When reviewing course proposals over the last five years, the AAC has noticed that there have been some commonly occurring areas in which it requests revisions prior to approval. Below is a summary of questions that frequently occur for the AAC about course proposals. It may be useful for faculty writing proposals, Department Heads, and departmental curriculum committee members to consider these questions when drafting or evaluating course proposals. The questions are often tied to specific items on the course proposal form or online addendum. The course proposal form referenced was last updated February 2020; and the on-line addendum last amended May 2017. The AAC will update this document to reflect the most current forms and policies for curriculum proposals, as well as to reflect guidance related to new questions suggested by faculty proposers or the AAC. The current version of this FAQ reflects updates made August 10, 2020 regarding changes in form versions and broader clarifications in CEHSP or UMD Academic Affairs policy.
Note that Department Heads must notify the Dean when a new course is being discussed and consult with her regarding the idea prior to a course proposal being written. A faculty sponsor should make sure their Department Head has had this discussion before developing the proposal. Make sure the idea has been vetted at both the Department and College levels before making the formal proposal. For the time being all new course proposals must be a) budget neutral and b) not add to the total number of credits in a major (unless the major is under 50 credits).
- Has the approved proposal or addendum form text been altered? The proposal and online addendum forms are formal parts of the curriculum process and as such the text in the standard forms should not be altered or reformatted. If it has been, it has to be put back into its original format before being sent to VCAA and therefore such changes add unnecessary work for college staff. Text should only go into the boxes provided on the right side of the form, nothing should be added to the boxes on the left side.
- Catalog Description: Does the language describing the course reflect the longevity of courses? Courses typically remain in the catalog for a decade or more and the AAC ensures that relevant sections of the course proposal reflect this longevity. Does the catalog description describe specifics that are likely going to be out-of-date quickly? Examples of things that have come up along these lines are references to specific theories, policies, software, technology, laws or statutes. Rather than referring to, for example, “Minnesota Statute 122A.60” or the “DSM-5” the catalog description might reference “relevant laws governing teacher development” or “contemporary psychiatric diagnostic systems”, respectively. This also goes for the Conceptual Outline on the course proposal although there it is easier to include some more specific details as examples.
- Terms Most Frequently Offered: Is the course proposed to be offered in the summer, but not fall or spring? CEHSP Administration strongly discourages undergraduate courses to be primarily or only offered in the summer session, unless there is a compelling reason related to the seasonality of the topic. Students have a more difficult time arranging financial aid for summer session courses and a course that might be required by a program in the summer places a burden on students. Faculty contracts also do not cover summer, so we cannot create a situation that compels faculty to teach a required summer course that must be paid for outside of our regular budget.
- How Often Will the Course be Offered: If the course is an elective, is it offered annually? CEHSP Administration currently, and for the foreseeable future, cannot support the offering of non-required courses annually unless they embody a “High-Impact Practice” (HIP) not otherwise provided by the program. If it does involve a HIP explain how it does so when answering “What is the rationale for proposing this course”.
- How will this course be scheduled?: Is the scheduling pattern in appropriate for the course? This item is primarily for the purposes of determining how a course is to be scheduled in the system and also has ramifications for how faculty workload is determined. A 3 credit course scheduled as “LEC” could, in practice involve the equivalent of three 50-minute sessions per week that primarily involve discussion and have no formal lectures. For courses that are non field work/independent study, the default should be “LEC” with a rationale provided if a “LAB” or “DIS” section is also needed or needed instead.
- Is there a final exam?: Should the proposal indicate there will be a final exam? This part of the course proposal is often misunderstood. The Academic Affairs Final Exam policy states that all “all classes that normally permit undergraduates to enroll” (e.g., 1XXX-5XXX-level courses) should have a final examination. This, however, need not be a formal test and could be a paper, performance, presentation, etc. Any course that has “a final graded component or end of term evaluation that assesses the level of student achievement of one or more course objectives” should indicate that there will be a final exam. As courses, and therefore course proposals, are not instructor specific and since under academic freedom instructors may choose what format a “final exam” may take, it is strongly encouraged that for any non-IND/FWK courses a final exam is indicated in the proposal.
- Prerequisites: Three sets of questions often come up in relation to course prerequisites.
- Do specified prerequisite courses produce a burden or create bottlenecks for the departments’ offering those courses? It is the expectation of the College that the Department Head responsible for scheduling any prerequisite courses has been consulted and given approval before the proposal comes to the AAC.
- Are the prerequisites unnecessarily restrictive for the course? Do the specified courses involve knowledge or skills that are essential for success in the proposed course? Can students realistically complete the prerequisites (and any prerequisites for the prerequisite courses) in a timely fashion that will not put them behind in their academic program? If a 1XXX or 2XXX-level course is proposed, are the prerequisites too extensive for a typical freshman or sophomore to have met?
- Are the prerequisites too open for the demands of the course? For upper-level courses, are the prerequisites restrictive enough to minimize the number of students who are unprepared for relatively advanced study? Will more students be able to register for the course than the program can accommodate? A common solution for 4XXX-level courses is to specify a minimum number of credits as a pre-req. Are there specific skills or background knowledge the course builds on that are not covered in the prerequisites?
- Conceptual Outline and Topics: The conceptual outline is a common place for questions to arise for the AAC.
