Course Approval Process
If you wish to develop a new course, the concept will need to be assessed initially by the New Course Development Committee. When this has happened, the process of detailed development and approval may be undertaken as described below.
Levels of change
Changes to courses, majors, streams and units are subject to the Course Approval Policy. This identifies three levels of change, Centrally Approved, Faculty Approved and Limited Changes. However, academics wishing to initiate changes need not be too concerned about these distinctions as the process is identical at the school level and the same forms and templates are used.
What does the teaching area need to do?
- Develop the proposed changes in detail with colleagues to reach a consensus.
- Consider any group within your Faculty who might be affected by the proposed change. Your faculty Courses Officer can help by identifying any linkages between your course offerings and those offered by other teaching areas.
- Ask your Faculty Courses Officer to begin preparation of the necessary documentation.
- When documentation is prepared, obtain the signoff of your head of school and any other necessary signatures.
What happens next?
- The documentation is then sent to the Faculty Courses Officer who will either:
- for limited changes, ask the Dean of Teaching and Learning to sign the documents and then send them to Courses Management for implementation
- OR; for other changes, add the proposed change to the agenda of the next relevant faculty committee meeting for approval and transmission to Courses Management
- New courses together with any changes which are considered extensive enough to need Academic Board approval are added to the agenda for the next central Courses Committee meeting, which will determine if a recommendation for approval can be sent to Academic Board.
- Changes which do not need central approval are added to the Courses Committee agenda for noting and are implemented by Courses Management.
Resources for course changes
- Course Approval Policy
- Cover Sheets and Forms
- Definitions of Centrally Approved, Faculty Approved and Limited Changes
- Online Handbook
- Standards for Online Teaching (SOLT) classifications
- Work Experience in Industry (WEI) definitions
- Notes on deactivation of courses, majors streams and units
- List of Faculty Courses Officers.
- Timelines for Course Approvals.
