Benefits of a Checklist

Having an organized checklist for setting up, delivering, and wrapping up online courses is essential for ensuring a smooth, consistent, and high-quality experience for both instructors, other course team members, support staff, and students. A clear checklist supports efficient course preparation, effective communication, timely grading, and proper course closure. By following a structured guide, instructors can focus more on teaching and student engagement, rather than troubleshooting preventable issues—ultimately leading to a more successful and stress-free course experience.

Before the Course Begins

General 

• Address all the directions in the headings in the course. Read the guidance on each page and update the yellow highlighting for your course. Remove all notes, yellow highlighting, and brackets, so the course is clean and error free. There should be no placeholder text when students begin the course.  
• Review/finalize the course syllabus and upload to MyASU and on the Syllabus navigation menu item. 
• Confirm access to your accounts and tools.
• Review your course thoroughly and conduct quality assurance (QA). 
• Set up proctoring for exams and quizzes (if applicable).
• Schedule and set up your recurring virtual office hours. Post this information in the designated area in the course. 
• Add your information to the relevant locations in your course.
• Ensure your course is accessible by using FRAME resources for faculty. 
• Fill out the Instructor Guide. 
• Apply SAILS or PTVC accommodations (if applicable).
• Post a Welcome announcement when the course opens. 
• Post a Welcome announcement the course officially "begins". 

Set-up Technology Integrations 

• Consider what technology you are using in your course.
• Ensure your technology is set up and working properly.
• Add notes in your Instructor Guide for future course administrators to use for settings and permissions.
• Note if your course needs to be associated with a specific sub-account in Canvas (e.g. ASUO - Harmonize) for tool access.
  • For these cases also note who you reached out to for access (e.g. Instructional Designer, Experience Center, etc.)

During the Course

General

• Post a Welcome announcement the course officially "begins". 
• Host virtual office hours. 
• Engage daily by answering questions in Community Forum and other communications within 24 hours. 
• Touch base weekly by posting announcements at the beginning of each week to set the tone, provide reminders, and give additional directions, and post announcements at the end of each week to ground students, affirm their efforts, and get them excited about the work ahead. 
• Provide timely and high-quality feedback on assessments. 
• Reach out to inactive and struggling students. 
• If using groups, ensure all late enrollments are associated to your groups within the 1st and 2nd week of the course.

Grading Strategy 

• Ensure equitable and fair grading across the course team. 
• Note grading time commitments per coursework item. 
• Provide guidance on grading at-scale. 
• Post grades within 72 hours of student submission.

Wrap Up the Course

• Send a final announcement thanking students for their participation and wishing them well. 
• Finalize grades in Canvas, even if your course used a third-party tool that calculated grades. 
  
  • Enter zeros for non-submitted grades. 
• Refer to the Academic Calendar to confirm the date by which grades are due.
• Complete any degree-requirements, such as portfolio approvals. 

After the Course Ends

• Submit the final grades to ASU by utilizing the PeopleSoft System.
• Analyze data and make final reflections and update the Instructor Guide. 
• If using quizzes, develop 25% new questions and feedback for the exam(s) in your course.
• Review learner feedback (from ASU Evaluation surveys), and make changes to improve the student experience.