How do I handle Discussions in cross-listed courses?

Cross-listing sections in Canvas makes managing Discussions a little more complicated. See the guide below for help in knowing what to do about using Discussions in cross-listed courses.


Answer

There are three options: 

  1. Allow all sections to participate in the same Discussion Post.
    • Benefits:
      • For graded discussions, only one assignment is needed for all students.
    • Drawbacks:
      • All students can see all Discussion replies and so may be overwhelmed by the number of replies they should read.
    • Recommendations:
      • You will probably want to make sure that the Discussion doesn't "open" until all sections are ready to participate. If you have a section that gets the material on Monday and two others who get it on Tuesday, don't open the discussion until after the second section on Tuesday. 
      • Make sure to turn on the "Student must reply before seeing other replies" option in the Discussion settings.
  2. Duplicate Sections using Groups, set up the Discussion as a Group Discussion.
    • Benefits:
      • Each section gets their own Discussion board and only sees their section of students' responses.
      • Only one assignment is needed for the Gradebook.
    • Drawbacks:
      • Requires longer set up to establish the groups (and you'll need to check back in on them as students drop or add the class). 
  3. Create a separate Discussion for each section:
    • Benefits:
      • No need to worry about creating groups. Just create the Discussion and assign it to only one section. Duplicate it for as many sections as you need.
      • Each section gets their own Discussion board and only sees their section of students' responses.
    • Drawbacks:
      • Each Discussion assignment appears separately in the Gradebook.

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  • Last Updated Aug 25, 2025
  • Views 2
  • Answered By Blake Ide

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