Students love Checklists! If you build it, they will come. A checklist is a way to highlight important or required assignments, readings, discussions, quizzes, or other items for the students to complete. The to-do list allows students to check off items when they are complete.

I add a checklist to each Module and put it under the Due module. Each item in the checklist includes the link to the assignment, discussion, or quiz, along with the due date. Students have expressed how this has made keeping track of things so easy. One student said they wished that all instructors would use them.  

Setting up the Checklist can be a little tricky, but once they are in place, it is just a matter of following the formula. Then you can copy and paste, which makes it super simple and fast. 

The Pros: 

1. Students can access all the items that have a due date in one location and check them off when complete. 
2. There are links to the assignments and discussions for easy navigation. 
3. Instructors can copy Checklists from Module to Module and from course to course. 
4. When faculty import a course from semester to semester, the due dates are automatically calculated using “Offset Dates”. 

The Cons:

1. It can be time consuming for the faculty to make the first checklist, about 30 minutes.  
2. A student emailed me to say they did not know about an assignment because it wasn’t in the Checklist, so now I double check to see that everything is listed.  

What does the Checklist look like?

Instructor View

Student View

Where do I use checklists?

My favorite way to use the checklist is for assignments, discussions, and quizzes. I added Checklists to all my courses, face to face and online, and like the students, I love this tool too!  

Where can I find instructions?

Here are tutorials from D2L Brightspace that take you through the steps,