New Course Proposals

Proposing a new course

Instructors proposing a new undergraduate course should follow this procedure:

  • Develop a syllabus that includes credit number, prerequisites, course objectives, required and recommended materials, and a general description of assignments and assessments. The syllabus should be aimed at the student audience, and sufficiently detailed so that the committee and consulted units can judge whether there is significant content overlap and can discern differences in pedagogical approach or disciplinary perspective. It is most helpful to provide the Campus Curriculum Committee (CCC) with as complete a student-facing syllabus as possible.
  • Submit the proposal to your departmental and collegiate level curriculum committees for review and approval.
  • Consult with appropriate units outside the home college regarding potential duplication/overlap with existing courses by sharing the proposed syllabus.  (See "Consultation" below).
  • Create a new course proposal in Coursedog, and include the syllabus and the results of consultation with other units.
  • Once the proposal has been approved at the departmental and collegiate levels, it will be sent to the Provost queue in Coursedog, which will trigger the CCC review.
  • To facilitate the CCC review, send a Word or PDF copy of the syllabus to Jessica Kuecker Grotjohn at [email protected].
  • The Course Proposal Guide provides a framework to help ensure necessary information is present when entering course proposals in Coursedog. Make a copy of the template to use as you develop course proposals.

Course Consultation Process for Colleges:

Once a new course has been approved within the collegiate curriculum committee, the next step is to obtain consultation from other colleges across campus. The collegiate approver should send new course proposals to all undergraduate associate deans on the Twin Cities Campus. While consultation within the home college is important, it does not substitute for consultation with other colleges. Cross- college consultation should occur for the majority of new courses, even when a course is narrow in scope, for example, serving only one major (see the FAQ information below). In addition to identifying potential course duplication, a goal of consultation is curricular transparency. After receiving responses from the associate deans, copy the compiled responses to Coursedog in the Strategic Objectives - Consultation with Other Units field. If the text is too large for Coursedog, it may be sent as a PDF with the proposal to the CCC.

Sample email

Send email to: [email protected]

Subject: New undergraduate course consultation for COUR XXXX (TIME SENSITIVE)

Dear Associate Deans,

Please see the attached course materials for COUR XXXX. This is a new course.

BRIEF COURSE DESCRIPTION

INTENDED AUDIENCE

Please respond immediately if you have no concerns. If you have any concerns, please let me know by DATE so that we may address them prior to the course being submitted to the Campus Curriculum Committee.

Sincerely,

Disciplinary Overlap and Disputes

  • Given the increasing interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum, the CCC expects there will be some overlap in content across the curriculum. For example, different units may see similar topics through distinct lenses or may approach similar learning goals using different methods and/or at different levels. For cases where these differences are distinct and the content is appropriate to more than a single unit/department the CCC will approve the new course even if overlap is found.
  • For cases of overlap where there is no compelling argument that the new course is distinct, the CCC will discuss the merits of the new course and make a recommendation to the Provost.

Campus Curriculum Committee Review

The Campus Curriculum Committee (CCC) is appointed by, and is advisory to, the provost. The CCC was developed in 2012 to address curricular questions and issues that arise between/among colleges on the Twin Cities campus, and to provide central guidance for the undergraduate curriculum by reviewing new undergraduate course proposals.

The CCC is comprised of 12-14 faculty members, and has broad representation from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities academic community. Representatives are selected by the college undergraduate associate deans. Although CCC members are selected from colleges and departments across campus, they do not represent their individual units in this role. CCC members are charged to represent the best interests of students and the University of Minnesota as a whole, rather than their departmental or collegiate units.

Course Review

The CCC reviews new Undergraduate Courses on the Twin Cities campus.

  • "Undergraduate" is defined as any course marked "UGRD" in the "career" field in Coursedog.
  • New “Undergraduate” courses previously approved at the “Graduate” level. These should be submitted with the new UGRD career as a new course in Coursedog, rather than an edited GRAD course.
  • The following types of courses are excluded from CCC review:
    • New topic shells, except under unusual circumstances
    • Proposals for new topic titles within already-existing topic shells
    • Study abroad courses conducted completely off-campus
    • Freshman seminars and Honors seminars (courses that are not permanently part of the curriculum)
    • Honors (H) versions of courses that meet the same requirements as the standard course
    • New course numbers that are cross-listings with current undergraduate courses
    • New courses that are solely changes to the designator of an existing course
    • Courses for graduate students only (i.e., courses marked "GRAD" in the "career" field in Coursedog)
    • Courses for professional school students only (i.e., courses marked "MED, PHAR, LAW", etc. in the "career" field in Coursedog)
    • Independent or Directed Study courses that do not meet Liberal Education or Writing Intensive requirements
    • Non-credit courses (e.g., MOOCs, non-credit workshops)

Review timeline

Once the complete course proposal reaches the provost queue in Coursedog, it is distributed to one of several CCC review teams. Courses are sent to the review teams weekly. When the review team arrives at a decision (typically within one week), the proposer is notified. The CCC meets to review any proposals that require full committee discussion.

