Edit Mastering course settings

Updated 18 Sep 2025

You or a section instructor with the Course Settings privilege privilege can edit Mastering-specific course settings from your course. .

Mastering course settings: Time zone for assignments, show students their total score, and more

You can change any settings except the course ID or the selected book. If you need to change the book associated with the course, contact Pearson Support.

Course Setting	Description
Course Title	Supported characters — The course title can include any standard keyboard letters, numbers, and the following special characters: ;:'",<.>/?~`!@#$%^&*()_-+=\\|[]{} The course title cannot include an emoji. Students see the course title on their view of the Course Home.
Country and Time Zone	The time zone you select here governs the: Assignment availability and due date/time Time recorded when students submit their assignment answers If any students are in a different time zone... Let them know which time zone applies to course assignments, so they can submit their work on time. If you don't see your country listed... Select another country in the same time zone.
Course End Date (Last Day of Term)	Appears in MM/DD/YY format; 03/06 is March 6, not June 3. The course ends at 11:59 p.m. on the date entered. You can access this course after the end date, but students cannot. If a course expires before you are finished teaching with it — Reset this expiration date to reopen the course to enrolled students. You can set this date to be no more than 2 years after the course creation date. About assignment availability — New assignments you create are initially available to students until this course end date. However, changing the course end date does not automatically change the Availability to Students UNTIL dates. If you extend the course end date after you create assignments, the assignments are available to students only until the date previously specified for the assignments.
Determine whether students can join your course	Accept the default, Open, unless you want to block students' ability to enroll in (join) the course. Not ready for students to view the course yet? Consider changing this to Closed if you are in the process of creating early assignments, editing the course announcement area, and so on. Remember that you can continue to modify the course after students have gained entry to it. Important: Don't forget to change this back to Open when you're ready for students to enroll! When to consider closing your course to further enrollment — After all students have enrolled in your course and the drop/add period at your school has passed. This can prevent phantom students from joining your course for cheating purposes.
Make Available for Other Instructors to Copy	Select Available for copying and give the course ID to instructors to use when they copy this course. See Characteristics of a copied course.
Prompt Students for IDs	See Enter or edit student IDs.
Manage Section Instructors	See Add or remove section instructors.
Show me the list of Learning Outcomes provided for this course and Add/Edit My Learning Outcomes	Learning outcomes help you to assess student understanding and skills, based on assignment results. You can report learning outcome data to your department or administration. Provided learning outcomes — For some textbooks, learning outcomes are provided and are automatically associated with appropriate assignment items. On the Course Settings page, you can click the link to see the list of outcomes provided for this course. Add your own learning outcomes — For any course, you can add your own learning outcomes. See Create learning outcomes.
Allow Students to see their Total Score	If you don't rely solely on the Mastering Gradebook for scores — Consider keeping this set to No. (Because students cannot see their other scores here, the total score for all Mastering assignments can be confusing.) To control the display of individual assignment scores: Use the Show Assignment Score setting.
Forward Student Comments to Email Address(es)	Enter your email address to receive student feedback on assignment items. The feedback form is available after students submit an item. To forward student issues that require an immediate answer — Contact Pearson Support. If you have many students and assignments — Consider creating an email address separate from your regular account to receive these student comments. You could also enter the address of a section instructor or other department member who has agreed to collect this feedback. If you leave this field blank — You can always view comments online by selecting Comments View from the Manage this Item menu. The publisher's authoring staff for Mastering will see your students' comments during the periodic review of questions. However, this review may not be until after the end of your course term.