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How to use the Online Request Course Administration (ORCA) course management online portal to merge your Canvas course sections into a combined course shell.
Considerations:
- Please review the Candidate to Merge table to assist you with deciding if it is in your interest to merge the Canvas courses or to keep them separate.
- Instructors can merge course sections using ORCA by the deadline identified on the Course Availability in Canvas table to create combined courses that will appear in Canvas. Courses will not be merged past the course merge deadline due to the possible loss of student interactions.
- The act of merging course sections in ORCA will cause any content that is in the individual sections to be inaccessible. This is due to the sections’ enrollments being migrated or moved into a new and blank course shell within Canvas. If you have already added content into any sections, please create an export package from the section(s) before merging the courses in ORCA. Note: You will need to ensure the export package is downloaded to your computer or device. When your download is ready after following the steps in the ‘create an export package’ link above, click the New Export link to complete the download to your computer.
Stacked or Combined courses are Canvas courses made up of sections which are each listed in the same department. Instructors of Record (IORs) can create stacked or combined courses if they are the IOR for each of the sections:
- Log in to ORCA with your TAMU NetID and Password.
- Click Semester Courses.
- Click Request Combined Course. A list of your current semester courses will appear under Course Request.
- Select the check-box for all the sections to create the combined course then select Next. Courses can be selected for the same Subject and Course Number or across Subjects if needed.
- On the Request Confirmation page, the selected sections will appear. The Title field will fill in with the title of the first course selected by default.
- Change the title to the title of the newly created combined course and select Next. Note: The combined course may appear right away in Canvas but may not have the course template applied. Wait a few minutes, refresh the course, and it will appear.
- To view your Combined Courses in ORCA, select Semester Courses, then View Semester Courses.
- Click the Triangle buttons to display more information about your combined courses. They will be categorized by Term and Type. You can click the View in Canvas link to display the combined course on the Canvas website.
Need additional assistance with your course merge? Please fill out this form.
There are two 2 options for creating a stacked course from sections with different instructors from the same department.
Option #1: Contact your department’s Academic Liaisons with the following information:
- A list of all the course sections to be merged. Include the Subject, Course Number, and Section Number for each course section.
- A new Title for the stacked course (this will apply to all merged course sections)
Option #2: Contact Canvas tier 1 Support by emailing support@instructure.com, with the following information:
- Written consent from ALL instructors with the course sections to be merged OR written consent from the Department Head.
- A list of all course sections to be merged. Include the Subject, Course Number, and Section Number for each course section.
- A new Title for the stacked course (this will apply to all merged course sections).
Example:
"Please forward this request to my local Texas A&M University Canvas support to complete the merge of the courses listed below:
- 24 Spring ENGL 201 Section 500
- 24 Spring ENGL 201 Section 501"
Cross-listed courses are Canvas courses made up of sections which are not listed in the same department. Individual or multiple Instructors of Records (IORs) can request cross-listed courses.
Contact Canvas tier 1 Support by emailing support@instructure.com, with the following information:
- Written consent from ALL instructors with the course sections to be merged OR written consent from the Department Heads.
- A list of all course sections to be merged. Include the Subject, Course Number, and Section Number for each course section.
- A new Title for the cross-listed course (this will apply to all merged course sections).
Example:
"Please forward this request to my local Texas A&M University Canvas support to complete the merge of the courses listed below:
- 24 Spring ENGL 201 Section 500
- 24 Spring ENGL 201 Section 501"