The semester is over, and you're ready to stop looking at the course site. Before you do, consider what your future self will need when preparing the next offering or explaining a teaching decision in a review.
The handbook recommends keeping a deliberate teaching archive instead of assuming the learning management system will remain your permanent filing cabinet. Save appropriate records through approved processes, with privacy and access requirements in view.
Keep the final syllabus and key instructions
Retain the syllabus version students used and the major assignment prompts, rubrics, and course schedule as permitted. Note meaningful changes made during the term. An early draft may not show what students were actually asked to do.
Use a consistent course and term label so you can tell versions apart later.
Record your responsibilities
Keep the relevant teaching assignment information, course list, and other required records. Explain substantial coordination, supervision, or development work that isn't obvious from the course title.
A short note now can prevent a much longer reconstruction at review time.
Retain feedback through the right route
Keep official student and peer evaluation records as authorized and required. Record the context and your response to important patterns. Follow the applicable process for confidential materials rather than copying them into a public portfolio.
Don't assume every platform export is suitable for every storage location.
Be selective and careful with student work
Use samples only in ways the relevant policies, permissions, and privacy requirements allow. Choose examples that support a specific learning or assessment claim. Remove identifying details where appropriate and maintain any required protections.
Saving every submission to a personal archive isn't the same as maintaining a suitable teaching record.
Add a brief account of changes
Write what you changed, why you changed it, and what evidence informed your interpretation. Link the note to the relevant materials. If you haven't established the effect, identify what you'll examine next time.
The explanation often makes an old file much more useful.
Check storage and retrieval
Use approved storage, backup, retention, and access practices. Confirm that the records you need can be opened and found. A clear folder structure matters more than an elaborate one you won't maintain.
Leave an explanation beside the materials
A final assignment prompt tells you what students received. It may not tell you why you revised the second step or which part still caused confusion. Add a brief note identifying the issue, the change, and what you observed. Keep uncertainty visible if you don't yet know whether the change addressed the problem.
Check that the note points to the correct course and term. Similar filenames can become difficult to distinguish after several offerings, especially when an assignment evolves gradually. Preserve the appropriate final version rather than relying on whichever draft opens first.
Review retention and access requirements before keeping additional records. More material isn't automatically more useful, and some information shouldn't remain in a personal collection. A small, well-labeled set of appropriate documents with enough context can serve you better than a large export you can't safely share or efficiently search. The archive should support future teaching and accurate explanation, not create another unresolved storage problem.
Before closing the course for the term, save the final syllabus, one important assignment package, and a short reflection through the appropriate process. That small set gives your next teaching or review task a much better starting point.
Adapted from The New Faculty Handbook by Zafer Unal, pp. 60-61.
