About This Presentation

1. About This Presentation • We will discuss • What the curriculum process is • How to use the UCC web site • How to fill out the UCC forms • Who should fill out UCC forms • The timeline and deadlines

2. Changing The Curriculum at NKU • The curriculum process involves changes, additions and deletions to • Courses • Majors/Minors/Areas of concentration/Certificate programs • General education • Parties involved in the process are • Individual faculty and departments • General education program director (if applicable) • Library (needed for new courses and new programs) • The college housing the department and the college’s Dean’s office • TEC (if applicable) • Graduate Council (if applicable) • UCC • Faculty Senate (full senate vote on new programs/certificates and general education changes, otherwise just FS president) • Provost’s office • Registrar (non-voting)

3. Some Terminology and Policies • Program-level • A major is a degree conferring program • it must consist of a minimum of 30 credit hours • it must exist within a department, cross disciplinary degrees are permissible but it must still be housed in a department • a program must have a core of at least 50% of required hours • A minor is consists of at least 21 hours • An area of concentration consists of 12 upper level hours within one discipline (this may be going away) • A certificate program consists of a collection of 12-18 hours of coursework (number of hours may change) • Advanced courses are 300/400 level • Students must graduate with a minimum of 45 hours of advanced coursework • Typically, advanced courses should have pre-requisites

4. Continued • Special courses • Some course numbers are reserved for special types of courses • X99 for independent studies/directed readings • X94 for topics courses • X91 for thesis coursework • see http://access.nku.edu/ucctest/Content/info/CourseNumbering.aspx for the full list of course numbering restrictions • Departments may restrict the number of such credits earned toward a degree (e.g., no more than 6 hours of x99 credit can count) • A specific topic in an x94 is generally taught only one to two times, at which time the course should be made into an official course if it is intended to be offered again • While many departments did not have x99 courses in their catalog, we have begun to generate these for all designators in case they are needed, departments may choose to not include these in the catalog

5. General Education Courses • 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 • Specifically, faculty teaching GE courses must gather artifacts every time they teach the class • The artifacts gathered are those selected before the semester begins that will help faculty evaluate the SLOs • it is up to the department teaching the class to decide what types of artifacts should be used to assess each SLO • some artifacts could be used to assess multiple SLOs, or a single SLO could be assessed through multiple artifacts • each category in the Foundation of Knowledge program will be assessed on a rotating basis • Assessment strategies to be developed by the General Education office

6. The UCC Web Site • www.nku.edu/~ucc

7. Continued • What to look for: • Meeting schedule, agenda, minutes • Membership list • UCC Bylaws and policy handbook • List of library liaisons (any new course or program requires approval by the library) • SACS information including definitions for student learning outcomes and how to assess SLOs • General Education Program (Foundations of Knowledge) information • Guidelines for submitting UCC forms • Forms to submit curriculum changes* • Current year form submissions and older forms* • Updating a current form* • Deadlines for submissions • * - requires that you log in using your NKU account

8. The Forms • Appendix C: new minors/areas of concentration or changes/deletions to major, minor, area of concentration or certificate program • Appendix H: new course • Appendix G: new general education course (if the course already exists but is not a general education course, or if the course is new and is proposed to be a general education course, use this form, do not use form H if the course is new) • Appendix K: course change (e.g., pre-reqs, course description, hours, name) • Appendix L: experimental course (we tend not to use this one much any more) • Appendix M: mass course changes (this is used if you have multiple courses to change where the change to each course is roughly the same (e.g., adding the same pre-req to a list of courses, changing a list of courses designators) • New program (major) or new certificate program • Signature forms

9. Form C

14. Form H

19. Form G

22. Form K

26. Two of the Form Ms

27. New Program Proposal • Before submitting this form, you MUST first submit a planning pre-proposal and gain approval of from the Provost’s office • The certificate program proposal form is similar but scaled down from this one • This process will be changing over the next year to accommodate new CPE policies

28. Additional Questions on This Form • Program description (catalog copy) • Description of new courses to be proposed • Department or major goals • What are the educational goals for the proposed program? • How do the goals for this new program relate to the mission of the University? • Statement of need (including a formal needs analysis) • Similar programs in the area • Proposed options in this program • Job opportunities for graduates • Any arrangements to offer all or part of the program via KYVU or other distance learning methods • Faculty requirements and other resources required • Any plans to collaborate with other institutions

29. Continued • Major curriculum and course analysis: • What is rationale for the structure of this major - number of courses required, number of electives suggested, concentrations available, and course sequence suggested? • Do courses in other departments appear to overlap with some of the courses offered in your major? If so, which ones? • What courses from other departments are you planning to include or require in your curriculum? • What are the preparatory courses in the major that serve to introduce the student to the program? • Are the courses included in the major new courses or are they presently in the curriculum? • How do the courses in this major prepare students for employment or advanced studies? • How do courses prepare students in adjusting to future changes in the field? • What opportunities are available for internships or work study programs in this major?

30. Filling Out the Forms • Any NKU faculty member can fill out and submit a UCC form • HOWEVER, that doesn’t mean you should! • First, get departmental/chair approval • Second, either have your UCC representative fill out the form or meet with your rep to discuss how to fill out the form • Errors in a form may cause the item to be delayed as it moves through the curriculum process • Third, before submitting it, check it over for errors and typos • Fourth, once submitted, print out the materials: • The form itself • The signature form • If a form G or H, also print out the syllabus • Also, have your chair and/or departmental curriculum committee chair sign it, pass it on to either TEC (if required) or your college curriculum committee chair • Fifth, correct errors or respond to questions by editing the form • Sixth, follow the form’s progress

31. Following the Form • You can follow the form’s progress on the UCC site • If you look under current year forms, you can find the last decision made: • Final approval means approval of the UCC • Either brief your representative so that this person can speak on your behalf at the college curriculum committee and UCC meetings and/or attend them yourself • If a graduate change, brief your graduate council representative and/or attend yourself

32. The Timeline and Deadlines • You are free to submit UCC forms at any time but they should first be approved by your department and/or department chair • we prefer that forms ONLY be filled out by UCC or college CC representative, department chair or program director • Your college curriculum committee will typically meet the week prior to every UCC meeting • this depends on your college and the amount of curriculum materials submitted • The UCC meets the first and third Thursdays of the month • Graduate Council meets the second Thursday of the month (a fourth Thursday meeting is possible) • Faculty Senate meets the fourth Monday of the month

33. Continued • After submitting your form, it goes to the college, then graduate council (if necessary) then UCC and then Faculty Senate • given the timeline from the last slide, you can estimate the number of weeks it will take to get through the UCC process • if the item is a general education submission, it will take additional time based on how often the general education subcommittee meets • if the item involves TEC, it will take an additional 2-4 weeks • Items should be on the UCC website at least 2 weeks prior to their being deliberated at the UCC • To get into next fall’s catalog, any undergraduate item must be submitted to the UCC site by Nov 17, 2011 and any graduate item by Oct 27, 2011