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ID/A Prep for Review Checklist: Key Differences

Markette Pierce Updated by Markette Pierce

Overview

In Nov 2025, the DEV to QA Handoff was retired and the ID/A Prep for Review Checklist was updated to ensure those tasks were accounted for without redundancies. This checklist is a reference to guide someone through preparing to hand off a for-credit course for review and then to QA, and it attempts to acknowledge variations in standards across programs; it is not training, it does not establish deadlines, and it is not meant to be a soup-to-nuts documentation of any specific processes.

Find below some key differences between prepping a for-credit course and a short course for review and QA.

Accounting for Variations Across Programs

You will see "where applicable," "if included," or "in alignment with program guidelines" language throughout the for-credit checklist tab. This is because there are variations in standards across the many programs that use for-credit courses, and the aim of this checklist is to be helpful in prepping all for-credit courses for review and QA. In all cases, use the specific program guidelines applicable to your course as the initial and primary source for direction.

Development Structure Does Not Include QA Version of Course

One major difference between preparing a short course for review and preparing a for-credit course for review is that courses developed for university credit do not have the Dev --> QA --> Master course development structure of our short courses, and a QA version of the course is never created. Instead, a Dev course is created, and from it a final shell is created into which students are enrolled.

File Storage Standards

In most but not all programs, downloadable tool files are stored in the Files area in Canvas itself, not on S3. This is because faculty themselves teach these courses, and they may need to be able to edit files quickly and easily. Links to files stored in Canvas are manually removed when creating the course/unit transcripts, and students are instead directed to view them in the course.

Images used in the course are typically stored in S3, which flow seamlessly into the course transcript. Images stored in Canvas Files have to be manually placed in a course transcript, significantly increasing the time and effort required to create a transcript. If your course stores images somewhere other than S3, please make sure that is clearly communicated in the parent QA Wrike task so the QA team can plan for this increased effort during deployment.

In both cases, consult the program guidelines for more details.

Standard Announcements Are Not Needed

The nine standard announcements that exist in 8675309 are not useful in a for-credit course and can be removed. If you need to remove them, go to Announcements from course navigation, click on the three dots to the right of each announcement, select delete, and then confirm delete. You will then see an "Announcements deleted successfully" message confirming your work.

Settings Are Handled at Deployment

Contrary to what occurs when prepping a short course for review and QA, in a for-credit course the settings (quizzes, grading scheme, discussion settings, available dates, etc.) are handled by program operations at the time of deployment.

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