The Curriculum Process at NKU Richard Fox Chair

The Curriculum Process at NKU Richard Fox Chair, UCC Department of Computer Science

Changing The Curriculum at NKU • Curriculum changes are – new courses, course changes, course deletions • course changes include any or all of changing hours, description, title, designator/number, SLOs, prereq/coreqs, grade type, repeatability, crosslisting courses • note: these changes require curriculog forms but are not considered curricular changes: SAP type, change to ACT/SAT scores that serve as partial prereqs, terms offered – program (majors, minors, certificates) changes, deletions • program changes include changing program name, description, hours, required courses, admissions standards, learning outcomes, adding or removing courses to explicit lists of electives, adding or removing tracks – new programs (majors, minors, certificates) • note: “Focus” is not specified as curriculum so there is no submission of “changes to” or “a new” Focus, students select the courses that make up a Focus – general education program changes (these are made by the Gen Ed Committee, not a department or college)

Curriculum Process • Parties involved in the process are – Departmental faculty (original proposal, department curriculum committee if any, program director if necessary, full department, department chair) • most departments have all faculty vote on changes, some departments leave it to a specific curriculum committee, some do both – – – – Library liaison (new courses only) TEC (if applicable) College curriculum committee Dean’s office (usually the associate dean) Graduate Council (if applicable) UCC Faculty Senate (new programs, substantive program changes, gen ed program changes) – Provost’s office (via the Vice Provost) – CPE and Board (new programs only) – Registrar (non-voting)

Curriculum Policies • Program-level – major is a degree conferring program • consisting of at least 30 credit hours • exists within a department (or a college) – cross-disciplinary degrees are permissible but it must still be housed somewhere – minor consists of at least 18 hours, often 21 (or more) – focus consists of 12 upper level hours within one discipline (note: a focus is selected by the student) – certificate programs typically consist of 12 -18 hours and can either be undergraduate (100 -500 level) or graduate (500+) • note: 500 level classes are often treated as undergraduate/graduate but in some departments, they are graduate-only • Undergraduate student graduation requirements – – a major fulfilling all requirements from the general education program a secondary area which is either a second major, a minor, or a focus at least 45 hours at the 3 xx/4 xx level • 300/400/500 level courses all require prerequisites

Special Course Numbers • Some course numbers are reserved for special types of courses – – – – X 91 for thesis coursework X 92 for research courses X 93 for seminar courses X 94 for topics courses X 95 for study abroad topics courses X 96 for practicum X 97 for portfolio/presentation courses X 99 for independent studies/directed readings • X 90 and X 98 are reserved for future use • These courses are usually the only ones that can be repeated for additional credit – you can restrict the number of hours earned toward a degree such as “no more than 6 hours of combined x 92 and x 99 may count toward the degree in computer science” – courses may be grandfathered into their number in case you have courses that don’t meet the numbering scheme, but new courses will not be permitted if they misuse these numbers

The General Education Program • All general education (GE) courses must fit into a category by fulfilling all of the student learning outcomes (SLO) for that category – A GE course can fit into two categories if one of those categories is Global Perspectives • All GE courses are to be assessed • A course new to GE must be approved as such by both the Gen Ed committee and UCC – If the course is brand new, it also requires approval by the UCC as a new course – Course changes for Gen Ed courses require approval by the Gen Ed committee and UCC • Changes to the GE program require approval by the Gen Ed committee, UCC, and Faculty Senate

Exceptions to the Curriculum Process • The following require approval by only the department chair and UCC chair – – X 92/X 99 course creation and course changes Course term change SAP type change Creation of honors section of existing course (Gen Ed honors courses require approval of Gen Ed committee) – Moving an existing program on-line (this also requires Dean’s approval and approval of Provost’s office) • Changes to the departmental or college portion of the catalog (i. e. , the narrative sections) do not require approval through the curriculum process • In the past, we have automatically deleted courses that have not been offered in at least 5 years, we discontinued this practice a few years ago but could bring it back – note: the department is given the option of having a course deleted or retained

Curriculog • Our curriculum change software, ties in with Acalog (the catalog software) – interface through your web browser – forms for different types of operations • • • • course change new course deletion gen ed course re-certification gen ed program change new gen ed course/remove course from gen ed program change (major/track/minor/certificate) program deletion (major/track/minor/certificate) mass course change new program notification of intent and preproposal new program full proposal new minor or track moving existing program online

Curriculog Continued • Program and course change forms populate from Acalog (the catalog) so proposers only need to edit the changes they want to make • All changes require: – justification, in some forms, justification is more elaborate – narrative explaining the changes (if they are complex) – course changes require an impact report (what other programs and courses are impacted) and a memorandum of understanding • this is an email, attached to the form, that explains to all impacted departments the changes being proposed – program changes require an impact report (does the change impact articulation agreements)?

