Completing regular course maintenance helps maintain course quality and consistency term over term. Routine maintenance helps you identify outdated materials, confirm course settings are functioning as intended, and improve the student experience before learners enter the course. It also creates an opportunity to review feedback, confirm alignment across course components, and address small issues before they become larger barriers to learning. This resource outlines how to perform this type of maintenance between terms.
Completing a self-inspection of your course is made easier when you structure your review. Some areas to consider during your review include:
- Student Feedback: Review student questions, surveys, discussion activity, and LMS data to identify areas where learners may have experienced confusion or barriers.
- Curriculum & Content Maintenance: Confirm that course content, media, links, and interactive elements are current, functional, and aligned with course expectations.
- Assessment & Activity Maintenance: Review assignment, discussion, quiz, rubric, and plagiarism checker settings to ensure they align with instructions and grading expectations.
- Due Date Maintenance: Update course dates across assignments, activities, syllabus materials, release conditions, and external tools.
- Gradebook Maintenance: Verify that grading categories, point values, and overall gradebook setup align with the syllabus and course grading structure.
- Overview Maintenance: Refresh instructor information, syllabus materials, announcements, and hidden tools to ensure students only see current and relevant materials.
- Personal Maintenance: Document any course-specific updates or teaching adjustments you want to address before the course opens.
Checklist
After completing the self-inspection, finalize your course by completing the maintenance tasks required. You might choose to complete this maintenance in your primary course shell, especially if you want to preserve consistency across terms and instructors.
