What is course version approval?
It is the review gate between an edited course and a published one. A subject matter expert or instructional designer proposes a curriculum change; reviewers check accuracy, compliance and assessment alignment; someone with authority signs off; and a new release goes live. For training companies that sell certification, safety or compliance courses, each release is a dated claim that the content was right when published.
The hard part is that courses are assembled from versioned parts. In Moodle, questions have versions with a viewable history, and a quiz can be pinned to a specific question version instead of "Always latest", in which case later fixes in the question bank do not reach that quiz. In Canvas, blueprint syncs push changes to associated courses, but content edited locally before a sync is not synced and shows as an exception, and the Blueprint Courses API lists those exceptions by conflict class, such as content, points and dates. Approval history is what lets a company show which parts each release really used.
What should be inventoried before LMS migration affects course version approval history?
Inventory record classes, time coverage, system owners and the real access deadline. Migrations tend to carry the current published course across and leave its past behind: earlier releases, question version histories, logs and the reviewer comments that explain why a change was approved. Even a routine backup can be thinner than people assume: in Moodle, the Include logs and Include histories backup defaults are off unless an administrator turns them on.
The register below is an Illustrative inventory for a fictional 220-person compliance training company with about 140 active courses. Each cell is metadata.
| Record class | System today | Years held | Owner | Migration plan |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Current published course and content files | Old LMS | Current | Learning operations | Migrated |
| Earlier releases and archived course shells | Old LMS | 8 | Learning operations | Not migrated |
| Question and assessment version history | Old LMS question bank | 6 | Assessment team | Latest versions only |
| Course logs and grade histories | Old LMS | 8 | LMS administrator | Off in the default backup |
| Curriculum change requests | Ticket tracker | 5 | Instructional design lead | Outside the project plan |
| Reviewer notes and sign-offs | Content repository, email | 7 | Subject matter review board | Outside the project plan |
| Blueprint sync exceptions | Old LMS | 3 | LMS administrator | Not migrated |
Four questions turn this into a decision for the company:
- Will archived releases and course shells move, or only active courses?
- Are quizzes pinned to question versions, and will that pinning survive the import?
- Has anyone decided whether logs and histories go into the final export?
- On what date does the old platform go read-only or its contract end?
A partner records answers, not files. Do not collect course exports, question banks, learner data or logins, and do not recommend keeping data beyond the company's retention policy, its customer contracts or the authority of the person asking. Email-side retention during a platform change is covered in email archive migration, and the parallel contract-system case in CLM migration.
Work through one release the migration would misread
Take an Illustrative safety course. A new release updates the curriculum for a revised permit form, but its quiz stays pinned to the older question version that tests the old form. A reviewer catches it, and a point release re-pins the quiz to corrected questions. If the migration imports only the current course and latest questions, the new LMS shows a course that was always correct, with no trace of the release that taught one form and tested another. The detailed case walk-through is on the exception examples page linked below; for the inventory, the question is whether superseded releases, pinned versions and the reviewer's note all survive.
Ask the learning operations head about coverage and rights
Start with the learning operations head, who knows where change requests, reviews and releases live. The person who can approve a licensing discussion is the CEO, with the COO or general counsel advising; for governance questions, see board approval for a data licensing agreement and whether licensing data requires board approval.
Access is not authority: an LMS administrator can run a backup but cannot decide that the company's approval history may be licensed. Ownership needs care in this sector. Courses may include material licensed from publishers, authored by contract designers or co-developed for an enterprise client, and customer contracts may restrict how client-specific versions are used. How to assess training company materials and their ownership covers those questions, and SourceX's rights review settles them before anything is licensed.
The introduced company needs 50+ full-time employees at peak (contractors excluded), a documented operating history, rights to license and an authorized contact. Companies in the U.S., Canada and the EU qualify, as do companies in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Singapore, South Africa, Latin America, the UAE and Saudi Arabia when at least 90% of the data is in English. Partners sign the Channel Partner Agreement before submitting, and the first valid introduction within the 90-day window is credited when the company submits a verified application.
Unknown until SourceX reviews it: buyer interest in this record type, the rights result, the de-identification required and any offer. Related pages: the education and training page, how advisors introduce education and training businesses, onboarding and training data and the industries hub.
Go deeper on course version approval
- Course version approval referral brief template: a fill-in brief with metadata fields only and one completed Illustrative example.
- Course version approval exception examples: one release case worked step by step.
- Course version approval records across systems: a system map of LMS, repository and tracker records and the keys that join them.
Next step
Refer a company. Earn up to $100,000. Default reward: 25% of Actual Supplier Payout, capped at $100,000 cumulatively per referred company. Eligibility and payment conditions apply, and a signed Schedule A or addendum can differ. A lead, meeting or signature alone does not trigger payment.
If a training client is moving to a new LMS and its earlier releases, question versions and reviewer notes are not on the migration list, register as a partner, check the company against who qualifies and read the program terms before you introduce the executive who can authorize the discussion.