See below to determine which type of course proposal form you should submit. Please also read the Important Notes section before submitting your proposals, to be sure you aren't missing any key information. All course proposals and supporting materials/documents must be submitted no later than 14 days prior to the scheduled EPCC meeting. All additional materials and/or questions can be sent to CLAS.EPCC@ucdenver.edu
A New Course Proposal Form is required if you are:
- Proposing a brand new course
- Making a topic that has run as a Special Topics course into a full-fledged course
New course proposals should be submitted with a complete New Course Proposal Form, and a proposed syllabus that includes learning objectives, attendance policies, explicit and inclusive classroom expectations and attitudes, topics of discussion, planned readings and resources, assignments/assessments, grading scale, and (for courses offered at more than one level – i.e., 4000/5000) the difference in objectives, expectations, assignments and grading for students at each level. Proposed syllabi should follow the CU Denver syllabus policy, number 1031.
A Course Revision Proposal Form is required if you are:
- Changing a course title, number or subject code
- Updating/changing a course description
- Changing course requisites
- Adding/removing a cross-list*
- Updating units of credit or term offered
*Note that when adding a cross-list with a new course (number/title/etc doesn't yet exist), you will also need to submit a New Course Proposal form for the cross-listed course that doesn't exist yet.
Course revisions should be submitted with a complete Course Revision Form, and should include a rationale for the proposed revisions. When a course is shifting significantly, a syllabus is required.
Important Notes
- To comply with the University Curriculum Committee mandate that all course-generating units consult and collaborate with each other before proposing courses and programs, documentation of this activity should be included with each proposal for a new course, or any proposal for course title or description revisions.
- Courses with an interdisciplinary prefix (e.g. HUMN, SSCI) should be reviewed by an interdepartmental committee. Names and departments of the committee members should be identified. Documentation of unit leadership approval must be included when the proposal includes using courses outside of the proposing program/ discipline/ department. The UCC currently requires review of all new course proposals and revisions to course titles, descriptions and additions of cross-lists. This additional layer of review creates some delays in the approval process.
- For gtPATHWAYS or CU Denver Core designation, additional approval will be required after EPCC review and approval is obtained. See Core Curriculum and General Education Requirements coordinated by the Core Curriculum Oversight Committee.
- Departments may use Special Topics courses to experiment and try out new content. Special Topics courses may only have the same or similar title twice. Students may not earn credit if they take a topic or similar topic more than one time.
- At the request of a second offering, the course coordinator will prompt the department chair to propose the course to the EPCC for review and approval, so that the course can be established formally in the course inventory and continue to be offered in future terms.
- Course proposals and revisions submitted for EPCC review in a fall term may be effective the summer or fall term of the following year; submissions made in a spring term may be effective the spring term of the following year.
- This is just a suggested timeframe. Processes may be faster or slower, depending on the volume and time of year proposals are made.
- Course proposals are usually reviewed by the CLAS EPCC at the first meeting after proposals have been submitted. The EPCC committee chair will send notifications within a week of the meeting at which a proposal is reviewed.
- Courses approved before the CU Denver Catalog editing deadlines will automatically publish in the subsequent catalog. Courses may still be offered, if they miss catalog publication deadlines.
- Submissions or memos of support must be made by a department chair, program director or unit lead.
- Submission and approval by the department chair, program director or unit lead confirms that the proposal has been vetted, reviewed and approved at the department/ program/ unit level to be proposed to the EPCC.
Understanding CLAS Graduation Requirement Areas
All undergraduate courses offered through the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences may apply to specified CLAS Graduation requirement areas. Departments and cross-listed partners will need to identify to which area their new courses or revised courses should apply, when they fill out the course proposal forms. Faculty can use the Learning Outcomes and Assessment Rubrics developed by faculty, to help determine and justify to which graduation requirement area their course should apply. Note that many disciplinary areas have pre-assigned graduation requirement areas - for example ANTH courses are listed under Behavioral Science.