Just like a car needs regular maintenance to keep running smoothly, your online course also benefits from routine checkups. Proactive, preventative maintenance is especially important after LMS or educational technology updates, before the start of a new term (particularly Fall and Spring), and when you are preparing to teach a course you haven’t facilitated recently.
Step 1: Review Student Feedback
Prior to performing maintenance, review any student feedback you might have collected from the last run of the course. This includes:
- Emails and other correspondance: Did students communicate any difficulties with usability in the course that can be easily remediated? (Example: “The reading link in Module 3 is broken:).
- FAQ Discussion Boards: If you utilize an FAQ or other question-based discussion board, review this space for additional usability questions from students.
- Mid-term and End-of-course Surveys: Did students note any other usability issues in the course in your survey results?
- LMS Data: Does your LMS data tell you anything about usability issues for students? Is there anything that they were not able to access?
Step 2: Complete Maintenance Self-Inspection
Download the maintenance self-inspection guide below to support you as you walk through your course materials. This comprehensive checklist provides a list of key items to review during a self-inspection and maintenance session. Your course may have additional areas of review, so there is a space provided in the document for you to note these as well.
Step 3: Finalize Course
After completing the self-inspection, finalize your course by completing the maintenance tasks required. We recommend completing this maintenance in your primary course shell instead of updating live courses. This will help maintain your course quality term-over-term.
