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Site readiness checklist

Summary

Carry out final checks to identify and correct key start-of-teaching issues before opening the site to students.

Relevant VLE site design principles

  • 5.2 Recommended: Complete the Site Readiness Checklist before making the site available to students.

Before a new teaching period, you need to make sure that your Learn Ultra VLE site and content is ready for students. This checklist will help you identify and address critical issues so that students can use the site and materials effectively when teaching starts.

It is assumed that more general checks have been made and site content is ready. If needed, follow our in-depth checklist on Preparing module sites before using this final checklist.

Whether teaching staff or administrators/professional services team complete the readiness checklist (or parts of it) may vary by department.

1. Relevant staff are enrolled

Check that:

  • all relevant module staff are enrolled with the correct role (usually Instructor)
  • any GTAs from previous years that are no longer involved in the module are removed
  • Primary Instructor settings are used to identify module-specific staff (where other staff are also enrolled)

More details on how to make these checks are given in the Site settings & staff enrollments section of Preparing module sites.

2. Site content is ready

Check that site content and materials are accessible, in the right place and visible to students.

Tip

If you have not already done so, we strongly recommend following the in-depth checklist on Preparing module sites to appropriately prepare module content, Reading List and Panopto content.

The site applies the template

Check that the site has:

  • used the broad template structure provided.
  • removed any unused template placeholder information or content items.
  • included all assessment-related information and submission points in the Assessment section.

The site and materials are accessible

It is a legal requirement that all our online content is accessible; this applies to your VLE site and any materials or files provided through it. Accessible materials also improve the learning experience for all students.

Check that:

  • Text content on the site itself and any files provided is easily readable and accessible.
  • Meaningful images and figures have appropriate ALT text or other descriptions to allow screenreader users to access the information.
  • Link text describes where the link goes or the content.
  • content is organised and labelled clearly and consistently.
  • Pre-recorded videos are hosted in a streaming service (eg. Panopto/YouTube) and captioned accurately.

We recommend using the Ally Course Accessibility Report to check the accessibility of your site and help you address issues.

Site materials are up to date and available

Check that:

  • all site materials are up to date.
  • any old or unused materials are removed.
  • items are visible to students or release conditions are set correctly.
  • any reused Panopto videos, links and third party tools (eg. Padlet) are shared correctly so students have permission to access the material.
  • any groups used for teaching (eg. presenting different material to M and H level students) are set up correctly and students enrolled.

Lecture Capture and Panopto are set up correctly

Check that:

  • all video content are streamed from Panopto (or YouTube etc.) and not directly uploaded to the site or inside slide decks.
  • the site contains a "Replay Lecture Capture (Panopto)" link in the Course Content area and lectures or sessions on the Timetable to be captured have the triangular "play" icon showing they are Replay-enabled.
  • any pre-recorded or re-used Panopto content (eg. at-desk captures) is set up correctly so that this cohort's students can access them. Note that you being able to access a video doesn't mean that students can.

Reading List

Sites must use the Reading List to provide course readings, unless there is a pressing reason not to (this should be discussed with your Faculty Librarian).

Check that:

  • the site contains a Reading List link in the Course Content area.
  • all module readings are included in teh Reading List and unused/out of date items have been removed.
  • the Reading List is structured to match the module amterials section, and items are tagged as Essential, Recommended or Background.

  • the Reading List is published to students.

  • The site is set for students

3. Students can access the site

For students to access a site, they must be enrolled on the site AND the site must be open for students.

Students are enrolled

Students are usually enrolled automatically onto VLE module sites using a “SITS Group User” enrolled on the site as a Guest, which then gives access to the relevant students. Check this is set up by seraching for a Guest role in your Class Register.

If there are problems with student enrollments, contact your departmental administrator or professional support team for assistance.

The site is open to students

When the site is ready for students, look for the padlock icon under Details & Actions in the left menu. If you see next to it:

  • Course is private/Students can’t access this course: click and select ‘Open to students’.
  • Course is open/Students can access this course: this is correctly set up for enrolled students to access the site.

Note that enrolled students will be always able to see the site listed in their course list, but if the course is private, they won't be able to open the site. For more details, see our guide to making your site open/private.