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Cross-List Same Course, Different Delivery Method (Synchronous)

Justin Spears

January 26, 2018 16:21

Completed

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The new cross-listing feature wonderfully allows you have students in different courses essentially sharing the same virtual learning space, even if those courses have different delivery methods (the key issue). Our institution, however, needs to be able to "cross-list" the same course with students organized by delivery method instead. This issue has to do with offering effective hybrid/synchronous courses, with some students on-campus and some joining via video conferencing. We have to keep an accurate record of the delivery method (for financial aid, etc.) for each student in each course, but desire for students to still be able to share a learning space (discussion forums, etc.). 

Currently we have to create two separate sections for each of our synchronous courses. As nearly all of our on-campus courses are offered synchronously, this makes for a lot of unnecessary redundancy and confusion each term. 

"Cross-listing" is not the right term for what we are asking for, but the functionality seems to be there, with the exception of being able to choose the same course from the cross-listing options.

Thanks.

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20 comments

• 
  Toby Robinson April 14, 2023 05:19 Official comment

  Student types have been added to student profiles. You can now restrict courses by type as well. Student Type is split into 2 settings for more flexibility - Campus and Online. Online is courses with an online delivery method, Campus is everything else. To make it so a student could only register to audit courses you'd set both to Audit Only. Please let support know if you have any questions!

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  Adam Sentz January 26, 2018 16:41

  @Justin - Sounds like it might work for you to have a two versions of the course: on-campus, and online. I've seen some folks append a -O to their course number. I don't know if that would be practical for ya'll at this point, but it would allow for cross-listing.

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  Justin Spears January 26, 2018 17:08

  We considered this, but that would mean doubling the size of our course catalog, which is already extensive. And we actually have three distinct delivery methods to keep up with: Online (asynchronous), On-Campus, and Synchronous. The last two typically share an instructor, meeting time, assignments, etc.  As such, further separating them (different course numbers) would work against what we hope to eventually accomplish (i.e two "merged" sections/rosters). We may eventually have to go with your suggestion in order to achieve our pedagogical aims, but don't want to if it can be helped. Thanks though, Adam. 

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  Justin Spears January 26, 2018 17:15

  On a related note, it would be helpful to be able to specifically designate which sections of a course are being 'sync'ed (Info tab option) to each other. At times, we have as much as six sections of a course (different delivery methods or instructors) in the same term. If I 'sync' an on-campus and synchronous course being taught by one instructor, I can't then 'sync' two online sections taught by a different instructor that same term. Perhaps this needs to be a different feature request, but it is very much related. 

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  Adam Sentz January 26, 2018 17:34

  @Justin - Thanks. That all makes sense, and is on the radar.

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  Sarah Barkman January 29, 2018 15:10

  This request sounds really similar to the one I made here: https://support.populiweb.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115000496554-Cross-Listing-Features-applied-to-Synced-Courses. I definitely agree. We would love to have the functionality of cross-listed courses applied to synced courses; specifically features like the merged class roster, options to make assignments required for one group and not the other, and option of making changes to one section but not the other.

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  Justin Spears January 31, 2018 15:03

  Yes, Sarah. Looks like we are essentially after the same thing. 

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  Kirsha MacLeod-Fitzgerald May 18, 2022 14:35

  We are interested in this becoming a feature of Populi - especially as more and more students want to attend a live-stream course. We have most of courses offered in-class and live-streamed. It would be really beneficial to students and professors, if sections could be cross-listed.

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  Russell Shouldice May 18, 2022 18:03

  Kirsha and I work at the same institution.  We've had a number of faculty members approach us recently about this.  We have two main issues at the moment.  1. The student experience, and 2. the ease of management for faculty.  Our hybrid/live-streamed and in-class students essentially operate as one class, but the experience around things like online discussions and communications with the professor would be improved with the ability to cross-list courses with the same course code. 2. Course management for faculty has become more difficult now that many courses have multiple sections of what is essentially the same cohort.  In some cases we cross-list a grad and undergrad course.  So, if that course also has hybrid students, it becomes up to four sections for a professor to manage.

  With Justin's, Sarah's, and now Kirsha's feature requests being very similar what would be the possibility of getting some traction on this?

  Sarah's: https://support.populiweb.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/115000496554-Cross-Listing-Features-applied-to-Synced-Courses

  Kirsha's: https://support.populiweb.com/hc/en-us/community/posts/6038095156763-Cross-listing-courses-with-same-course-code-different-sections

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  Wayne Baxter December 20, 2022 12:39

  Yes cross-listing would be most excellent!

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  Jeemin Moon January 12, 2023 15:44

  This will help the staff and faculty enormously. I am all for it. 

  Edited by Jeemin Moon January 12, 2023 15:57
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  Sandi Brubacher January 12, 2023 15:55

  This would be a huge help!

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  Marianne Vanderboom January 12, 2023 16:03

  I agree with everyone else here. Although syncing helps somewhat, when I am teaching a single class that is both on-campus and live-streamed, it is hugely frustrating to have to take attendance in section 1 and then switch to take attendance in section 23 for the same class, to enter grades in section 1, and then switch to section 23 to enter grades for the rest of the class, to have students who are in section 1 unable to communicate with students in section 23 and vice versa, and to have students in the one section not able to participate in peer evaluation activities with the other section. This is especially problematic when I have discussions and peer evaluation activities for the class, but only a single student who is taking the course live-streamed. There should be able to list different modes of delivery of the same course that is running at the same time as a single cross-listed course.

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  Betty-Anne Van Rees January 12, 2023 16:32

  This would create a significantly improved course experience for the students who are online. Yes please!

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  Rick Reed January 12, 2023 16:35

  I would agree that this change would be a great enhancement for our profs and students.  Please move forward with it.

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  David G. Barker January 13, 2023 00:55

  This is really important for my Hermeneutics class in which the students are required to post answers to my posted questions and then interact with at least two others (or more) in their posts. Most students interact with at least four, and sometimes five or six other students, and while the learning experience is excellent, it also forms a community of learners as the interact with each other over the semester. When the -23 class has three students and the -1 course has four students, it significantly limits the number of students that someone can interact with. When I can combine all seven, it makes the conversation and discussion a lot more dynamic and the learning a lot more effective. Right now the tech is limiting the learning effectiveness. This is a huge problem. Tech is supposed to enhance the teaching and learning experience. Right now it is a detriment to teaching and learning. This needs serious attention by Populi. 

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  Doug Thomson January 14, 2023 02:35

  This cross-listing change would be very helpful for us as profs as well as for the students!

   

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  Martin Zhao September 01, 2023 04:24

  Toby Robinson could you explain how to use Student Types to implement what Justin Spears requested - Cross-List Same Course, Different Delivery Method? thanks

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  Dan Wells February 09, 2026 15:53

  Is there a reason this request is marked as "Completed"? We are trying to redesign the way our catalog is set up, and the ability to "cross list" within the same course would be a useful addition. It currently feels like an arbitrary limitation to some degree. I can understand it might save on potential mistakes and confusion, but there are legitimate reasons to link two sections of the same course together (whether this should be dubbed as "cross listing" is debatable).

  The other similar feature requests listed here no longer allow comments, so I am commenting here. If there is a better request to support for this feature, please point me in the right direction. Thank you!

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  Adam Sentz February 09, 2026 18:09

  Dan Wells - This request is marked Completed because we added the requested functionality which was really relating to student delivery methods and not cross-listing. Would be interested in hearing more about your particular use case if you want to open a support request or make a new feature request.