Combining Sections in CLSS
- Max Klinkert
Background
Defining Combined Sections
Combined sections are those in which two or more sections are taught together with the same time, location, and instructor and formally combined in the Student Administration System. There are a number of reasons that departments would combine sections, but the two most common scenarios are (1) courses that are cross-listed in the course catalog, and (2) undergraduate and graduate versions of the same class.
While some details between combined sections may vary, the following details of each section must match exactly:
Class meetings (start/end times, days of the week);
Instructor assignments;
Classroom assignments; and
Instructional modes.
In addition, the enrollment capacity and requested room capacity of each individual sections must equal the combined enrollment capacity and requested room capacity controlled by the Parent Section.
About Parent and Child Sections
When the individual sections in a combined section are from different departments, in most cases one of the departments is the one whose faculty member is teaching the course, and so it is that department that would have control over most of the relevant scheduling details. In CLSS, this is what is known as the Parent Section. Only the scheduling unit offering the Parent Section will be able to update the meeting days/times, instructor, room assignment, and overall capacity of the combined sections.
The other sections are known as Child Sections; the schedulers in the units that control the Child Sections will only be able to edit a limited number of fields in CLSS. While there will be only one Parent Section, there can be multiple Child Sections.
When combining sections across multiple departments, it is strongly recommended that the departments communicate about the planned combination before making any changes in CLSS to ensure that every department is on the same page with the plan.
If two sections within the same scheduling unit are being combined (for example a W and non-W version of a course), there will still be a Parent and Child Section, but the distinction is less relevant as the scheduler would have full access to both sections.
Instructions
Important: When combining sections in CLSS, the Parent Section must first be scheduled.
Confirm that the Parent Section has been created.
Navigate to the Section Editor for the Child Section that you will be combining with the Parent Section.
Complete all required fields in the Section Editor for the Child Section, but skip over the following fields:
Combine With (you will complete this field in a later step)
Instructor
Room
Schedule
When you combine sections, the Child Section will inherit the Instructor, Room, and Schedule from the Parent Section. As such, we recommend that these fields be left blank when combining sections. If the Child Section already has data in those fields and it does not exactly match the details of the Parent Section, you will receive an error and you will be unable to save your changes. If you get an error message indicating that these fields don’t match, clear any data from these fields in the Child Section and select save.
When entering the Enrollment capacities, please note that the enrollment and requested room capacities of each individual section - both the Parent and Child Sections - must be edited individually. The Combined Section Enrollment field (which will display once you complete the following steps to combine the sections) will automatically sum the enrollment capacities of all sections in the combination once the section is saved. The scheduler that controls the Parent Section will be able to update the combined Rm Cap Request field; this value should always match the combined enrollment cap.  CLSS sums the combined enrollment capacities automatically, but the scheduling unit that controls the Parent Section may edit the Rm Cap Request field. |
Once you’ve completed the necessary fields in the Section Editor for the Child Section, select the dropdown option in the Combine With field.
In the search field, start typing the subject, catalog, and section number of the Parent Section you wish to combine this Child Section with. As you type, courses that match the criteria you enter will appear.
Select the Parent Section with which you wish to combine this Child Section from the list.
As you type, the search results will continuously filter to only show results that match the text you have typed.
The selected class will appear in the Combine With field.
Select Save.
Once the changes are saved, you’ll notice several updates to the Section Editor:
The Parent Section with which you’ve combined the Child Section will appear as a hyperlink in the Combine With field; if you click the link, it will bring you to the Section Editor for that Parent Section (this will be read-only unless the Parent Section is also in your scheduling unit).
A purple header will appear at the top of the Section Editor identifying the Parent Section and indicating that it controls the primary scheduling configuration for this combined section.
The Instructor, Room, and Schedule fields of the Section Editor will be uneditable.
The Combined Section Enrollment fields will appear; the two fields here will also be greyed out and uneditable.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can you combine sections on different campuses?
A: No. Because the locations of combined sections must match, it is not possible to formally combine sections on different campuses. If a class needs to be offered in person on one campus and online on another, the scheduling staff on each campus should coordinate to ensure that all relevant scheduling details match, and use the Room Features field to ensure that the classroom has the necessary video conference equipment. However, the two courses will not be combined in the system and will remain two separate sections.
Q: Can you combine in-person classes with online classes?
A: No. Because the locations of combined sections must match, it’s not possible to combine in-person classes with online classes. If classes with different modes will be taught at the same time by the same instructor, schedulers should follow the same procedure laid out in the answer to the question about sections on different campuses.
Q: How do I change the capacity of a section that has already been combined with another section?
A: Sometimes it is necessary to change the capacities of combined sections. In addition to just adding or reducing capacity, this is sometimes done to reallocate the number of seats in each section. Other times it is done to reduce the combined capacity so that another section can be combined with the group and still fit in the assigned classroom.
When you change the capacity of one of the sections in the group, it will change the Combined Section Enrollment Cap (the grayed out field automatically calculated by CLSS). This is a real example of two combined sections, one with a cap of 40 and another with a cap of 5 for a combined total of 45:
The Enrollment Cap and Rm Cap Request fields are manually edited by each section in a combined section group. The grayed out Combined Section Enrollment Cap is automatically calculated by CLSS, and the Combined Rm Cap Request field is controlled by the parent section.
When you change the cap of an individual section in a combined section group, this will change the combined section enrollment cap. Because the combined Enrollment Cap and combined Rm Cap Request fields must match, it is important to update the Combined Rm Cap Request field when making this type of change. In this example, the department needed to drop the cap of its section to 25 to allow a new 15-cap section to be added to the group, keeping the total cap at 45. In order to remain in the 45-seat room, the parent section first had to drop its cap and the combined cap to 30:
Even though the Combined Section Enrollment Cap still displays 45 in this screenshot, once the save is successful, CLSS will automatically update it to 30. Because the Rm Cap Request must equal the combined enrollment cap, it is best for the parent section to make any necessary adjustments before the child sections can make changes.