Course Creation & Deletion

Courses are created at the beginning of March for the next academic year. The course creation process is as follows:

  1. Once the RDC Timetable is finalized, courses are created in Blackboard.
  2. Students and instructors are loaded into Blackboard, from Banner. Information is updated until the add/drop deadline for each term. There may be a slight delay between this transfer of information.

Courses are flagged for deletion two years after the course end date. Course deletions begin in July each year. This will be communicated by the CTL in June. However, master courses are not deleted this way- an email must be sent to I.T. Services to delete a master course.

Course Use and Maintenance

Courses offered in Blackboard at Red Deer College (RDC) typically fall into three categories:

This is the most common course life cycle at RDC.

Typical Course Life Cycle Process

  1. The instructor performs a course copy from the previous term course into the course shell for the new term.
  2. The instructor delivers the course.
  3. At the end of the term, the course now becomes the previously offered course, starting the cycle again.

The following graphic illustrates this process:

Clicking on the graphic will open an enlarged version in a new tab.

Some Schools at RDC choose to use master courses instead of the course copy model outlined in the typical course life cycle.

Master Course Life Cycle Process

  1. The instructor performs a course copy from the master course into the course shell for that term.
  2. The instructor delivers the course.
  3. Changes made to the course content throughout delivery are reflected in the master course, if needed. The process varies depending on the changes made:
    • If significant changes were made, the course is copied back into the master course.
    • If minor changes were made, the instructor needs to manually make those changes to the master course.

Note: Online course developers often utilize master courses to ensure a current version of the course is always available, especially when one instructor develops the course and a different instructor delivers it. Decisions about using a course master should be made in consultation with your Associate Dean and/or program faculty to ensure awareness of the course and its life cycle. Master courses are not deleted on the two-year cycle.

The following graphic illustrates this process:

Clicking on the graphic will open an enlarged version in a new tab.

Certain Schools at RDC deliver the same course, simultaneously through different course offerings.

Multiple Courses Life Cycle Process

  1. The instructor(s) perform a course copy from the master course into each of the course shells for that term.
  2. The instructor(s) deliver each of the course offerings.
  3. If minor changes were made within each of the courses throughout delivery (and should be reflected in the master course), the instructor needs to manually make those changes to the master course.

The following graphic illustrates this process:

Clicking on the graphic will open an enlarged version in a new tab.

 

Questions

If you have questions about your course, please contact us.
 
 

ctl@rdc.ab.ca | 403.356.4989 | Teaching Common – 913C | Find us on theLoop | Find us on Twitter and Facebook @ctlrdc
 
Updated September 22, 2020