Course Approval Process

If you are interested in the course approval process, the easiest way to do so is to work with a professor developing or modifying a course.  I am not sure I was very clear, but it is very unusual and difficult for a graduate student to use the course approval forms, but faculty develop courses regularly.  With the new GE requirements, I would expect that many courses need some updating and I would be surprised if the departments turned away extra help. 

In terms of actual development, I have a few suggestions:  Basically, be as complete as possible with your entries to each part. 

1.       Specify how students will be graded with as many details as you can. 
2.       Make sure you use the Carnegie rule to estimate the amount of time students will spend working on your class. 
3.       Check for typographical mistakes (we do find some on occasion). 
4.       Make sure your learning activities match what you say will happen in the course, i.e., do not talk about a term paper if you do not include term paper as a learning activity. 
5.       Think about other courses that cover similar material.  Explain specifically how yours differs. 

Remember you can break any rule if you justify breaking it.  Here are some helpful links:

UC Davis Committee on Courses of Instruction: http://academicsenate.ucdavis.edu/committee_cci.cfm

Rules for courses: http://academicsenate.ucdavis.edu/committee_cci_policies.cfm

Learning activities: http://academicsenate.ucdavis.edu/committee_cci_learningactivities.cfm

John