that the student cap for each section aligns with your intended offering, and we are currently looking into this scenario. We will investigate the behavior regarding the Student Cap and the issue you’ve mentioned with resetting the Seats Taken number after deactivating previous students.

Regarding the confusion around the user transcripts showing "In Progress" when reusing course shells with new sections, we'll also review this further to understand if this behavior is expected or if there's an opportunity for improvement.

Once we've completed our investigation, I'll update you with our findings and any recommended steps moving forward.

Thanks again for your patience and for bringing this to our attention.

Best,
Máté

[hechla]

Hello again @matekiss,

I was just re-reading this article: https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Canvas-Catalog/How-does-Canvas-Catalog-interact-with-my-instituti...

and I noticed this sentence at the bottom:

"If you make any changes to dates in Canvas, you must sync the changes in Catalog. To sync changes, open the listing and re-save."

Correct me but the improvements in this post change the statement in the guide I reference? 

[matekiss]

Hello @hechla,

You're absolutely right; there's no need to open and re-save the listings anymore. The referenced article is outdated, and I’ve already requested the documentation team to update it as soon as possible. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.

[jsowalsk]

@matekiss @hechla It seems as if you add the section in Canvas, refresh the listing page and then the section appears. Then, you select save to save the listing. Maybe this should be noted?

[matekiss]

Hello @hechla,

Thank you for your patience while we’ve been investigating these cases. I’ve reviewed your concerns with the team, and I’d like to provide some clarification and potential next steps regarding both the Student Cap and Transcript confusion.

Student cap Issue with sections:

We understand the challenge you're facing in managing the student cap across different sections. As the current setup in Catalog ties the student cap to the entire course rather than individual sections, you're having to manually adjust the cap to ensure proper enrollments for each section.

We recommend the following workaround: instead of modifying the current Catalog listing with a new section, delete the existing listing and create a new one with the same Canvas course but a different section. This way, each section will have its own student cap and enrollments, eliminating the need for manual cap adjustments across sections. We're also keeping this scenario in mind for potential improvements in future releases.

Transcript confusion:

Regarding the transcripts showing users as "In Progress" even after a section has ended, this is happening because the course shell is being reused with different sections. Since the transcript is dynamically generated based on the current product details, when the section is updated, the transcript may show the user’s status as incomplete.

Creating a new Catalog listing for each section will also resolve this transcript issue. By maintaining separate listings for each section, the transcripts will reflect the correct status for each user based on their respective section enrollment, without being impacted by future section changes.

Deactivating users and seat adjustment:

You mentioned that it was previously possible to deactivate students and reset the seats taken in Catalog. Our developer  team investigated this and found that this feature is functioning in production and beta environments. If you're still having trouble with deactivating users, please let us know and we can further investigate.

We truly appreciate your patience as we’ve worked through these cases. We hope these recommendations will help streamline your process and reduce manual efforts in managing sections, student caps, and transcripts.

Thanks again for your feedback!

Best,
Máté

[jsowalsk]

@matekiss, in the future, will there not be a workaround for us to create a new listing and section? This seems to be tedious. Will there ever be an option to copy/duplicate listings and attach a new section if necessary?

[hechla]

Hello @matekiss 

Thank you for your feedback. 

My experience, in testing only (in the beta instance), is that when you delete a listing the enrollment analytics are removed from the Catalog UI. I phrase it that way because I assume the data still exists in the database and might be accessible via API. Regardless, when retrieving analytics via the UI we need to know that the data is complete and not affected by the fact that we deleted some listings. So I don't think we want to use this method in an effort to deal with the Student Cap issue. The Canvas Users Group discussed this (the missing analytics when deleting a listing) briefly on our last meeting with regards to "cleaning up" or organizing the ever-growing list of course listings in Canvas. 

Regarding the Transcript issue, since I can't masquerade as a user in Catalog like we can in Canvas, I can't verify that the user can still access a transcript. However, I (admin) was unable to see the analytics record that includes the link to the User transcript once the listing was deleting.  Forgive me, it was about a month ago or so that I tested this so my details might be slightly off. 

We have switched to creating new Canvas course shells and new Catalog listings for each offering so these issues shouldn't affect us moving forward, but this switch was necessitated by these ongoing issues. 

[matekiss]

Hello Jessica,

Duplicate and archive functions are planned for 2025.

Best,
Máté

[jsowalsk]

Thank you, @matekiss. This will be extremely helpful. What would the archive function entail? Archiving the listing or the course? or both? Also, is there a period of time it is expected to archive a listing such as a policy?

[matekiss]

Hi @jsowalsk ,

In our first version, we’re developing a tool that allows you to shrink the Listings menu by archiving items rather than permanently deleting them. We've noticed that outdated or unused listings often make navigation and pagination more cumbersome. With this archive feature, you'll be able to archive programs or courses as needed and, if necessary, restore them at any time.

[jsowalsk]

@matekiss This would be a great enhancement. Do you know when this will be available? Just to confirm, we can archive a listing or program at any time and then bring it back? What happens to that analytics?