If you teach more than one section of the same class, how you set things up depends on one thing: whether your sections share a single LMS course, or each section has its own. This guide covers both, and what to do if you have already customized your textbook and want an identical copy for another section.

This guide covers:

Each Blended Teaching textbook pairs with one LMS course. When you install your textbook in Canvas or Blackboard, the two are bonded — and that bond is exclusive as well as permanent. A textbook that is already bonded to one course shell cannot also be bonded to a second one.

That pairing is what keeps each section's roster, gradebook, submissions and analytics separate from every other section's. It also means that if each of your sections has its own LMS course, each section needs its own textbook.

Institutions handle multiple sections in one of two ways, and they need different setups. Check which one describes your term before you build anything:

If your institution has combined your sections into a single course shell, one textbook covers all of them. You install it once, and every student in that shell reaches the same textbook.

To tell your sections apart inside that one textbook — for section-specific end dates, or to filter your gradebook and progress reports by section — create sections in Blended Teaching. See Managing Sections.

If your sections need different due dates for the same assessment, there are some specifics worth reading before you set any dates. See Managing Due Dates for Different Sections.

If each section has its own course shell, you need a textbook for each one. There are two ways to get the additional textbooks, depending on how much you have customized the first.

Whichever route you take, configure your first textbook before you make copies of it. It is far easier to get the settings right once in the source textbook than to repeat the same changes in every section afterwards. Sections 4 and 5 of the New Class Launch Guide cover this in full. The settings that matter most before copying:

If you have made few or no changes to the standard textbook, create a new course for each section the same way you created the first. See A Guide to Creating a New Course. Name each one so the section is obvious — for example, "BIOL 101 — Section 2".

If you have customized your textbook substantially — reorganized content, edited quizzes, excluded questions from banks — ask us to copy it rather than rebuilding those changes by hand. See section 4.

Our support team can clone your textbook for you: an exact, fully independent copy of everything in it — content, structure, quizzes and question banks — as it stands at the time of copying. Cloning is something we run on your behalf, so it is not a button in your Control Center.

Each clone is a textbook in its own right. It runs at the same time as the original, takes its own LMS course, and keeps its students, grades and activity completely separate. Changes you make to one afterwards do not affect the other.

To request one, ask Blended AI to connect you with our team and tell us:

We will name each copy after its section unless you tell us otherwise, so they are easy to tell apart in your Control Center.

Each section's textbook has to be installed in that section's own course shell, using that textbook's own links.

This matters most after a clone. A clone is a separate textbook with its own links, so copying your first section's LMS shell into the new one is not a shortcut here — the links that come across still point at your first section's textbook, and students would land there. Install each section's content fresh from its own textbook, following the guide for your LMS:

In Canvas and Blackboard you are asked to choose which Blended Teaching course to connect to. Choose the textbook belonging to that section. Any textbook already bonded to another course shell will not appear in the list — that is expected, and it is why each section needs its own.

Create New Version and cloning solve different problems, and it is worth being clear about which one you need.

📅 Create a new version when you are reusing the same textbook in a later term. The new version keeps the same links, so the content already installed in your LMS carries forward to it. Only one version can be active at a time, and version date ranges cannot overlap — which is why this route cannot serve a second section running right now.

🔁 Ask us for a clone when you need a second identical textbook running at the same time as the first. A clone has its own links and takes its own LMS course.

If your institution requires you to adopt your textbook with the bookstore or through an online platform, each section's textbook is a separate adoption.

You will find the textbook name on the Settings page of each textbook's Control Center. If you need an ISBN for an adoption form and cannot see it there, ask Blended AI to connect you with our team and we'll send the details for each section.

Because it is already bonded to your first course shell. A textbook can only pair with one LMS course, so textbooks that are already paired are filtered out of that list. Your second section needs its own textbook — see section 3.

No. The pairing is one textbook to one LMS course, and it is permanent once made. This is what keeps each section's student data, grades and activity separate.

Yes. A clone contains all of the same content, structure, quizzes, assignments and assessments as the original at the time it was copied. Changes made to the original afterwards do not affect the copy, and vice versa.

Yes. Each copy is fully independent of the original and can be edited freely, so you can adjust one section without affecting any other.

Only if your sections share a single LMS course shell. In that case you use one textbook and manage the differing dates as described in Managing Due Dates for Different Sections. If your sections are in separate shells, each needs its own textbook, and each sets its own dates independently.

Ask Blended AI to connect you with our team and we'll sort it out with you. The pairing is permanent from your side, but we can help you get the right textbook onto the right shell.