Understanding Courses vs Sections

Within CodeHS, a Course is a sequence of curriculum that your students will work through. Courses are made up of Assignments.
Each Course can have multiple Sections.
Within CodeHS, a Section is a group of students working on a Course.
An Assignment is any activity that students work on as part of their Course.

Essentially, a Section is a group of students (like a class), while a Course is the content (Assignments) that they work through.

Once a course exists on your Courses Page, you can add and change its Assignments as well as edit the Course Settings. You can create multiple Sections from the same Course. This way, you can easily use the same course material for different classes, semesters, or years.

Navigating to the Courses Page

Click Courses in the left-hand menu to access your Courses page:

The link for the courses page is on the left hand, dark colored nav bar

On this page you can:

Access Course Settings, Assignments, Due Dates & Access Controls
Create a new course
Copy a course
Add a new section to a course
Archive a course
Delete a course

Creating a New Course

To create a new Course:

On your Courses page, click Create New Course
Enter the Course name
Select either Choose Course Template or Create Empty Course

Enter the name to a new course then click the green Create New Course button

Course creation menu with three different tabs: Name, Course, and Create

Choose Course Template will populate your Course with curriculum from a specific CodeHS course - check out the Course Catalog to learn more about course offerings! You can also add supplementary material as needed.
Create Empty Course will allow you to create a custom course from your own curriculum, CodeHS curriculum, or a mix of both.

Creating a Course from the Course Catalog

In the Course Catalog, click Add to Courses on any CodeHS course to create a new Course on your Courses Page.

Arrow pointing to the Add to Courses button in the Course Catalog

Creating a Section

With your Courses set up, it's time to create Sections for your students!

Click Create Section
Enter a name for your section and click Create

GIF steps through process of creating a new section from a course that you've already made

Creating a Section linked with Google Classroom

If you use Google Classroom, It's possible to link CodeHS to an existing Google Classroom and import your roster. Learn more about Syncing Your Roster With Google Classroom.

Copying a Course

If you've made a lot of changes to a Course or its settings, you may wish to copy it for the new school year. To copy a Course, click the three dots and choose Copy Course:

clicking on three dots next to course name brings up options menu, including copy

This will make a duplicate of their course with all of the same settings and assignments. Please note: this will only copy over settings that are set on a course level. In other words, if a due date is only set for a specific Section, it will not be copied over.

Enrolling Students, Adding a Co-teacher, and More

Once you've created your section, check out these next steps to enroll students and prep for your first class:

Updating the Year for Due Dates and Access Controls

This step will help you re-use a course from one year to the next by updating all the Due Dates within a Course with one click!

Copying Due Dates and Access Controls will copy the dates exactly, including the year. To update the year for these dates all at once:

Click the three dots next to your new copy of the course
Choose Due Dates + Access Controls
Click Update Year and confirm Update Dates if you'd like to proceed
All years for Due Dates and Access Controls will be rolled forward to the new school year

clicking on three dots next to course name brings up options menu, including due dates

Still have questions? Contact our team at hello@codehs.com to learn more!