Process Map & Deadlines

Each department has its own review process to best serve the needs of the department and discipline(s). Contact your Director of Undergraduate Programs and/or your Department Head to learn more details.

At this level, departments review and discuss terms and methods of the disciplines involved in the course or curriculum and how the course fits with the department’s plans and requirements or how the curriculum is constructed and its outcomes.

If the Department head has charged a Departmental Curriculum Committee, that group will review courses/curricular work and make recommendations for approval (or otherwise) to the Department Head.

Each college has its own review process to best serve the needs of the college. Contact your College Liaison/Assistant or Associate Dean of Academic Affairs for more details. Colleges generally have both administrative support and committee representatives that bridge information between the university and college levels.

The College Curriculum Committee makes recommendations for approval to the Dean and/or their designee (most frequently the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs).

By the time the action reaches the College Dean’s step of approval, the following will have all been completed and discussed:

• Disciplines, terms, methods of assessment, and ruling consistent with departmental and college standards.
• Curricular structure meets departmental and college needs
• All typos in the CIM Form are fixed
• Syllabus confirmed to comply with the Syllabus Regulation
• Any consultations within or between Colleges have been completed or at least started.

The University Courses and Curricula Committee (UCCC) looks at the course/curricular action from a university-wide perspective. As members of a representative academy, the faculty members of UCCC verify that all required items are present in CIM and are communicated clearly and fairly for review, posterity, and implementation and are in-line with university-wide norms, policies, rules, and regulations.

Committee Charge: Translated

• Recommend adjustments/forwarding concerns about course and curricular matters to the Vice Chancellor/Dean of DASA and the Provost.
• Review and make recommendations to the Vice Chancellor (as the Provost’s designee) regarding course and curricular actions.
• Make recommendations/weigh in as requested from the perspective as a representative body of faculty familiar with university-scale course and curricular matters.
• Develop guidelines and conduct periodic review of courses (this responsibility has moved to the colleges)
• Discuss course and curricular matters with the Academic Policy Committee of the Faculty Senate as needed.

Before the Meeting

Agendas are sent out to the committee a week prior to the meeting, and initiators will be invited to the meeting at that time via the courses-curricula@ncsu.edu e-mail. Actions are due to OUCCAS two weeks prior to a given meeting after having gone through the departmental and college processes. You can see UCCC dates and deadlines below.

You will be able to see where your action falls on the agenda on the UCCC website on the date that your action is coming to the committee.

Your college representative may reach out to you (or you may reach out to them) to prepare for the meeting and share any questions or information that may be helpful at the meeting. OUCCAS may do this as well individually or on behalf of the Chair.

Please let courses-curricula@ncsu.edu know if you have any time constraints regarding the time of the meeting.

During the Meeting

At the meeting, after introductions, you will have the chance to introduce yourself and what action(s) you are present for. The Chair will generally try to prioritize actions whose initiators are present.

When your action comes up, your representative will present it (generally, for approval) and a second will be called. After this, the Chair or representative may open the floor for you to make comments (not required). Three reviewers who will have been assigned the action will come forward with any questions or notes from their review after which the floor will be opened up for general committee feedback.

Being present at a meeting means that you see the review in process, which may mean that you hear questions be asked and answered that would not have left the meeting as official committee feedback. The intent of the committee is to understand, discuss, and clarify with trust and respect for the action and initiator.

During the meeting, OUCCAS staff is taking notes (as, often, are your college representatives). The Office will follow up with you after the meeting (generally within a business day) with any suggestions or required items and guidance for next steps, based on the outcomes of the votes:

• Committee Recommends Approval: Action moves on to the next step.
• Recommend Approval Pending: there is an issue or question that needs resolving before the course can move forward. OUCCAS will work with the creator and committee representatives from the colleges to facilitate these changes.
• Recommend Approval with Suggestions: committee members have offered collegial suggestions to improve clarity of alignment of items in the course:
• Tabled: that there is significant change or action is required before approval can be recommended. The action will come back for review by the committee.
• Rolled back/Returned: After review, the revisions needed for the department, college, or university to approve the action require the expertise and insight of the course’s home discipline. The action gets rolled back to the college level.

