Suggestions for Catalog Review Processes

• Editing in Catalog
• Preview
• Additional Resources

Many institutions need to conduct a cyclical review of their catalog to ensure that the non-curriculum content is as up-to-date as the curriculum content being reviewed within Curriculum Management.

We've outlined two suggestions for how you could conduct a catalog review process:

Editing in Catalog

Catalog managers may initiate a review process by sharing a URL directly to a Content Item within the catalog with another stakeholder.

Pros

• As content is edited directly, there is no need to copy and paste between different applications.
• Only one user can access the content, preventing editing collisions.
• Ensures a single source of truth for catalog content.
• Any user can see and use this functionality.

Cons

• There is no audit tracking, so changes to the content are not tracked.
• There are no roles or permissions available within Catalog, so it is not possible to restrict editing access by role.

Note: All changes made within catalog are automatically saved and will be visible on the catalog immediately.

Sharing Content

There are two options you can use to share information with another user.

• You can use the URL found in your browser when you are viewing the content item to provide to another user:

• The Share button is available on each content item, and provides a shareable link that can be used to invite others to edit or review the content.

Preview

Catalog managers can initiate a review process by sharing the URL of the preview of the catalog, or of a specific content item. 

The catalog preview shows an unstylized preview of the catalog with all the curricular and non-curricular content of the catalog, as well as the structure and layout of the catalog elements. (Unstylized meaning you will not see your institutional CSS styles applied.)

Pros

• Content stakeholders can see how their page will display in the catalog and their relationship to other content pieces.
• Anyone with the URL can view the preview of the catalog without having to sign into any system.

Cons

• The preview does not provide an option to edit content. Users will need to log into Catalog in order to make changes.
• The display will not show the final version as it will appear on your institutional site, as it will not yet have any styles applied to it.

Catalog Preview

There are two methods you can use to preview your catalog at any time, regardless of the status.

• From the initial landing page showing all catalogs, select the Preview icon () from the columns to the right for the respective catalog. The preview will open a new tab, allowing you to copy the URL from your browser and share as needed.

• From within any catalog, you can click the 'Preview Catalog' option that appears to the top-right. The preview will open a new tab, allowing you to copy the URL from your browser and share as needed.

Note: If you find the preview option here greyed out, your catalog may be actively reindexing. If this is the case, you can still use the preview from the listing of all Catalogs instead.

Additional Resources

We've created a template that can be used to help catalog managers with their review process.

You can save a copy of the template to use by either:

• Selecting File from the toolbar, and then Make a copy to save a copy to your Google Drive.
• Select File from the toolbar, and then Download to save a file to your computer to work with in a spreadsheet editor, such as Excel.