Workflow • As a proposal works through the system, you can keep track of where it is in the workflow • Members of various committees and in administrative roles will be part of the approval process where they can – approve, reject, send back to originator – usually the chair of the committee makes this decision on behalf of the entire committee • All university faculty and staff have access to curriculog and can view proposals and track proposals • After logging in, you can submit your own proposal and post comments on others’ proposals • When you log in, your “task list” shows what proposals are waiting for you to review • Bi-weekly emails are sent by Curriculog to update you on changes made to proposals you should be aware of • When an item is waiting for your decision, you can edit it – thus if you find mistakes, you can make the updates yourself – All updates can be tracked to see who made the update

Curriculum Change Timeline • Faculty are free to submit UCC forms at any time – changes should be approved first by the department (or department curriculum committee) – after chair approval, items go to TEC or college curriculum committee, college meetings vary • Co. AS – every 2 nd and 4 th Thursday of the month • Co. EHS – every 2 nd Wednesday (in conjunction with TEC) • Co. B, Co. HP, Co. I – meet as needed – graduate items go to Grad Council (2 nd Thursday) – UCC meets 1 st and 3 rd Thursdays – Faculty Senate meets 3 rd or 4 th Monday • The timeline to make it through the process varies by type of submission – Graduate items, items for TEC, take more time – New programs take a lot more time

Keeping Track of Items • The time it takes to make it through the process can be as little as 2 -3 weeks or as much as 12 months (new programs) • Items can also be held at any level and take weeks to get through • Items can be returned to the proposer for changes – the originator of the proposal (or the dept chair, program director or dept UCC rep) should keep track of the proposal to make sure it is progressing – anyone can comment on a proposal, original proposers should review these as the item progresses – items are not final until they are approved by the Vice Provost (or the Board for new programs)

Deadlines • For the fall 2019 -20 catalog, the deadline is to have items approved by the UCC as follows – new programs: end of February – all other changes: end of March • To determine the time when an item must be submitted to meet the deadline, work backwards – which approval levels are required? when do those bodies meet? – delayed proposals impact the time to get through, start sooner rather than later – new programs should already be in the pipeline for fall 2020 as they require a LOI, reading of the chief academic officers at CPE (monthly meeting) and a preproposal which is posted on CPE’s website for 30 days

More on the Timeline • If you are making changes that do not need to be in the catalog immediately, items can be approved for spring and summer terms – new courses for instance can be offered before being placed in the catalog – course changes can often be made before going into the catalog – program changes should never be made until they are ready for the catalog • For spring 2020, items should be through the UCC by mid October or earlier • For summer 2020, items should be through the UCC by mid March – such changes can be made to SAP within a few weeks and be ready for the next semester

Curriculum Workshop • I (UCC chair) will offer a curriculum workshop over two days in September (date and time TBD) • The workshop will cover what we’ve covered here but in more detail including a full demo of Curriculog – any new UCC representative should attend – any new program director should attend – the workshop is open to any faculty or staff interested

Questions? • About the curriculum process, curriculog or a curriculum issue: contact Richard Fox (foxr@nku. edu, 5334) • About what is currently stored in SAP or a mistake found in SAP: contact Beth Vasquez (vasqueze 1@nku. edu, 5159) • About acalog or erroneous content in the catalog: contact Brett Mueller (muellerb 1@nku. edu, 6619) • For the Registrar: contact Alan Cole (colew 1@nku. edu, 5225) • About SACS or program review/assessment: contact Abdou Ndoye (ndoyea 2@nku. edu, 5379) • About CPE or other undergraduate policy questions: Ande Durojaiye (durojaiyea 1@nku. edu, 5379) • About graduate policy issues: contact Christian Gamm (gammc 1@nku. edu, 6364) or Samantha Langley (langleys 1@nku. edu, 7567) • About curriculog or acalog access or curriculog errors or issues: Connie Kiskaden (kiskadenc@nku. edu, 6567)