Once your action is complete, you are welcome to stay on or leave the meeting. OUCCAS will follow up with you.

After the Meeting

OUCCAS will reach out to you after the committee meeting and include the college liaison and committee representatives to relay the committee feedback as well as a timeline/suggestions for next steps. You’ll be added to the CIM workflow to enable you to make the changes, after which the action can move forward!

Once the action has been recommended for approval, the faculty Chair of UCCC “approves” this action in the CIM workflow on behalf of the representative body of the academy on UCCC to recommend approval of the course to the Provost/Provost’s Designee.

Approval notifications are sent by OUCCAS to College Liaisons and Registration and Records and are sent by the system to the initiator of the action in CIM.

• If there is a chance that your course/curriculum may seem to duplicate an existing course/curriculum, the course will be required by another department’s curriculum or is already required, or will otherwise substantially affect another department’s curriculum, you will want to seek consultation through your Associate Dean.
• If you have a particular semester in mind when you want to offer your new or edited course, contact us to talk about mapping your deadlines backwards to make sure your action gets through on time!
  • courses-curricula@ncsu.edu
  • 919.515.9769
• You are welcome and encouraged to attend the meetings during which your course will be reviewed
• Fill out ALL required fields in CIM (outlined in red) with the same information contained in your syllabus.
• Make sure that your prerequisites are codable (related to student groups, courses, or academic levels). All other items should be in the description.
• Ranges in Student Evaluation Methods are generally recommended. More information available here.

If the course has GEP outcomes and is included/would be included on a GEP list, it will follow this track to CUE

CUE Scope: The Council on Undergraduate Education looks at the course action from a university-wide perspective with a particular eye to the General Education Program requirements. They review the new course or the changes to a course to match its outcomes and means of assessment to the GEP objectives.

Committee Charge: Translated

• Recommend adjustments/forward concerns about the GEP to the Vice Chancellor and Dean of DASA and the Provost.
• Discuss and set review expectations for GEP review within categories and (as requested) discuss items such as the USD category.
• Review courses for inclusion on GEP lists or for maintenance on a GEP list.
• Develop and conduct periodic reviews of the General Education course lists – not currently an active part of committee work. Review is driven by changes in the curriculum.
• Consultation is complete, and responsibility for further review is transferred to Assessment.
• Discuss items with the Vice Chancellor and Dean of DASA and the Academic Policy Committee of the Faculty Senate as needed.

Tips

• Make sure all of the required fields (outlined in red) are filled out in CIM with the same information contained in your syllabus (including all GEP category information)
• These courses must be available to the larger campus – at least 25% of seats should be available and the course prerequisites should keep enrollment free for campus.
• If multiple GEP categories are possible in your course, include a statement that clarifies to students that they will need to choose which category the course will fulfill.
•  Include some detail in your assessment information to create a clear bridge for reviewers from the GEP Objectives to the learning outcomes of your course. Sample questions are not required but are a quick and easy way to create this bridge.
• Clearly label:
  • Your disciplines for Interdisciplinary Perspectives. For higher-level courses that delve deeper into disciplinary methods and perspectives, the committee expects to see 2-3 disciplines. For lower-level survey courses, a larger number of disciplines can be represented.
  • The countries and cultures referenced for US Diversity/Global Knowledge.
• Actions are due to OUCCAS two weeks prior to a given meeting after having gone through the departmental and college processes. See below for dates and deadlines.
• If you have a particular semester in mind when you want to offer your new or edited course, contact us to talk about mapping your deadlines to make sure your action gets through on time
• You are welcome and encouraged to attend the meetings during which your course will be reviewed
• Colleges have both administrative support and committee representatives at the University level.
• Trying out a Special Topics course for which you want to offer GEP? GEP SPTP Forms will guide you through the process of offering an experimental course for GEP credit with CUE approval.

