Are your Canvas courses all FERPA compliant? The Registrar recently made an announcement on their website’s home page and updated their Course Offering Rules explaining various course type offerings and the compliant practices required when combining course sections into a single Canvas site.
What you need to know to be compliant:
Any course section that is combined in UDSIS can be combined in Canvas. If a section is not combined in UDSIS, it cannot be combined in Canvas due to FERPA regulations.
UD IT has been working closely with the Office of the Registrar to ensure that the way UD creates and uses Canvas courses complies with all FERPA guidelines, as defined by the Office of the Registrar. As a result of this work, the course creation process will be automated over the coming months according to the Registrar’s course offering rules, which we have listed below. We will continue to communicate with you as we automate this process. Until this new service is in place, when creating your courses, make sure you have read through these rules and create your course(s) following these guidelines.
If you have FERPA questions about your courses and sections, how they are listed in UDSIS, and whether they could be combined, please contact the Office of the Registrar, at schedoffice@udel.edu.
If you have Canvas questions about creating your courses for a future term, please contact us at canvas-info@udel.edu.
Cross-listed and Dual-listed Courses and Canvas Setup
A single course can be cross-listed, dual-listed and have honors/non-honors combined sections. Any course section that is combined in UDSIS can be combined in Canvas. If a section is not combined in UDSIS, it cannot be combined in Canvas due to FERPA regulations. It is not permissible for students to be identified to other students through combining of courses in Canvas that are not combined in UDSIS, per policy defined by the Office of the Registrar.
A cross-listed course is a single course that is offered for registration under two or more subject areas (e.g. CISC481/CGSC481). Each of the cross-listed sections must have the same title, description, grade type, prerequisites, co-requisites and credit hours. In most cases, the course is identical for everyone participating. The course is taught as one course (same meeting place, time and instructor) despite students being enrolled under multiple subjects.
A dual-listed course is a single course that is offered at both the undergraduate and graduate level. Undergraduate courses are numbered at the 400 level; graduate at the 600 level (e.g. CISC481/CISC681). The courses are the same except that students enrolled in the graduate level course have additional assignments, assessments and activities.
Combined sections: Honors sections are sometimes offered with a non-honors section. The two sections of the course are the same except that students enrolled in the honors section have additional assignments.