Types of CCC decisions:

  • Approval - Course is approved 
  • Provisional Approval - Course has minor revisions that must be made prior to full approval. Once requested changes are made, the course will be administratively approved.
  • Revise and Resubmit - The CCC has concerns that must be addressed and reviewed prior to full approval. Revisions will be re-evaluated by the CCC.

Frequently Asked Questions

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What is the purpose of the Campus Curriculum Committee?

  • The Campus Curriculum Committee (CCC) is appointed by and advisory to the provost. The CCC was developed in 2012 to address curricular questions and issues that arise between/among colleges on the Twin Cities campus, and to provide central guidance for the undergraduate curriculum by reviewing new undergraduate course proposals.
  • The Provost's charge to the CCC is available on the EVPP website.

What is the composition of the CCC?

  • The CCC is composed of 12-14 faculty members, and has broad representation from the University of Minnesota Twin Cities academic community. Representatives are selected by the college deans. Although CCC members are selected from colleges and departments across campus, they do not represent their individual units in this role. CCC members are charged to represent the best interests of students and the University of Minnesota as a whole, rather than their departmental or collegiate units.
  • The current committee membership is listed here.

What types of courses does the CCC review?

  • The CCC reviews all new Twin Cities campus undergraduate course proposals, with the exception of those listed in the next section.
  • "Undergraduate" is defined as any course marked "UGRD" in the "career" field in Coursedog.

What types of new courses does the CCC not review?

  • New topic shells, except under unusual circumstances
  • Proposals for new topic titles within already-existing topic shells
  • Study abroad courses conducted completely off-campus
  • HECUA courses
  • Freshman seminars
  • Honors (H) versions of courses that meet the same requirements as the standard course
  • New course numbers that are cross-listings with current undergraduate courses
  • New courses that are solely changes to the designator of an existing course
  • Courses for graduate students only (i.e., courses marked "GRAD" in the "career" field in Coursedog)
  • Courses for professional school students only (i.e., courses marked "MED, PHAR, LAW", etc. in the "career" field in Coursedog)
  • Independent or Directed Study courses that do not meet LE or WI requirements
  • Non-credit courses (e.g., MOOCs, non-credit workshops)

How do I submit a new undergraduate course for review?

Instructors proposing a new undergraduate course should follow this procedure:

  • Develop a syllabus that includes prerequisites, course objectives, required and recommended materials, and a general description of assignments and assessments. The syllabus should be sufficiently detailed so that the committee and consulted units can judge whether there is content overlap and can discern differences in approach or disciplinary perspective. It is most helpful to provide the CCC with as complete a syllabus as possible.
    • Consult with appropriate units outside the home college regarding potential overlap with existing courses by sharing the proposed syllabus.  (See "What type of consultation is requested?" below).
    • Create a new course proposal in Coursedog, and include the syllabus and the results of consultation with other units.
    • Submit the proposal to your departmental and collegiate level curriculum committees for review and approval.
    • Once the proposal has been approved at the departmental and collegiate levels, it will be sent to the Provost queue in Coursedog, which will trigger the CCC review.
    • To facilitate the CCC review, send a Word or PDF copy of the syllabus to Jessica Kuecker Grotjohn at [email protected].

Do I need to include a syllabus for the CCC process?

Yes.  See "How do I submit a new undergraduate course for review?" above.

What type of consultation is required?

  • The Campus Curriculum Committee is charged with ensuring that the proposing unit consults with units in other colleges as appropriate. Consultation is advised even if units believe that the content of the proposed course falls squarely within their mission and expertise.
  • Units proposing new courses should verify through a course catalog search that another college does not already offer a substantially similar course at the undergraduate level. In addition, the course proposer should send the proposed syllabus to the department head(s) of any unit in other college(s) that may already offer courses with overlapping content, as well as the undergraduate associate dean(s) of those college(s). Request that the consulted parties identify any concerns regarding content overlap.
  • Documentation of the consultative process (for example, email correspondence with consulted units) should be submitted in the "Strategic Objectives and Consultation" section of the course proposal in Coursedog. 
  • While consultation is not required before the course proposal is submitted in Coursedog, doing so in advance can save time in the CCC course approval process, because if the CCC perceives there could be overlap with another unit, they will either request that the course proposer do the consultation, or the CCC may contact the other unit, which will add time to the review process.

What if there is overlap with another course?

Given the increasing interdisciplinary nature of the curriculum, the CCC expects there will be occasional overlap in content across the curriculum. For example, different units may see the same content through distinct lenses or may approach similar learning goals using different methods. For cases where these differences are distinct, the CCC will approve the new course even if overlap is found. For cases of overlap where there is no compelling argument that the new course is distinct, the CCC is likely to not recommend approval of the new course.

How soon will I hear from the CCC regarding its decision?

Once the course proposal reaches the provost queue in Coursedog, and the Word or PDF syllabus has been emailed to the CCC staff person, the proposal is distributed to one of several CCC review teams. Review teams confer weekly to consider the course proposals that came in that week. When the review team arrives at a decision (typically within one week), the proposer is notified that day. The CCC meets monthly to review any proposals that require full committee discussion.