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Curriculum Committee Disciplinary Courses and Programs

Curriculum Committee (CC) appreciates the time and effort required for course development or program revision. Please remember that CC acts to assist faculty in this arduous task by providing critical feedback based on the standards that the college has established. This feedback does not usurp the faculty member’s content authority, but brings to bear the variety of disciplinary perspectives of the Committee. In that spirit, the Committee provides the following guidance to proposers.

Collaborate and build support

Nearly every new or modified course or program affects other faculty and programs. Collaborate with others as you draft a proposal. Discuss goals, rationale, and challenges with them. Proposals must have the endorsement of your School Dean and/or Assistant Dean(s). Proposals that affect other programs must describe discussions with those affected programs.

If you are planning a new or significantly modified program, please provide advance notice to the Chair of CC and the Associate Vice President for Academic Ooperations. This helps the committee plan. These individuals are also available to assist you prior to submission.

Build a Rationale

The most compelling rationale for new courses, new programs, or changes to programs will be grounded in program-level learning outcomes, which are statements of what students will know or be able to do upon completion of a program.

Consider and Development an Assessment Plan

Required for new majors or for new graduate degrees, and optional, but recommended, for other program types, having an assessment plan in place at the proposal page allows the committee to match coursework to program-level learning outcomes to help provide feedback and better dialog between proposers and the committee.  For best practices in assessment, check this PowerPoint file for tips and tricks.

Submission Process:

  • Proposal to Change Modality of Pre-Existing Course should be used when you wish to move a pre-existing course (one already approved by CC) from in-person to hybrid, in-person to online, or hybrid to online. A syllabus is required!
    Descriptions of modalities found here.
  • Request for a Reportable Change to a Course is a web form that should be used when you wish to propose a change that CC considers reportable. It is fast and efficient. What constitutes a reportable change?
    • Changes to a course title
    • Changes to a course pre-requisite(s) or co-requisite(s)
    • Changes to the grading basis of a course (i.e., P/F or graded)
    • Allowing a course to be repeatable for credit
    • Minor changes to a course description
    • Change to Modality: Online to Hybrid (updated syllabus required)
    • Change to Modality: Online to In-Person (updated syllabus required)
    • Change to Modality: Hybrid to In-Person (updated syllabus required)
    • Re-Labeling a Concentration as a Minor (no changes within the minor/concentration)
  • Coursedog should be used when requesting to add a new or significantly modify a course, modify an existing program, or add a new program requires the use of Coursedog. You need to use Coursedog if you are making major changes to a course description, renumbering a course, or revising a course that has not been taught in 5 years. 

Meet the Deadlines

  • September 1 is the submission deadline for courses to be taught first in the following spring.
  • November 1 is the submission deadline for proposals to add a new major or significantly alter an existing major (but send them earlier if you are ready)
  • January 20 is the submission deadline for all courses to be taught first in the following fall, as well as proposals for new or revised minors and concentrations

Review Process

CC will review your materials. The more complete and thoughtful your materials are, the faster the review. Syllabus guidelines include both required and suggested elements.

The CC Chair will communicate with you during the review process to let you know the status of your proposal. Timely communication with CC at this point in the process is paramount. Expect significant conversations over multiple weeks. The goals are to clarify and improve the proposal and increase the likelihood of its approval at a Faculty Meeting.

Your proposal must be approved by CC at least two weeks before the next Faculty Meeting to make it onto an agenda.

CC may move the proposal to the faculty in one of three ways: 1) the course is recommended for adoption; 2) the course is presented without recommendation; or 3) the course is not recommended for adoption. At this point, the faculty control the decision related to the course.

Important to Note

Attention to all details of the proposal process, including communication with your colleagues, program, school leadership, and CC, can streamline the approval process. Use the current course catalog, found here, to determine dependencies for help with communication with programs and school leadership.

Questions? Contact CC Chair (curriculumcommittee@roanoke.edu) and/or Associate Vice President for Academic Operations