Cross-enrollment lets LSU faculty and departments combine students from different participating campuses into a single online teaching space while each student remains officially registered to their home campus. It is a Moodle configuration, not a change to how students register.
Students still enroll through their normal path. After registration, those separate course populations are given access to one shared Moodle course site where all teaching takes place. The course students are cross-enrolled into becomes the single “teaching course”; the other course(s) function as non‑teaching “source” shells that support records and grading workflows.
If you only need to combine sections within the same campus and term (such as two LSU A&M sections taught by the same instructor), use the Crosslist & Split tool instead of cross- enrollment: Moodle: Crosslist & Split (GROK 20173).
Why Use Moodle Cross-Enrollment?
Cross-enrollment is optional and can be decided term by term. Departments and instructors typically choose it when they want to streamline teaching and maintain consistent courses across campuses.
Working in one teaching course means you prepare content once, post announcements once, and maintain a single gradebook for everyone. This reduces duplicate effort and minimizes the risk that different populations receive different information or activities.
Cross-enrollment can also help keep offerings viable. Instead of running multiple low-enrollment shells (for example, small LSU A&M and LSU Online sections), students can be brought together into one fuller course. This often leads to a better student experience and more efficient use of instructor and departmental resources.
Because everyone is in the same space, all students see the same structure, schedule, and expectations regardless of campus of record.
How It Works
Every cross-enrolled setup involves at least two Moodle shells:
The teaching course is the destination course where students are cross-enrolled. This is the only shell where you build and maintain content, communicate with students, and manage grades. After cross-enrollment is processed, you will see the cross-enrolled students added into additional groups on the roster for this course.
The non‑teaching course is the source course students are moved from. It usually remains empty of content and hidden from students. Its primary role is to act as a funnel for the student enrollment coming into the teaching course and as a funnel for AEA participation and grades out of the teaching course.
During the term, the teaching experience is similar to any other online course: you work entirely in the teaching course. Adds and drops are handled through LSU’s regular enrollment processing, and the cross-enrolled roster updates automatically. If you need to see who added or dropped and when, the Enrollment Tracker report in Moodle provides a time‑stamped view of roster changes: Moodle: Enrollment Tracker (GROK 20678).
You can use Moodle’s group settings to blend or separate the student groups for certain activities. For example, using “No groups” allows all students to participate together in a single activity, such as a forum.
Reporting Grades and Participation
Since cross-enrollment is a Moodle process focused on combining student enrollment it creates distance from where grades and participation are recorded.
Throughout the term you will calculate and manage individual grades in the teaching course. However, each Moodle course can only post grades to the sections connected to the original creation of the course. So, campus students who are cross-enrolled into an Online course cannot have their grades posted within the teaching course. Depending on the course size, this can involve:
- Submitting directly into Workday (see the Workday Faculty Resources Submitting Grades in Workday Guide). This method is often preferred for small class sizes as grades are entered individually.
- Exporting the grade course total from the teaching course (often as a CSV file) and importing it into the source Moodle course, then using the post grade block in the source course. Here are useful resources for this:
- Grade export: Moodle: Gradebook – Export
- Grade import: Moodle: Gradebook – CSV Importer
Similarly, the automated Academic Engagement Activity (AEA) will only report for the sections connected to the original creation of the course. So, campus students who are cross-enrolled into an Online course cannot have their participation automatically reported in the teaching course. To verify participation for cross-enrolled students, you can:
- Manually update the Workday Verify Participation task in Workday (see LSU’s Student Attendance Verification guidance) by the end of the census date.
- Use the source Moodle course.
- Import your AEA activity from the teaching course into your hidden source course (ensuring the activity retains the AEA tag)
- Export that activity’s grades and import those grades into the source course’s gradebook for the imported activity. Grades for the AEA activity must be imported within 48 hours of the census date for automated reporting to work correctly.
Where to Find More Information on Cross-Enrollment
For a detailed walkthrough of requirements, request steps, instructor tasks, and reminders (including screenshots and field‑by‑field guidance), see the GROK article: Moodle: Cross-enrollment (GROK 20544). If you are ready to request a cross-enrollment, you can access and submit cross-enrollment requests through the ITS Self‑Service Portal (you will need to be logged into the portal to access this request).