Course Development Process Checklist for Instructional Designers

Course Number/Title: ______________________________________________ Course Due Date: _____________ Project Phases and Tasks When the Course is Assigned: __ Sharon assigns you a course, gives you the curriculum specialist's (CS) name and usually the name of the author/Content Expert (CE) and peer reviewer (PR). __ E-mail the CS and confirm the names and salutations of the CE and PR. In the same e-mail, confirm delivery date and whether the course is new or a major revision. __ Make sure the CE and PR are in PeopleSoft so that we can hire them for the course development project. __ Email the Manager of Editing, to request that he assign an editor (ED). Tell him the course number, name and the delivery date. __ Have an initial meeting with the CS to find out what he/she envisions for the course and what the specific course goals. Also get a sense of the target audience. __ Fill out the front of the gold Project Authorization Form folder and submit it to Sharon for approval. Keep it for the projects duration. Pre-Start-up Meeting Preparations: __ Email the CE a sample course plan and ask if he/she can write one for the new course and when it will be ready to send to the team. It should be email to the team 2 days in advance of the start-up meeting so that they can prepare their feedback. (This will give you an idea of when to schedule the startup meeting.) __ Contact team members (CE, PR, ED, CS), introduce yourself to those you havent already, check dates for the start-up meeting and schedule the meeting. __ Notify all team members of the startup meeting time and date. Request a confirmation from everyone that they will attend, and send a reminder a day or two before. __ Reserve a meeting room and set up a conference call if needed for those who will attend remotely. The meeting should be 1 hours long. __ Email team members the documents on the course development process and the PDF that diagrams the process to give them an idea of the process and team roles. __ At this time, determine if the CE and PR will need overload forms). Adjuncts wont need overload forms. __ Print PeopleSoft pages and keep them in the gold file for reference. __ Use the above information to fill out the letters of agreement for the CE and PR contracts. __ Verify that the contact info for CE and PR is correct by emailing them the letter of agreement and asking them to confirm if its correct including: salutation, address, phone numbers. You can also wait for this verification until the start-up meeting. __ Confirm with the CS her/his name and official title and the Associate Deans (check online phone book first, then verify with CS.) __ If there is a change of address, ask CE/PR to submit a change of address form to HR. __ Draft a tentative timeline to discuss at the start-up. Send the timeline to the team a couple of days in advance of the start-up meeting and ask them to let you know of any concerns regarding it before or during the startup meeting.

__ Ask the CE to send you the first draft of the course plan at least two days in advance of the start-up meeting. Look it over to ensure that its ready and then send it out to the team. __ Ask CE and PR to send you an up-to-date bio (for the RMF) and put them into RMF files on FrontPage or send them to the ED to do this. (The ED will edit the RMF files later in the project, when all the pieces are in place.) During The Start-up Meeting: __ Create an agenda for the meeting. __ Verify the accuracy of the CEs and PRs contact info. that is listed on the letters of agreement, if you havent already, so that the contracts can be created. __ Clarify payment dates for tasks 1, 2, and 3 and why they must wait to be paid until after the entire team does the on-line review of modules. __ Discuss the course plan, get feedback from the team and come to agreement on it. __ Discuss selection of textbooks and come to agreement. __ Discuss the tentative timeline and approve or modify it. Focus on how much time is provided for each deliverable rather than focusing on the final deadline for the course. Make adjustments where needed for vacations, other work conflicts, etc. __ Show examples of graphics and animations and how the course might adopt them. __ Tell the team that it is preferable to develop ideas for graphics and animations early in the process and for the CE to describe them in detail in the revised course plan that is due next, so that enough time can be reserved by the graphics/programming staff to build them. __ Review team guidelines for the review and editing process such as using a different color font for each team members comments and not using track changes if preferred. __ Ask the ED to speak about her/his role and concerns such as plagiarism and copyright. __ Supply handouts that are useful to newcomers such as Quiz Options, The difference between course goals and module objectives, Learning Categories and Guidelines for using links. __ Follow-up the meeting by updating the agreed upon timeline and emailing it to team members Contracts: __ Finalize CE and PR letter of agreement forms and give them, along with 3 timelines per letter of agreement, to Kathleen Taff, who will create contracts, get leadership approvals and mail them out with invoices and timeline to CE and PR for signatures. __ Kathleen will give you copies of the signed contracts that you should keep in the gold folder. __ CE and PR will mail you invoices when each task (1, 2, 3) is completed, which you submit (or you can keep their signed invoices and submit them after each task is completed). First Deliverables: __ Email the CE the Common Syllabus to use as a guide to build a new/revised course syllabus. __ The CE will send you the first deliverables after the start-up meeting including the revised course plan, their bio for the "Development Credits" in the Read-Me-First section (if not sent already), and the new or revised syllabus (course schedule not required to be finalized yet). __ You or the ED can update the RMF files now with the bios and other changes or wait until later in the process when the course has been more fully developed. __ Review these documents and add your comments in color. __ Send copies of CEs revised course plan and syllabus with your comments to the team for review and feedback (with a reminder of feedback guidelines - in color, no track changes, etc.). __ When the team submits their comments on the above documents to you, merge all comments for each document - edit harshly worded comments if needed. __ Then email the two documents to the CE for revising

