Course Change Proposals

Dean's Office Contacts: Kevin Mihata or Kiera Dempsey

Course change proposals are filled out and submitted for approval through the UW Curriculum Management system (UW CM). 

For instructions on navigating UW CM (Kuali) and filling out a proposal, visit the UW Curriculum Office's change course proposal quick guide. 

Below is a list of common issues found in course change proposals that often lead to delayed approval.

Note: A course change application is not required for (1) changing scheduling information published in the course catalog (quarters offered, odd or even years); or (2) omitting a course from the course catalog. Instead, academic units can send an email request to uwcr@uw.edu to make these changes.

Note: If the course title, description, and/or credits are drastically changing for a course the Curriculum Office will likely question how much overlap there is between the original and the new version of the course. If there is still a lot of overlap please include an explanation addressing this issue. If there is very little overlap, then it would be more appropriate to retire the existing course and create a new course (ideally with a new number) instead.

Course Change Checklist

Syllabus

• Attach a syllabus if required (see lists below)
  • If your course would not typically include a syllabus such as an independent studies course you still need to submit some documentation such as a learning agreement. 
  • If your course is a special topics course or varies in syllabi, then provide a sample syllabus and use that syllabus’ information to fill out the rest of the proposal.  
• Information on the syllabus should match the information on the proposal (e.g., course description, learning objectives, evaluation details, etc.). If there are inconsistencies the proposal will be sent back for clarification by UWCO. 
• If the course has both Standard grading and Credit/No Credit options then syllabi must be provided for both options. 
• If the course has multiple credit options such as 3 or 5 credits, then syllabi must be provided for both credit options. 
• Avoid using wording about attendance under grading in the syllabus. 
• Must be uploaded as a Word document or PDF. 

What course changes require a syllabus?

• Course description
• Adding a General Education Requirement designation 
• Drastically changing course numbers such as 100 to 400 
• Any credit change
• Distance learning 
• Grading system 
• Adding or removing hyphenation 

What course changes do not require a syllabus? 

• Course number
• Title 
• Abbreviated title 
• Prerequisites
• Recommended preparation 
• Odd or even years offered
• Quarters offered 
• Retiring a course
• Adding/removing curricular relationships
• Adding/removing jointly offered courses

Course Number

• Course number is the same on both the syllabus (if included) and proposal.

Course Title

• Course title is the same on both the syllabus (if included) and the proposal. 
• Cannot contain an ampersand “&” 
• Cannot reference student types such as “senior” or “undergraduate”

Abbreviated Title

• The abbreviated title is what appears on a student's transcript and should sufficiently represent course content in a way understandable by another institution or outside agency. 
• Must have spaces between words. 
• Cannot include any abbreviated words that are not already featured in the long title.

First Effective Quarter

• Course approval timelines vary depending on the number of sendbacks, whether priority deadlines are met, and the pace of rolling review by UWCO. 
• If the cutoff date has passed for the first effective quarter chosen for a proposal, we will change the first effective quarter to the soonest possible quarter to avoid unnecessary send-backs. If you need a proposal to be processed after the deadline for a specific quarter, please reach out to us.

See the Curriculum Deadlines page to estimate your timeline for approval and if your proposal has met the UWCO cutoff date for a specific quarter. 

Last Effective Quarter

• Only propose a last effective quarter if the proposal is for a temporary course, otherwise this field can be left blank. 

Course Description 

• If a course does not have a course description, it is recommended (but not required) that the department propose one. The proposal will likely be sent back if this is not addressed in some way. 
• Course description must match the syllabus (if included)
• Course description cannot contain program branding 
• Course description should match catalog style, some guidelines to follow include: 
  • Use serial commas and semicolons
  • Avoid parentheses
  • Avoid questions
  • Do not use “etc.”  
  • Do not include information that belongs in other sections of the proposal such as prerequisites, instructors, grading, recommended preparation, scheduling information, course title, prefix, or number.
  • Write concisely and in the active tense. For example:
    • "Uses" instead of "We will use"
    • "Preparation for" instead of "helps students prepare for"
  • Do not use special characters
  • No sentence should include "The course" or "in this course."
  • No second-person references such as “you.” 
  • Fully write out any abbreviations such as “AI” to “Artificial Intelligence”.

General Education Requirements 

• Content for requested General Education Requirements designation(s) needs to be apparent, especially in the course description. 
• Not applicable to graduate courses. 

Recommended Preparation/Prerequisites

• If a course is jointly offered you must include the joint listing such as LING 433/ANTH 433
• Only specific courses, minimum grade attained in a course, or exams in SDB can be listed as prerequisites for undergraduate courses.
  • "or equivalent" or "permission of instructor" cannot be included in undergraduate courses.
• Do not list courses without an “and” or “or” to specify how many are required.
• If you are proposing a prerequisite course that is offered by another unit then you must add their unit as a potentially affected unit so that they can acknowledge the proposal. 

Approval Workflow

• Please select the appropriate workflow. For course change proposals it will be either Undergraduate Change if no changes have been made to the general education requirements, Graduate Change, or Undergraduate Change requesting new General Education designation(s). 

Justification

• The justification must mention all major requests and changes made to the course such as adding a general education requirement, credit change, DL, etc. 
• The justification should include the pedagogical value of the changes.

