Master Courses

About D2L Master Courses

A D2L Master Course is a blank course shell used to develop a course in D2L. Master Courses should be regularly reviewed and revised to ensure relevancy, accuracy and accessibility. Furthermore, Master Courses should be used as the true master, or the original source of course content.

    There are two types of Master Courses:
  • Instructor Master Course: A course shell for an instructor to use to develop a new course or update an existing course.
  • Program/Department Master Course: A course shell for a program or department to use to develop a course to be copied into multiple sections.

D2L Master Course Key Points

    A Master Course:
  • Should include all required course content.
  • Can be requested for each delivery method (e.g. online, in-person, hybrid, 8 week, 12 week, and 16 week.).
  • Should be used to revise course content. Note: Revisions for future semesters should not be completed in the semester course. This is important for potential matters that might arise, including grade appeals, and incomplete requests.
  • Can be copied (entire course or selected components) into a semester course.
  • Complies with the copy permissions outlined below:
    • Instructor Master Courses: Can be copied into another instructor’s course shell with the permission of the Master Course owner. This request is submitted through the Help Desk.
    • Program/Department Master Courses: Can be copied into another instructor’s course shell at the request of the instructor or a Course Coordinator. This request is submitted through the Help Desk.
  • Should not exceed 700 MB.
  • Cannot be used or accessed by students.

Request a D2L Master Course

Note: To receive edit access to a master course, you must have completed the Teaching Online in D2L training. Contact eLearning for more information.

Master Course – Course Design Guidelines

Six Key Principles for Effective Course Design for Master Courses

When designing a course, it is important to take a backwards approach – starting with the Learning Outcomes, and then working backwards to develop assessments and materials to support student learning. Course design involves organization, consistency, clarity of purpose, and aligning all materials and assessments to the learning outcomes.

    Use the following the six key principles of effective course design to guide the design and development of a Master Course:
  1. Learning Outcomes must be specific, observable and measurable.
  2. When developing Assessments, check for assessment-to-course learning outcomes alignment.
  3. Learning activities should help prepare students to successfully meet the assessments.
  4. Design an organizational scheme for the course.
  5. Be consistent with course module and topic formats.
  6. Use clear and concise titles and descriptions with course content.

For more information, view the video below to further explore the six key principles of effective course design.

CMS Course Design Guidelines

For a more in-depth course design guide, view the Course Design Guidelines which outlines elements that should be present in a course. The Course Design Guidelines are tool used to guide the development of new courses, as well as to guide the review of a course and course components in D2L. The Course Design Guidelines are comprised of ten sections, each focusing on higher education standards for course design, as well as the CMS Usage Procedures.

Getting Help with Master Course Development

    Please contact eLearning for assistance with Master Courses. The eLearning Instructional Designers can assist with:
  • Developing a new Master Course.
  • Revising an existing Master Course.
  • Removing outdated Master Course content, upon request.