{"id":10434,"date":"2026-08-05T10:42:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T09:42:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/?p=10434"},"modified":"2026-08-05T10:44:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T09:44:18","slug":"merging-courses-2026-27","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/2026\/08\/05\/merging-courses-2026-27\/","title":{"rendered":"Merging Courses 2026-27"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now that the 2026-27 modules are available to teaching staff,&nbsp;you can use the Blackboard Module Partners tool to&nbsp;merge your courses.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The Blackboard Module Partners Tool is accessed through\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/myadmin.aber.ac.uk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">myadmin.aber.ac.uk<\/a>, and information on how to use it can be found on our FAQ:\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/faqs.aber.ac.uk\/index.php?id=9506\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">How do I merge modules in Blackboard (staff)?<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Merging courses is an effective way&nbsp;of dealing with separate courses with the same content so you&nbsp;don\u2019t&nbsp;have to upload materials to two or more different courses.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This process makes one course the\u202f<strong>Primary\u202f<\/strong>(previously parent), whilst the other course(s) becomes\u202f<strong>Secondary<\/strong>\u202f(previously child).&nbsp;There\u2019s&nbsp;no limit on how many secondary courses you can make but there can only be one primary.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Examples from Aberystwyth&nbsp;<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Many members of staff are currently using the merge course facility across the institution. Some examples are:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"1\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Modules are taught the same content but&nbsp;there\u2019s&nbsp;a module available for different years.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<ol start=\"2\" class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Modules that bring together different degree schemes and have different module IDs, e.g. dissertation modules.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Essentially, any&nbsp;module\/course that shares the same content is ideal for Merging courses.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What do students see?&nbsp;<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Students will see the name of the course that they are enrolled on (even if&nbsp;it\u2019s&nbsp;the secondary course) when they log into&nbsp;Blackboard&nbsp;but they will see all the content placed in the primary course. Instructors will not be able to place content in the secondary course.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Things to consider&nbsp;<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Now, before the start of term and whilst course content is being built, is the perfect time for linking your courses. Whilst the linking of courses does save time in the loading of materials, here are some points to consider:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>All content\u202f<\/strong>can be viewed as soon as the courses are merged (as long as&nbsp;students are enrolled on the course). In addition to\u202f<strong>PowerPoints<\/strong>\u202fand\u202f<strong>lecture materials<\/strong>, this also includes\u202f<strong>Announcements<\/strong>\u202fand other\u202f<strong>interactive tools<\/strong>\u202fon your primary course.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Historical student interactions<\/strong>\u202fon a secondary course (such as using blogs or posting in discussion boards)&nbsp;won\u2019t&nbsp;be available once the courses have been merged.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Any\u202f<strong>submission points<\/strong>\u202fcreated on a secondary module before the merge takes place will no longer be able to be viewed. We would&nbsp;advise&nbsp;creating these again in the primary course.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do I control content so that it is only viewable to a module cohort?&nbsp;<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whilst all content is automatically visible once the courses are merged, you can use groups and adaptive release if you only want the content to be visible to a specific module cohort. This might be useful, for example, if you have merged a 2<sup>nd<\/sup>\u202fyear and 3<sup>rd<\/sup>\u202fyear course but your students on the different courses have separate assignments. You can use groups \u2013 1 for the 2<sup>nd<\/sup>\u202fyear students and one for 3<sup>rd<\/sup>\u202fyear students and limit who can see the assignment information and submission point. See our guidance on\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/faqs.aber.ac.uk\/index.php?id=534\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Creating Groups<\/a>\u202fand\u202f<a href=\"https:\/\/faqs.aber.ac.uk\/index.php?id=582\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Release Conditions<\/a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h1 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Merging Courses and the Grade Book&nbsp;<\/h1>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Once the merging takes place, all students will appear in the Grade Book of the primary course. It is possible to filter the gradebook using Merged Modules so that you only see the information for students on the relevant modules.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Click the filter button highlighted below and choose from the dropdown for merged courses:&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"465\" height=\"240\" src=\"http:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/files\/2026\/08\/Picture1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-10435\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If&nbsp;you\u2019d&nbsp;like further information on this process or have any questions, please contact us on\u202f<a href=\"mailto:elearning@aber.ac.uk\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">elearning@aber.ac.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Now that the 2026-27 modules are available to teaching staff,&nbsp;you can use the Blackboard Module Partners tool to&nbsp;merge your courses.&nbsp; The Blackboard Module Partners Tool is accessed through\u202fmyadmin.aber.ac.uk, and information on how to use it can be found on our FAQ:\u202fHow do I merge modules in Blackboard (staff)?&nbsp; Merging courses is an effective way&nbsp;of dealing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":108665,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[94],"tags":[92,1267],"class_list":["post-10434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blackboard","tag-staff","tag-ultra-en"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9XLJV-2Ii","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/108665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10434"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10436,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10434\/revisions\/10436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.aber.ac.uk\/e-learning\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}