As an author in iQualify, when you update a course and republish… those changes flow out to all class activations attached to that course - current, scheduled and past. Amazing!
Yes, well it is, but some changes you make can affect learner progress or mean learner work is lost when you republish. So, it will be up to you to decide if changes are important enough. It does mean we need to think through the implications for learners before we decide.
Our advice is, if it is small changes within an element (text, task, image etc.), then Edit > republish and let the updates flow out.
If the changes needed are larger (entirely new pages or elements or removing things) then consider making a separate duplicate of your course content.
Overview of effect on learners
Very generally speaking, edits within an element - updating text, fixing broken links etc. - won’t affect learner progress, notes, comments, or submissions, so a republish is generally fine.
However, removing entire elements, tasks, or pages loses associated learner contributions.
Adding tasks or pages can decrease some learners’ progress as there is now new content they haven’t completed.
So if possible, avoid republishing changes that involve removal or addition of entire elements. Instead create a duplicate, make your changes and use this course for future activations.
For more, check out exactly how learners are affected when course content is edited and republished.
If republishing, think about whether you should let learners know about the changes.
If duplicating, you can add a version number or identifier to the course content duplicate and archive the old course.
How to decide if I should republish or duplicate
We’ll go through a few questions you should ask yourself to help you decide whether to republish or duplicate and explain what the implications are.
Is it a new “version” of the course?
First you need to ask yourself if the changes you’re wanting to make would essentially result in a different version of the course. To us, a new version of the course includes things like:
Addition, removal, or significant changes to an entire section (or a number of pages throughout).
Addition, removal, or significant changes to assessed tasks.
As a rough guide, anything more than 10-20% change should cause you to consider duplicating rather than republishing.
Is it really important that learners currently studying the course see the changes?
If yes, then it sounds like you’ll need to republish. Before you do, read through the scenarios below to see how/if learners will be affected and what you can do to make sure they are informed.
If no, that’s great. Duplicate the course, make your changes and then any new activations can use this new course. Learners working on the previous version of the course won’t be affected.
Do you just need to make small fixes/edits?
If you’re only making small fixes or edits, then editing and republishing is probably what you’re after. As long as you’re not removing any elements, tasks, or pages entirely, no learner submissions or notes will be lost. Depending on the scale of the fix(es) you might want to let learners know about the updates in a talk channel announcement.
Do you need to remove an element entirely?
Doing this will lose any notes (private or social) learners have made, so you may want to consider telling learners before you do it. So if you can avoid removing an element, it’s best to avoid it. Instead, you might be able to re-write over existing text elements?
Do you need to remove a page entirely?
As with the above scenario, you’ll lose any notes. And, if the page has an in-page discussion, any comments there will be lost too. So if you can avoid removing a page, avoid it. Try instead to re-write.
Do you need to add a new page?
Learners' progress will go down. This applies even for learners who have completed the course. You might want to consider opting for a subheading on an existing page for learners who have already begun the course. For future activations, create a duplicate and split the page where you placed the subheading.
Do you need to change a task?
Always try to avoid deleting a task element. Removing the element removes learner submissions. Instead, add a new variation into the existing task, then delete the old variation. Learners who have already completed the original variation will still see their original submission (facilitators can see it too) and they can see the new variation if they choose to reset the task (facilitators will need to reset for assessed tasks).
If some learners have already attempted the task, we recommend you tell learners about the updates in a talk channel announcement.
Do you need to completely remove a task?
As mentioned above, removing an entire task element removes learner submissions. If you need to do this for learners who have already begun, consider warning them first.
Do you need to add a new task?
If learners have already attempted at least one task on the page where you want to add a task, their progress will decrease. For instance, if there were 3 tasks on the page and a learner had completed all 3, their progress would have had that page as “complete”, when you add another task, their progress will now say that page is only ¾ complete.
If learners haven’t attempted any tasks on that page, their progress will be unaffected.
A decision tree for republishing or duplicating
We've captured these questions and thought process into a decision tree to help.
Summary
For small changes within an element (text, task, image etc.), edit, republish and let the updates flow out!
For larger changes (entirely new pages or elements or removing things), duplicate your course content, edit and use this course content for any future class activations.
If the changes are larger, but it's important learners currently studying see these changes, be sure to understand exactly how learners will be affected when the course content is edited and republished and let them know.