Merge Cohorts
Overview
Functionality
Known problem
Appearance
Merging Forums
Overview
What it does
The Merge Cohorts tool allows cohorts from other subject sites to be merged with the cohort of the base site. It is not possible to merge cohorts of project sites.
Key concepts
- Merge works only with subject sites of the same session code, eg 200870.
- If subject sites are merged, Forums and OASIS from the individual sites are also merged automatically
Things to consider
- Use of this tool will require careful school planning, as the merging of cohorts will only be undone in rare circumstances, and would require a Service Desk Request to be logged by the Head of School.
- A merge of a cohort to a subject site should take place at the earliest possible opportunity. Ideally, this would be before Forums are created (3 working days before session starts) and also prior to any content or student work commencing within the original sites. (back to top)
Functionality
- The Merge Cohorts tool is listed under Site Info.
- The Subject Coordinator should select the Merge Cohorts tool within the site which they wish the cohorts to be merged to.
- For example, if the Merge Cohorts tool is selected in Site B, and Site A is selected as the site for the cohort to be merged from:
- Site A's users will be merged to Site B
- Site B's tools and content (including Forum and OASIS as described above) will be shared by both Site A and Site B members
- Site A becomes unpublished (ie visible to the Subject Coordinator, but not students) and flagged for archival 7 days after the merge is actioned
- Site B's name will have a plus symbol (+) suffixed to it to indicate that there are additional cohorts to the cohort suggested by B's name, e.g., ACC100 200840 B_I+
- A merge of cohorts is immediate except for Forums and OASIS, which will be merged overnight (Australian CSU campus time).
- After a merge has taken place, individual students will still link to their correct EASTS, Evaluation and Subject Outline. These will be displayed based on the cohort of the student.
The general rule behind "Merge Cohort" functionality is that a merge can only take place from single cohort/s to a single/multiple cohort site. If a site already has more than one cohort, it will not appear in the ‘Available to Merge' list. It is most important that the necessary pre-planning has taken place in order to achieve the desired result.
As the diagrams below depict, one or more single cohorts can be merged at a time.
Known problem
There is a known Sakai bug associated with choosing sites to be merged. If the sites to be merged appear on different pages in the list of sites ‘Available to Merge', only the site/s ticked in the very last page will appear in the subsequent Merge Cohort screen. To avoid this problem, follow one of these methods:
- go ‘Back' to add the other site/s which have not appeared, or
- increase the number of sites to ‘show' per page (using the pageable options) so that all sites to be merged appear on the same page, or
- use the "Search" function to search for the subject code or session code to shorten the number of sites in the list. (back to top)
Appearance
Merging Forums
Merging cohorts to a subject site will also automatically merge the Forums (and OASIS if selected) for those cohorts. Once the merging of cohorts has been actioned the relevant Forums are merged during an automated overnight process and all cohorts are able to access a single Forum from the shared subject site – thus Forums are unable to be merged unless the relevant cohorts are merged into a single subject site. Similarly, cohorts are unable to access multiple Forums from a single subject site.
This is important to note as the automatic reversal of the merging of cohorts (and therefore Forums) is not possible. The Head of School is required to log a Service Desk Request to have the merging of cohorts reversed manually if they consider the circumstances extenuating. (back to top)