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In D2L, instructors can now merge (and unmerge!) their own courses. However, for merges that have different instructors in each course, at least one instructor must still contact the ITS Help Desk to have a D2L administrator conduct the merge for them.

Merged Courses Naming Convention

Before we begin the tutorial, please pay close attention to the naming conventions:

1. Please put MRG after the semester and year but before the course abbreviation (ex., from Fall2025_CAN101A_COLI Demonstration Workshop & Testing to Fall2025_MRG_CAN101A_COLI Demonstration Workshop & Testing).

   1. This is extremely important for helping D2L Administrators find and diagnose merged courses.

2. Use _ to separate the semester-year, MRG, and the course abbreviations and / to separate the primary and secondary courses (i.e., Fall2025_MRG_CAN101A/CAN101B). Then, use : after the course section letter for the title, also using spaces between words (Fall2025_MRG_CAN101A/CAN101B: COLI Demonstration Workshops & Testing).

3. & MUST be changed to and (i.e., Fall2025_MRG_CAN101A/CAN101B: COLI Demonstration Workshops and Testing).

4. If the primary and secondary course(s) share the same abbreviation and number (i.e., the only difference is the section letter), there is no need to include the abbreviation and number for the secondary course(s) (ex, Fall2025_MRG_CAN101A/B: COLI Demonstration Workshops and Testing).

5. The general formula is SemesterYear_MRG_PrimaryCourse/SecondaryCourse: Descriptive Merged Name

Examples:

Additionally, while we are only showing examples of two courses being merged, instructors can merge more than two courses together. The same naming convention applies:

SemesterYear_MRG_PrimaryCourse/SecondaryCourse01/SecondaryCourse02…: Descriptive Course Name

For example, if we are the instructor for RST101AA, RST101BB, and RST101CC and we want to merge them, the course merge name would be:

Fall2025_MRG_RST101AA/BB/CC: Intro to Religious Studies

Another example would be if we were the instructor for CSC112A Data Structures, CSC112LA, CSC512A Data Structures and Algorithms, and CSC512LA:

Fall2025_MRG_CSC112A/LA/CSC512A/LA: Data Structures and Algorithms

For Merges with lots of courses (i.e., more than six), we recommend grouping courses that share the same abbreviation together. For example:

Fall2025_MRG_EDAD573AA/EA/BB/DA/EDS435A/433B/436B/432A: Applied Teach

If you are not sure about how you should name your merged course, please contact Helpdesk for recommendations!

Course Merge Tutorial

**Important Notes:

• The following tutorials were done in our D2L TEST instance. Any merges in these tutorials will have no bearing on normal courses.

• If you are planning on adding other faculty or support staff into your course, do so after you merge the courses. Otherwise, you will need to re-enroll them again after the merges complete anyway.

• Additionally, if you had students complete assignments (i.e., upload to a dropbox, complete a discussion, etc.) or graded assignments using the gradebook before merging the courses, those assignments and grades will become unavailable to you when you merge the courses. The only way to get them back will be unmerge the courses. This is noted in messaging in the upper-left of the SIS Course Merge Tool:

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    SIS Course Merge Tool description and warning

     

• You can also merge additional courses into the merged course after a merge has been completed, though we recommend doing it all at once so it is not jarring to students/faculty.

The text instructions are available below. However, here is a short video on the using the SIS course merge tool, along with the video transcript:

*Click on an image to enlarge it

1	Click on the gear icon in the upper-right, to the right of your name, in D2L. Select SIS Course Merge in the menu that appears.	Open Accessing the SIS Course Merge Tool from the Admin Tools
2	Click the checkbox to the left of the course(s) that you want to merge. The blue Merge Courses button should no longer be greyed out after you choose at least two courses. Click on this to begin the merge process.	Open Selecting courses and starting the Merge
3	A pop-up will appear asking us to select the Primary course. When we have done so, click on the blue Merge button in the lower-left.	Open Selecting primary course and starting the merge
4	When we do, the pop-up will close. Reviewing the course list, we will see only the primary course listed and none of the secondary courses. We should also notice a banner appear letting us know that the merge has started and that we will receive a notification when it has completed. It also lets us know that we can make changes in the primary course and change the course name by clicking on the course offering information link. Click on it to do so.	Open Highlighting the course offering information link
5	Change the name following the above naming conventions. In this case, since we are merging Fall2025_ABEC220A_Animal Learning and Fall2025_ABEC220LA_Animal Learning Lab, the merged course name should look like: Fall2025_MRG_ABEC220A/LA: Animal Learning Then click on Save in the lower-left.	Open Changing the course offering name and saving
6	When we do, the page will reload and the title will update in three places on this page, the course home page, and the Course Widget.	Open Showing the updated name on the Course Information page Open Showing the updated name on the Course Homepage Open Showing the updated Course name in the Course Widget on D2L Homepage
7	When the Merge has completed, make sure to check the class list and ensure that the list in D2L and in My Canisius match up correctly. If they do not, contact Helpdesk ASAP.

Course Unmerge Tutorial

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SIS Course Merge Tool description and warning

As noted in the SIS Course Merge description and additional times during the unmerge process, unmerging courses can lead to some oddities in your courses. For example, say we have a merged course where students uploaded documents to a dropbox and/or we graded some other assignments using the gradebook. If, later, we decide to unmerge the courses, submitted dropbox assignments, discussion posts, course content, etc. nor the grades will carry over to the unmerged spaces. In fact, we will only see the grades and submitted assignments from students that remain in the original Primary course. Any students work from the Secondary course(s) will “disappear”. The only way to retrieve these items is to re-merge the courses together.

Also, note that you can unmerge individual courses from the merged course or completely undo a merge using these steps.

Before continuing, be absolutely sure that you want to unmerge the course. If you are concerned and are not sure whether or not you should unmerge a course, contact Helpdesk at helpdesk@canisius.edu.

*Click on an image to enlarge it

1	From the SIS Course Merge Page, click on SIS Course Merge Log	Open Showing the SIS Course Merge Log
2	Click on View details to the far left of the Merge instance that you want to unmerge	Open Highlighting View details link
3	Click on View merged courses	Open Highlighting View merged courses link
4	Select the Primary course and then click on the Unmerge button in the upper-left.	Open Selecting Primary course and then Unmerge
5	Read the pop-up that appears carefully, ensuring that you understand. Then, when ready, click on Unmerge. If you have questions, contact Helpdesk before unmerging courses!	Open Highlighting the Unmerge button
6	The page will update and we should see a banner appear at the top letting us know that the unmerge process has begun and that D2L will notify us when it is complete.	Open Showing the updated page after clicking unmerge
7	When the unmerge is completed, double-check the classlist in D2L and on My Canisius. Additionally, make sure to re-name the Primary course to something more appropriate.