What are Sections in Canvas?
Sections allow the instructor to subdivide students within a course and offer section-specific options such as varied due dates for assignments, discussions, and quizzes. Instructors can direct announcements and inbox messages to particular sections only.
How do I view the Sections in a course?
By default, all courses have only one section that contains all the students. You can find a list of sections (and add new sections) for a course by navigation to "Settings" in the Course Navigation Menu, and selecting the "Sections" tabs. You can see which students are in which sections on the course People page. Finally, in the Gradebook, you can filter your view by sections (View>Filters>Sections)
Some use-cases for sections:
- Honors students (students may be given assignments that are not assigned to the rest of the class).
- Differentiated instruction (different assignments and/or different due dates)
- Student(s) who received an Incomplete and require additional time to finish the course
- Recitations/lab sections etc that meet at different times but have identical course content - send announcements to only one section
Can I Manage Sections as an Instructor?
Currently, Instructors are able to create a new section in a course, but can not add or remove users from the section. If you would like students added to a particular section, contact ETO (eto@framingham.edu) with the name of the course, name of the section, and the names of the students to be added to the section. Ideally, include a list of students' login id, SIS id and/or email address. Note: Instructors will also not be able edit the section settings (including section name) nor will they be able to cross-list the section. These are also functions that ETO can assist you with by request.
To create a new section: navigate to Settings in the Course Navigation menu, then click on the "settings" tab at the top. Type the desired name of your section then click +Section.
How can I use Sections?
Once your section is set up, you can use sections to differentiate the course experience in a variety of ways: