Course Design Checklist

Take a look at UBC CTLT's course setup recommendations and the ETS Course Development Checklist Download ETS Course Development Checklist.

Development Checklist

Key areas for course design to consider in your course checklist include:

  • General course information
  • Learning objectives
  • Course content and instructional materials
  • Active student-centered learning events
  • Interactions and participation
  • Evaluation and assessments
  • Assignment design and due dates
  • Feedback methods
  • Diversity, intellectual property, learner supports
  • Learning technologies used in the course

Post-Development Checklist

When the course is ready, make sure that:

  • All modules follow the same naming convention
  • Learning objectives for each module have been specified
  • Pages within a module have descriptive names 
  • Preferably, a module summary has been included at the end of each module


At the end of a module, check that module pages have:

  • Consistent heading font type, size, and style
  • Large paragraphs or long information is properly chunked for readability, learning, and retention
  • All figures have captions
  • Paragraphs and sections have similar spacing and style across all pages
  • Paragraphs, images are properly aligned
  • All hyperlinks are working

Additional Checklists