- What does ____ mean? The AAC must determine if the conceptual outline is appropriate for the level and nature of the course and so they must be able to understand it at a basic level even if they are not in the same field. It also must be something the AVCAA for undergraduate education can understand. It is strongly encouraged that the outline be written with the educated layperson in mind as the target audience. Spell out acronyms and explain or avoid jargon.
- Is there a clear outline of the topics that would typically be covered as core aspects of the course? Can the committee tell what the breadth and depth of the core topics will be? Keep in mind that different instructors may approach the topics in different ways.
- Are the topics appropriate for the level (1XXX, 2XXX, 3XXX, 4XXX), credits and format (FWK, IND, LEC, etc.) of the course? In general it is anticipated that courses at higher levels will provide more depth on a topic and will be more academically demanding than courses at lower levels. The fewer credits a course is offered for the fewer topics would be anticipated. Lecture courses are anticipated to be conceptually engaging rather than being primarily skills or application-based.
- Describe Student Learning Outcomes and Associated Assessment Methods: In addition to the Conceptual Outline, the Learning Objectives and Assessment Methods are another major source of questions by the AAC.
- Is there a learning objective associated with each major element of the conceptual outline?
- Are there learning objectives stated that are not clearly or explicitly related to a topic in the conceptual outline?
- Do the learning objectives complete the stem “Students completing this course will be able to _______”?
- Are the learning objectives stated in measurable terms?
- Across the range of learning objectives for the course, are the verbs used covering the range of complexity appropriate for the course? Bloom’s Taxonomy is a useful reference here.
- For each learning objective, is there an assessment method specified that is appropriate for the measurable verb in the learning outcome? Is it clear what would be evaluated and how? For example, “course discussion” or “participation” is vague, but “written submitted discussion questions” or “participation evaluation rubric” suggests a systematic way of evaluating students.
- Describe Course Instructional Materials: Are there specific examples of instructional materials such as readings referenced? Although individual faculty will pick their own materials appropriate for the learning outcomes and course materials will change over time, it is expected that specific example readings or other materials that would be appropriate for the planned course will be referenced here to give the AAC a sense of what is planned and if it appears appropriate for the level of the course. Provide a full reference including year of publication in order to establish that the course was developed in the context of the most contemporary materials.
- How Will Your Program(s) be Affected by the Proposed New Course or Course Change?: There are many questions that frequently occur about impacted programs.
- Will the program(s) the course is a part of change in a way that would require updated catalog language for that program? If so, how?
- If the course impacts any other department’s programs (e.g., uses prerequisites from other department, is planned to be used as a course in another department’s program, impacts a course in your program that is used by another department’s program (e.g., course in program, prerequisite for a course, etc.)), have the appropriate people in the other department been consulted? This involves the people who have responsibility for the scheduling and budgeting of the program affected and the authority to authorize approvals on behalf of their unit. At a minimum this will involve the Department Head, but may also involve DGSes, program directors/coordinators, or Associate Deans (for departments outside of CEHSP). Document these approvals in this item before sending the proposal to the AAC.
- Describe Financial and Staffing Implications: What is the plan to staff this course? All courses offered obviously must be staffed and staffing has financial implications, so this item should never have “none” or “not applicable” as an answer. Will a new hire be required and has it been approved? Will a currently offered course be retired to make room for the new course? Will fewer sections of an existing course be offered or will the new course be paired with an existing course on a rotation? Currently, and for the foreseeable future, CEHSP Administration will not approve new courses or course changes unless they are budget neutral or produce a net savings in the budget. CEHSP Administration reserves the right- especially but not exclusively for programs with a relatively high number of credits - to not approve new electives unless a course is removed from the program. Department Heads should strategize with the Dean plans to offer new electives and how to staff new required courses.
- Instructor Contact Hours per Week: Are the instructor contact hours not consistent with the current workload protocols or other academic policies? As per AVC Pepper (October 3, 2019), “be sure what is listed there conforms to the approved protocols. This is relevant primarily in cases of things like internships, courses with labs, fieldwork, directed readings, and so forth.”
- Online addendum: Is an online delivery format selected in “How will this course be delivered”? If so, an online addendum must also be submitted. Some common questions that come up with online addenda are:
- Could a more general term be used instead of a specific program or product being mentioned? Rather than referring to a specific platform or program like “Canvas” or “Skype” use terms such as “Learning Management System” or “video conferencing”, respectively.
- Online Addendum items, 3, 5, 6, and 8: How will specific information of relevance to online courses in particular be communicated to students? Is helpful, illustrative example syllabus verbiage provided? The AAC looks to the addendum to get a sense of an example of how instructors would communicate issues related to being in an online course. To facilitate this, it is recommended that proposals provide example syllabus verbiage that gives an idea of what we would tell students about access to library (online addendum item 3), ITSS (online addendum item 5), disability (online addendum item 8) resources, and appropriate online behavior (online addendum item 6).
- Online Addendum item 9: Has the number of minutes per week the course should be designed for been figured out? There has been concern that students, on average, do not fully appreciate how much time to budget for online courses. As such the AAC has been asking that proposals include a specific amount of time per week in minutes or hours in online addendum item 9 based on the standards provided at the end of the addendum form (excerpted from VCAA Credit Standards). So, for example, a 3 credit primarily or fully online course offered during the regular 15 week semester should have 450 minutes (150 minutes per week per credit × 3 credits) or 7.5 hours per week devoted to it by the average student to achieve satisfactory performance.
Approved by AAC, 1/24/2019
Updated for the February 2020 version of the course proposal form and updated to clarify administrative policy, 8/10/2020.