Curriculum

Create a New Course (NC)

Helpful Information/Tips

• The District Curriculum website is the main resource for course information. It lists all credit courses in the course catalog, including previous versions as well as current course information. The most current version of a course has an Active Range that ends in 99999.

• Always consult with the department chair and instructional council representative(s) of your department (see list of members on the IC web site) before proceeding, to see if they will support the new course proposal. We can't stress enough how important this is! Communication with the IC beforehand helps to navigate through the curriculum process with greater success.

Steps to Create a New Course

1. Write a draft of the new course in Microsoft Word (see New Course Template available for download at top of page) including the following information:
   • Course Prefix and Number: please keep in mind that first year courses should generally be identified with 100-level numbers. Second year courses should generally be identified with 200-level numbers. Courses at 200-level generally require prerequisites.

   • Effective Term: when do you want to start teaching this course?

   • Course Title: should reflect the course content. Full titles may be up to 100 characters, short titles are 30 characters.

   • Number of Credit Hours

   • Number of Periods the class will meet

   • Activity Type: Lecture, Lab, or L+L

   • Need Statement: this explains why you are creating this new course, what it adds to our existing curriculum, who might take the course, and how students might benefit from it

   • Course Description: course descriptions communicate the content of a course and should be brief and concise. Course descriptions are written in phrases, not complete sentences. In developing course descriptions:
     • Clearly identify critical or key content areas that will be covered in the course
     • Do not list objectives or activities of the course within the description
     • Information about teaching methods and procedures indirectly related to course content are not included in the description

   • Requisites: Prerequisites defines requirements which the student must meet prior to enrollment in the proposed course. Corequisites defines requirements which the student must meet concurrently with the proposed course. Not all courses have requisites. Some requisites can be equivalencies or experiences in certain professsions or skills.

   • Course Competencies: a numbered list of behavioral objectives that successful students will achieve while taking your class. The competencies should be matched to a course outline. For example, if you will be accomplishing competency #1 when you cover outline item I, please indicate (I) at the end of the competency. Example: 1. Define terminology commonly used in literary criticism. (I)

   • Course Outline: a formal outline that lists the major areas covered in the course with more specific subtopics listed as subheadings. The course outline should be matched to the course competencies.

   • Suggested University Equivalent(s)/General Education Value(s): Identify the suggested university equivalents by prefix/number after the university's name (ASU, NAU, UofA). If no equivalency exists, state that by typing, "None". NOTE: New courses can be developed with a suggested university equivalent of (NT) (Non Transferable) if the initiator/instructional council prefers for this course not to be transferable. The MCCCD University and College Relations Office will carry this request forward on the Course Equivalency guide forms submitted to the universities.

2. When completed, email an electronic version of the draft to Christine Moore and copy Yvonne McMillan. Christine will review the proposal to ensure it meets the District Curriculum Committee (DCC) format and standards. Christine may need to meet with you to review the proposal, as we depend on you as the content expert to advise us on any questions or concerns that may be raised. Yvonne will input the proposal into the District Curriculum Office (DCO) forms and return it to you for your review and approval.

Processing the New Course Proposal

1. Once you've approved the proposal, Yvonne will send it to the instructional council for their review and approval. The IC has ten days to review and vote on course proposals. The new course proposal will be placed on an upcoming meeting agenda of the College Curriculum Committee. You or someone familiar with your proposal should plan to attend that meeting to present it to the committee. The committee occasionally has questions that, if unanswered, can cause proposals to be tabled until the next meeting when someone can be there to answer them. This holds up the already lengthy curriculum process.

2. Assuming that the instructional council and the college curriculum committee approve your proposal, the proposal will be submitted to the DCO to be placed on a meeting agenda of the DCC. If the DCC approves the proposal, it will go forward to the Governing Board for final approval.

3. Once the course is Governing Board approved, the District IT department will enter it into the course catalog, a process that usually takes two weeks. Yvonne will send status updates to keep you informed of the proposal's progress through the curriculum process. Once the course is in the course catalog, your department will need to submit Change of Master Schedule requests to Add Sections to the class schedule.

   Note: Once the course is Governing Board approved, the University Relations department at District will send it to ASU for their review as a transfer course. ASU determines how they will treat a course when students transfer in, and after that review process is complete, if there are other general education values you would like the course to satisfy, you can submit general education proposals for the course. There are instructions for that process on this web site.