Overview

The Gradebook>Merge screen allows you to merge two or more courses into one Gradebook.

This is a powerful tool that will allow your teachers and schedulers more flexibility.

If you merge a course with another, the following happens:

• The students in both courses will be merged into one gradebook.
• Students are now shared by both teachers associated with each course.
• The course profile is copied to the merged course(s). The two merged courses can not have different profiles.
  
  

In order to be able to merge two courses, the following must be true:

• Both courses must have the same semester code. (Example: Both have to be Full Year courses)
• The course being merged cannot have any assignments. 
  • UPDATE: A few years ago, we allowed a merge to occur if only ONE Gradebook section contained assignments. If one is empty, and the other has assignments, the merge can occur.

Understanding the Screen

TEACHER GRADEBOOK MERGE:

Here is a listing of the fields on the "Current Course to be Merged" table and what they mean:

Here is the additional fields on the "Select courses to merge" table and what they mean:

How to Merge Your Courses

The course to be merged is the one listed under "Current Course to be Merged:".

If this is not the correct course, you can change the course by selecting the correct one from the "Switch Course To Merge" drop down at the top.

Once you have the correct course selected, you will see a listing of courses below it with check boxes to the left of each course.

These courses are gathered from all the gradebooks from the various teachers that you have access to.

If you do not see the course that you wish to merge, then you will either need rights to the teacher who teaches the course, or the Gradebook has not been instantiated for that course.

This means that you would just have to switch the teacher name on the Gradebook Home screen to initialize the gradebooks for that teacher.

In order to do the actual merge, just check the check box next to the course(s) that you wish to merge with.

Once this is done, hit the "Save" button on the bottom of the screen. The courses are now merged.

ADMINISTRATIVE MERGE:

A new screen called Administrative Merge has been added under the Gradebook>Merge screen.

This allows a user with the gradebook.merge.school securable location to merge any gradebooks within the school.

You can now break a merge from the Gradebook>Merge>Administrative Merge tab as well.

There will be an icon next to the gradebook if it is merged. You can click that icon and then unmerge any section merged with it.

Gradebook Merge FAQ

Question: How do I break a gradebook merge?
If there are no assignments in the Gradebooks, you can break the merge via Gradebook>Merge.

There will be a ↔ icon in the "Break Merge" column:

In order to see the icon, you'll need both teachers assigned to your logon in the "staff assigned" area. But as an admin, you can break the merge without that via Gradebook>Merge>Administrative Merge tab as well.

There will be an icon (a magnifying glass) next to the gradebook if it is merged. You can click that icon and then unmerge any section merged with it.

Question: Can I break a merge if the courses have assignments?

No. You cannot break the merge if courses have assignments.

Question: I have 2 courses where 1 student appears in both although the student does not have the course in their schedule. When I try to merge the course, it returns with an error telling me that a student is active in both courses. What can I do to fix this?
This is usually caused by Gradebooks being initialized prior to scheduling being completed.

Since the the Gradebook relies on a student's add/drop records to determine class rosters, it can be confused if the add/drop record is removed during scheduling. The good thing is that it can be fixed very easily.

Simply go to the Gradebook>Roster screen for the course that is listing a student incorrectly. Once here, hit the Save button on the bottom of the screen.

Behind the scenes, the Gradebook will analyze each of the students in the course. If they do not belong in the course, then the student will be dropped automatically.

Once the screen has refreshed, you should be able to merge your courses.

Question: I want to merge 2 courses but the Gradebook keeps telling me there is an assignment in one of the courses. I have checked the Assignment screen and don't see any. What could be the problem?
This is usually caused by assignments that are in a marking period that the course does not meet. Go to the Assignments screen and change the Marking Period drop down to All Assignments. The assignments will then appear.

Question: Can I merge two courses if only one course has assignments and the other is empty?

Yes. A few years ago, there was a change and we allow a merge to occur if only ONE Gradebook section still contains assignments. If one is empty, and the other has assignments, the merge can occur.

Question: Both teachers are tied to my logon, but I do not see the courses listed to merge. Why?
This is most likely occurring because the Gradebook have not been initialized yet (especially if it's the start of the school year.) They won't display at all until they are initialized. To initialize a Gradebook, you can just access the teacher's gradebook. Or there is an "Initialize Gradebooks" task via Gradebook>School Setup>Maintenance that will initialize all of them for the school.