Possible Outcomes:

• Committee Recommends Approval: Action moves on to the next step.
• Recommend Approval Pending: there is an issue or question that needs resolving before the course can move forward. OUCCAS will work with the creator and committee representatives from the colleges to facilitate these changes.
• Recommend Approval with Friendly Suggestions: committee members have offered collegial suggestions to improve clarity of alignment of items in the course:
• Tabled: that there is significant change or action is required before approval can be recommended. The action will come back for review by the committee.
• Rolled back/Returned: After review, the revisions needed for the department, college, or university to approve the action require the expertise and insight of the course’s home discipline. The action gets rolled back to the college level.

After this Sign-Off for Course/”Minor” Curricular Actions – You’re done!

The Provost/Provost’s Designee will sign off on a course/curricular action as long as the action meets alignment with university structures and strategic plan goals. They take UCCC/CUE recommendations under careful consideration before approving.

The course action has moved Registration and Records for implementation in the Peoplesoft Undergraduate Course Catalog.

As a University Standing Committee, both UCCC and CUE advise the Provost and recommend actions. This approval indicates the agreement of the Provost (or the Provost’s Designee) with that recommendation and it moves the course forward to be implemented in the undergraduate catalog.

Registration and Records is implementing the change/adding the course to the Undergraduate Course Catalog.

Reach out to your scheduling officer to schedule the course with the new changes!

My Curriculum Change isn’t “Minor”

This just means that its approval needs to go beyond the university, to steps such as the BOT, Council of Deans, UNC System Office, or SACSCOC.

You’ll be able to see these steps in your CIM Workflow, and OUCCAS will do its best to ferry the action the Provost’s Office for that part of its journey.

Once that action comes back to the CAT Implementation and PeopleSoft steps, it will have reached implementation and be complete.

The system that facilitates course and curricular approval from the department on to implementation and the catalog/degree audit. These records are are used to ensure clear faculty/staff communication throughout the process. The system is collaboratively managed by OUCCAS, the Graduate School, and Registration and Records. Access the Course system here and the Curriculum system here.

If your course will be shared between departments and will have two prefixes (eg ST/MA), your course will share a single record in CIM and the SIS Catalog and will be crosslisted. These courses proceed through both/all steps of the department and colleges involved in the crosslist. These courses can also be scheduled individually.

If your course is at the 400 level and is also going to be concurrently taught at the graduate (500) level, then your course is dual-level. These courses share a single record in CIM and proceed through both undergraduate and graduate departmental, college, and university steps. Learn more about dual-level courses and course requirements here.

This is a radio bubble selection at the top of the CIM for Courses form. Major and minor actions go through the same steps of approval, but minor actions are generally placed on the consent agenda if there is one. Minor actions don’t change the content of the course or how it is taught. For more information on major/minor course actions, click here.

Revisions Needed/Substantial Revisions Needed

After review, the revisions needed for the department, college, or university to approve the action require the expertise and insight of the course’s home discipline.

• At the UCCC step, rollback moves the course action to the home college, at which point the college can decide how best to move the action forward (or back).
• At the CUE step, the course moves forward to implementation as an undergraduate course without the GEP attribute information.
• The comments and concerns of CUE will be communicated to the college in order for the college to be prepared to resubmit the action in the future for GEP inclusion.

Rollbacks

These are rare at the university level but can occur due to:

• Concerns regarding duplication: see “consultation” for information regarding duplication and how to reach out to colleges with similar courses to avoid this concern.
• Large amount of incomplete information in the course action: include clear, concise language that addresses all items in the syllabus regulation (the syllabus tool provides boilerplate information and guides you through the decisions needed) and match the language in CIM with the language in the syllabus.