On this page you will find a checklist for use before the start of your course.

We recommend that you use the Course Development Checklist for course development, and use the rest of this page as a reminder to you as a publicist for how to check and to correct some normal mistakes.

Tip: The Educational technologists at KI have developed course templates which give you a good start in meeting the requirements in the checklist.

Course menu

Have you set up your course menu according to KI's recommendations?

We have developed guidelines for the menu items which should be shown in your course.

kursmenyn

Recommendations for the course menu

The course homepage

Have you created a start page as the homepage for your course?

As standard, Modules is chosen as the homepage. At KI we recommend that you create a landing page for your course. Note that we think that it is best if this page is separate from the module structure because the homepage does not offer the Next button at the bottom right of the page. The start page (Home) can link the student to the Module overview where the course starts. This is how it is set up in the Basic Publishing Course.

Setting your course's homepage

Homepage contents: Have you written an explanation for how students should navigate the course? How can they find assignments, groups etc?

Syllabus

Have you added your own text into the upper section of the Syllabus page?

The syllabus page is an automatically created page which can be extremely useful to your students. In the upper section, you can add a text which gives an explanation of the course. In the lower section, an automatically created list of links appears which shows all the assessed content in your course - assignments, graded quizzes and graded discussions appear here. It is important that you edit the upper section, as otherwise it is shown to the students with a standard holding text.

Modules

Have you structured the course material in a logical manner?

To build a course menu which groups materials logically, you need to use Modules. These create a clear structure for the course so that students can easily find the correct material. When students are in on a page which has been added to a module, a Next button will appear at the bottom of the page which takes the student on to the next piece of content in the module.

Important! Remember that if you remove assignments, quizzes etc from a Module, they are not removed from the course entirely. To remove them entirely, you will also need to remove them from the Assignment, Quizzes etc.

Check that all the links work

It's a good idea to check that the links in your course work, particularly if you've moved content from PingPong or from another Canvas course. One way of doing this is to enter Student view via Home (the button is in the menu to the top-right). If you click through the course in the student view and discover that a link doesn't work, you can close the student view and check the link. Place the mouse pointer over the link and click CTRL+K. The link will then be opened in a dialog box. Does it say PingPong?

Please check that this page about how to move files between PingPong and Canvas.

Does the link still not work?
If you see a Canvas link, check that the course number is the same as the course as the course room that you are in.

kurslänk

In Canvas there is also the possibility to run the link validation tool. You can validate links in a course by going into the course Settings, then clicking on Validate links in content in the menu to the right-hand side:

validate links

Canvas then searches through all your content to find problems and broken links, for example links to pages which have been erased or which have not been published. It also flags up links to other Canvas courses.

länk validering för kursens innehåll

Discussions

Have you checked the settings which in your course for Discussions? Should students be able to create their own discussions or not?

If you have chosen to show Discussions in the menu, have you switched off the possibility for students to start their own discussions in the course? Check the Discussions section of the following page:

Recommendations for the course menu

Grades

Have checked the use of the grading scheme for your course?

KI has several pre-set grading schemes for use, which you can choose per assignment. These settings influence how the grades are shown to the students in the Grades view. See the following page for more information:

Har du angett korrekt omdömesschema för din kurs?

KI-har flera omdömesscheman och dessa kan du välja och ställa in per uppgift. Detta påverkar även hur du visar bedömningen för studenten i menyn Omdöme. Kolla gärna denna sida för mer information.

Using KI's grading scheme in your course

Check course dates

A good way to get an overview of the due dates for a course is to click on the calendar in the menu on the left. Make sure the course you want to check is the only one shown in the calendar.

If you have assignments which are locked until a specific date/time, you will see the details most easily when you enter the Assignment view.

Add teachers

You can add teachers and other members of staff to your course using the People menu. Do not add the students - these will be added automatically for Ladok created courses. In manually created courses you will be able to add students who already have Canvas accounts by adding their email addresses via People.

Send a welcome announcement

It is a good idea to welcome students to the course by making an announcement. Go to the course's homepage and click on the New announcement button on the right-hand side.

The student-app

Have you checked the course using the Canvas student-app?

The student view is a superb way to check how your course room is displayed on a computer, but be aware that your course can be arranged in a totally different way on a mobile phone, which can create some 'surprises' when your course goes live. As a teacher, you can also use the student app to view your course. We highly recommend this. Please note, although the app is a great way to check layout, in the student app, you can also see unpublished pages as a teacher.

You find links to the mobile apps here

Accessibility

Have you checked your course for accessibility?

Canvas has an inbuilt accessibility checker which checks some aspects of accessibility. It looks like this in the Editing view of each page:

accessibility checker

Please make sure you click on the icon, make any changes, and manually check your content for other accessibility problems before you publish.

You will find more information about accessibility here

The final step - have you published your course?

Even if you have published all the modules and the content, the course is not available for the students until you have published on course level.

Go to Home and check the course status at the top-right. Click on publish to publish the course.

Publicera kursen

You can add the students to courses which are not yet published, and students will see the course, but not yet be able to access the content:

unpublished