Periodic Review of UNIV courses

Good teaching practice requires that faculty evaluate their courses on a regular basis to ensure the efficacy of the pedagogy and the currency of the material presented.  Academic departments often develop policies and practices to assist faculty in doing this and to ensure that their curriculum in aggregate continues to meet the goals defined for their major(s).  UNIV courses are offered by units outside of the schools and colleges and part of the mission of UICC is to ensure that oversight of these courses follows best practices.  Thus, courses undergo rigorous review at the time they are added to the curriculum and our policies require that units offering UNIV courses have faculty committees that are responsible for curricular oversight. This oversight should include periodic review of existing courses to ensure their continued efficacy, consistency among offerings and alignment with course goals as originally approved.  This policy is intended to support the faculty curricular committees in performing these functions.

This policy distinguishes between courses that regularly offer multiple sections (Course Shells, e.g. UNIV 1800) and those that are taught only once or twice a semester (Individual Courses).  The oversight requirements for the former is greater since it has to include consideration of qualifications and training of multiple instructors and consistency and comparability across what may be a large number of sections.

Course Shells

Units offering courses with multiple sections/semester shall supply to UICC an annual report for each course shell.  This report with include:

• A listing of the offerings of the course for the academic year, including section title and instructor name and rank.
• A narrative description of how comparability across parallel offerings and consistency between repeat offerings of the course is achieved.
• Three representative syllabi from the course.

Individual courses

Units offering individual courses shall supply to the UICC a copy of the syllabus for each offering of the course over that academic year.  They will also report on any significant changes in the course since its approval by UICC.