Credits

• Must include an explanation for how differences in student effort will result in different amounts of credit for multiple or range credit options. 
  • For example, indicating whether or not a student receiving 3 credits will be evaluated in the same way as a student who is receiving 5.
  • Include this information under the “Multiple, Range or 0 Credit Comment” section.
• 1 - 2 variable credit courses should be proposed as a multiple 1 or 2 credit course because the course can only be offered as 1 or 2 credits.
• All variable credit courses (multiple or range) must propose a repeatable credit amount. The maximum repeatable credit amount must be equal to or greater than the maximum multiple credit or range amount.
  • If the maximum repeatable credit amount is one that a student could mathematically repeat such as 2 or 4, max 4, and you do not want students to be able to repeat the course for 4 credits, a statement should be added to the course description, “May only be taken for credit once.” In SDB, a “prerequisite” will be encoded by the Curriculum Office, which will not allow students to register for the course if they already earned credit for the 2-credit version of the course.

Activities and Hours 

• Credits and instructional hours should align. Example: 1 hour of instruction and 2 hours of additional preparatory work for each credit (or 3 hours to every 1 credit). 2-3 hours laboratory of instruction and 1-2 hours additional preparatory work for each lab credit. Proposals will be sent back if they do not meet this guideline.
• This section should be filled out based on total hours per week, NOT per quarter.
• If requesting a Distance Learning option, you must fill out both in-person and DL activities and hours if both are offered. The first activities and hours section (not under the DL section) on the form represents the in-person hours. 

How do I fill in hours for different credit types (multiple, range, fixed)? 

How do I fill in hours for a less than 10-week quarter?

Evaluation Details

• Evaluation details should feature a list of percentages for example: “Exams 50%” or points.
  • A total number of points must be included if points are used instead of percentages.
• If “peer evaluation” is used please include an explanation of how a student's grade is determined (e.g., if the instructor decides the final grade)
• Courses with participation being worth over 15% of the course grade will require an explanation and a clear assessment rubric. If participation is based on in-class assignments, then it is recommended to list that portion of the grade under that wording. 
• No grades on attendance (mention of attendance should be avoided anywhere in the proposal or syllabus)
  • Per the Office of Student Financial Aid, the University of Washington is a non-attendance taking institution under the Department of Education eligibility rules. In order to meet federal requirements, grading on attendance is not permitted.
  • If there is any mention of “attendance” or “attend” in the evaluation details it will result in a send back requesting clarification. “Participation” is the suggested alternative.
• If applicable, provide an explanation to address if the evaluation details listed applied to all credit options (if Multiple or Range or Credit/No Credit and Standard Grading). 
  • If they do not apply to all credit options then please include evaluation details for all options. 
• Indicate whether or not the evaluation details are the same for In-Person and DL formats if both are provided. Such as stating: “Evaluation details are the same for the DL and in-classroom version of the course.”
  • If they are not the same, then both in-person and DL evaluation details must be provided. 
• The evaluation details section should be written for a course application, not a student (i.e. references to you/your cannot be included).
• Please do not only include a statement such as “refer to the syllabus for evaluation details” on the proposal. The proposal will be sent back for clarification. 

Distance Learning 

• Attach two separate syllabi for DL and In-Person if both are offered, even if the syllabi are practically the same. 
• If the course is ONLY distance learning and is never intended to be taught in person, then you only need to fill out the activities and hours in the DL section of the proposal. Do not fill out the in-person activities and hours. 
• Clearly state in the justification and outcomes (under DL section) sections of the proposal if only DL or both in-person and DL are offered. 
• All fields of the DL section on the proposal form must be filled out with an explanation and cannot say “NA”.

What qualifies a course for distance learning? 

Learning Objectives

• Must match those in the syllabus.
• The learning objectives section should be written for a course application, not a student (i.e. references to you/your cannot be included).

Curricular Relationships 

• Joint, overlapping, and equivalent course proposals should be submitted as one proposal. 
• Parallel course proposals should be submitted as two separate proposals.
  • Demonstrate a distinct difference between undergraduate and graduate grading assessments or expectations. Provide both undergraduate and graduate evaluation details on both proposals.
• For removing course curricular relationships (joint, overlapping, or equivalent): Always keep the removed curricular relationship department on the proposal to generate an acknowledgment from that department.

More information on curricular relationships.

What is an acknowledgement?

 

Tips & Tricks 

1. Search in UW CM for recently approved courses under the courses section to find examples on which to base your proposal. 
   1. Make sure filters for searching on the right-hand side of the screen like “active” are properly checked to refine your search. 
   2. The “created on” column will show what date courses were uploaded and updated. Use this to determine what courses were most recently modified or created. 
   3. Review the “audit log” on the right-hand side of proposals to see past comments and edits. 
2. Refer to the University Curriculum Office’s Quick Guides on specific topics. 
3. A course approved by the College of Arts and Sciences Curriculum Committee does not guarantee approval by UWCO. The proposal may be sent back to the submitter by the College Committee or the University Curriculum Office for further editing, and if not returned quickly may miss a particular effective quarter cut-off date. 
   1. During the timeline between the College Curriculum Committee and UWCO approval watch for a proposal send back. 

After Submission

1. Following approval, check the Student Database page SRF200 that your course changes have been accurately inputted and that your course is fully updated.
   1. Note: this may take up to 2 weeks for the changes to be added to the system. 

 

Policies Guiding University Review 

FCAS Syllabus Guidelines 

Areas of Inquiry 

FCAS Policy on Oversight of Courses 

For more information and other FCAS Policies visit here.