Course Readiness Check (for Department Chairs And Program Managers)

Simple Prep is a centralized, course readiness tool built by Simple Higher Ed, that enables Instructors, Department Chairs, Program Managers, Canvas administrators, and others to quickly review Canvas course content. Simple Prep allows users to quickly see what might be missing from the course, what updates still need to be made, and ensure the course meets CCS Canvas Course standards.

Accessing the Simple Prep Dashboard

  1. Log in to the Simple Syllabus dashboard.
  2. Find and click on the Plan Dashboard menu item on the left-hand side of the screen.
    • Note 1: Depending on your role, your list of menu items may look different than those shown here.
    • Note 2: Your menu items may only show icons without the accompanying text. Click on the triangle icon near the Home icon to view the text.
Screenshot of the Simple Syllabus navigation menu for the College for Creative Studies. A large purple arrow points to the 'Plan Dashboard' link, which has an icon of a diverging path. The full menu shown, in order from top to bottom, is 'Home,' 'Syllabus Library,' 'Templates,' 'Plan Dashboard,' and 'Reports.'
  1. On the next screen, filter your search results to see the Simple Prep interface.
    • In this example, the 2026 Winter term (currently located under Future) is selected from the Term drop-down list.
Screenshot from the Simple Syllabus Plan Dashboard, highlighting the 'Term' dropdown filter. The menu is shown expanded, with the 'Future' category also expanded to reveal the '2026 Winter' option. '2026 Winter' is selected with a checkmark. The 'Current' and 'Historic' categories are also visible but are collapsed.
  1. Next to the Term drop-down list is the Plans drop-down list.
    • In 2026 Winter we will use the Initial Course Readiness Check. In future semesters, we will use Course Readiness. The ET+I team will also be exploring and using other plans in the future to help clean up course content.
Screenshot from the Simple Syllabus Plan Dashboard, showing an open dropdown menu for 'Plans.' The option 'Initial Course Readiness Check' is selected with a checkmark. Other visible, unselected options include 'All Plans,' 'Course Readiness,' 'End of Course Assessment,' and 'ET+I Content,' each with a checkbox.

Simple Prep Dashboard Interface

Once you have selected your term and plan from the Term and Plans drop-down lists, you will see an interface similar to the following:

A screenshot of the Simple Syllabus "Plan Dashboard" displaying a filtered list of "2026 Winter" courses for an "Initial Course Readiness Check." The top section includes dropdown menus for "Term" and "Plans," a search bar, a "Filters" button with a numerical indicator, and buttons for "Status," "Columns," and "Export," along with pagination showing "1 - 50 of 81" items. The main area is a table with columns for a selection checkbox, Status (all "In Progress" with a progress bar), Term, Section (blurred), Syllabus Status (all "Not Started"), Syllabus Published (a red 'x' icon and "No"), Assignment Due Dates (a red 'x' icon and "0"), Modules Published (a green checkmark icon and "3"), Clean Up (document and magnifying glass icon), Thread (speech bubble icon), Due Date (blank), Instructor (blurred with profile icon), and Last Updated (all "S" icon and "14 days ago").

There are several columns in this screenshot, and you can add/remove columns by clicking on the Columns button at the top right corner of the screen. Click on any of the tabs below to learn more about a column displayed in the above screenshot.

Checkbox

Select from Sync, Not Started, Completed, and In Progress.

Status

Displays the status of the course.

Term

Displays the term for the course.

Example: 2026 Winter

Section

Displays the full course number.

Example: AHV 100 A

Syllabus Status

Displays if the Simple Syllabus has been started or not.

Syllabus Published

Checks that the syllabus is published in Simple Syllabus.

Displays ✅ Yes or❌ No.

Override by selecting either ✅ Complete or ❌ Reject.

Assignment Due Dates

Checks that all assignments have due dates.

Displays ✅ ## or❌ 0.

Override by selecting either ✅ Complete or ❌ Reject.

Bulk Update Assignment Due Dates and Availability Dates

Modules Published

Provides total count of published modules.

Displays ✅ ## or❌ 0.

Override by selecting either ✅ Complete or ❌ Reject.

How do I publish or unpublish a module as an instructor?

Clean Up

Click the document and magnifying glass icon to review and delete unused content (course pages and files) in a course.

Thread

An interface where you can communicate directly with the instructor for the given course. Click on the speech bubble icon to start a conversation.

Due Date

Displays the due date for the course.

Instructor

Displays the instructor(s) for the course.

Last Updated

Displays the date the course was last updated.

Thread Tool

The Thread tool allows you to communicate back and forth with the instructor about a specific course. You can send your comments as a Public Reply or as an Internal Note just for your team. Once you click on the speech bubble icon for a given course, the an interface similar to what is shown below will appear on the right side of your screen. The course name will appear near the top of this interface, along with the initials of other people associated with this course.

At the bottom of the course is a Rich Content Editor with some basic text formatting options. After typing your message, the Public Reply and Internal Note buttons become active for you to click on. Instructors receive e-mail notifications of messages you send via this interface.

A screenshot of a "Thread" pop-up window from the Simple Syllabus Plan Dashboard, titled "2026 Winter: Initial Course Readiness..." with a close 'x' icon. Below a blurred course identifier and an icon of three overlapping circles (likely a user or group avatar), the thread displays three "Automatic Update" messages with a bell icon and timestamp (e.g., "10/28/2025 - 2:45 PM"). These updates detail task status changes, such as "System changed the task 'Assignment Due Dates' status to Incomplete" and "'Modules Published' status from Incomplete to Complete." At the bottom of the pop-up, there's a rich text editor field labeled "Write a reply to the group, or enter an internal note...", featuring formatting options like bold, italics, underline, and alignment. Below this, two prominent purple arrows point to "Public Reply" and "Internal Note" buttons, indicating options for submitting comments.