__ Remind CE of the due date before the initial draft of each module is due and ask if he/she has any questions. __ The CE will email you the revised course plan and syllabus. Check to see that all comments are addressed and, if not, call or email the CE to discuss if a major comment/suggestion was ignored. __ Submit revised syllabus to the ED later in the process when the CE finalizes the course schedule. __ The ED will proof the syllabus on line on Course Dev. __ Review the syllabus on Course Dev in both Netscape and IE and submit comments to ED. Developing Modules: __ When CE submits module 1, add your comments and send it to the team to review and add comments and return to you according to the timelines due date. * __ Merge the teams comments into one document, review and modify them where needed and send to the CE to revise. __ When the CE sends the revision to you, check to see that it addresses all the review comments. If an important point was not addressed, you can ask the CE to do so. __ When possible, meet to discuss your design ideas with the CE and a graphics specialist before finalizing them and adding them to the module for editing and formal submission as graphics requests. __ Prep each module with clear, concise instructions for Production and send it to the ED. __ Once the module is edited, check the editors preference to determine if the editor or the instructional designer will submit it to production. __ You will need to send requests for graphics and learning objects to the production team, using the production request form online. __ The WS or graphic artist will let you know when they have created the graphic and that you should review it. They are usually saved in the course graphics folder in the G/Z drive. Submit any changes via production request form. Once you approve a graphic or learning object, it will be final. Avoid going back to the WS to make additional changes after that. __ When the WP notifies either you or the editor that the module is on our coursedev server, the ED will proof it and when its ready will let you know. __ As soon as the CE finishes the course schedule, send the syllabus to the ED to edit and put on line.

Sign-off Procedures: __ Once the corrections have been made to the module by the ED, email the sign-off letter to the team with a request to do final review and sign-off. Also email the instructions for how to get on-line access to the course, either with EZLink. Tell the team that only minor changes will be made at this point. ** __ Carefully read through the module using both Netscape and IE to ensure it is laid out properly and make note of any needed changes. Review the teams comments and combine them into a document that you send to the ED to make the changes. Some changes will need to be done by the WS and you should submit a production request for these changes along with a hardcopy of these to show clearly what is needed. __ Turn in completed syllabus with a yellow syllabus-completion form to the box outside Em and Sherris offices. __ Make sure that the RMF is customized for this course if not done earlier.

__ Once all materials have gone through the process, turn in all sign-offs with the gold Project Authorization form folder to the box outside Sherri's office. __ To publish the course, send email and request it to be published. __ Check the course to be sure its been published to WebTycho. Project Delay Procedures: __ If the team cannot meet the timeline due dates and the course will be published late, there are procedures to follow. To request that part of a course be published to WebTycho send a partial publish request. Payment of Tasks: __ When the CE/PR finishes a task and submits an invoice, sign the invoice and give it to Kathleen. Keep a copy in the gold project file,. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------* See Details of the module production cycle in Barbaras Step by Step Course Development Process for Instructional Designers document. ** See Details of Signoff Procedure in Barbaras Step by Step Course Development Process for Instructional Designers document.