What are Topics Courses?
Topics courses offer departments the ability to be flexible and responsive in offering courses that are new, experimental and/or not yet part of the permanent course catalog. Key characteristics of topics courses:
- Topics courses are temporary.
- A topics course may be taught up to two times before being converted to a regular course.
- When a topics course transitions to a regular course, it will undergo the standard CCC review process for all new courses.
- Topics courses may not be cross-listed between designators.
- Topics courses may not meet LE or WI requirements.
Set up a topics course: Coursedog User Manual, pg 16-19
All topics courses include a “topic shell,” the generic course number and designator associated with many topics courses, and “topic title,” which is the specific Topics Course being scheduled.
Review Process
First offering: New topic titles
Topics titles should include:
- an appropriately descriptive title (which will appear on the transcript).
- No syllabus is required for approval of a new topic title, but a course description (including information about meeting times and number of credits) should be included in the Editor Comments section of Coursedog. This description will help the Associate Dean determine whether the course content is appropriate for University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus credit, (i.e. content the U of M would accept as transfer credit from another institution) and the mission of the proposing unit.
- If a course is offered outside of a standard semester (Fall/Spring) and standard course times, the Editors Comments section of Coursedog should include calculation of contact time (for example, this 1 credit course meets twice a week for 8 weeks, 50 minutes per session, for 16 contact hours)
- Indicate in the Editor Comments section of Coursedog that it is a first offering.
Second offering: offerings do not need to be consecutive:
- An abbreviated syllabus (including the course description and meeting time) should be included in the Editor Comments section of Coursedog. It is appropriate to include syllabus material from the first time the course was taught, assuming it is being taught by the same instructor.
- The Editor Comments section in Coursedog should list the previous semester(s) when the course was taught and include the calculation of instructional time if the course is not taught in a standard semester-based time slot.
Based on the course description, the Associate Dean for the University Curriculum will determine whether further review is warranted. Most proposals will go forward without further review. The Office of Undergraduate Education (OUE) and Academic Support Resources (ASR) will keep a running list of all proposed topic titles to verify whether a course has been taught previously.