Course Designators

Procedural Steps:

1. The academic unit contacts the office of Academic Programs, Assessment, and Accreditation @ 7-9560, or via email to the Curriculum Coordinator (Sarah.Williams@oregonstate.edu or Gary.Beach@oregonstate.edu), with a proposal to create a new course designator, including a justification for the proposal.
2. The proposer responds to the questions set forth in Request for New or Changed Course Designator (see below) and emails responses to APAA.
3. The Curriculum Coordinator in APAA will contact the Registrar’s Office to confirm the availability of the proposed course designator.
4. The Curriculum Coordinator will submit the proposed course designator to the Curriculum Council for review and approval.
5. Following approval by the Curriculum Council, the Curriculum Coordinator will submit an expedited Category II proposal in the Curricular Proposal System (CPS).
6. The Registrar’s Office then moves forward with implementation of the new course designator.
7. Once a course designator is approved, the academic unit seeking to convert their courses to the new designator will send the list of these courses to APAA.  APAA will change the course designators via abbreviated Category II proposals, without the inclusion of syllabi.

Request for New or Changed Course Designator:

Requests for new or changed course designators are reviewed by the Registrar’s Office and by the Curriculum Council of the Faculty Senate. Proposers should contact the Office of Academic Programs, Assessment, and Accreditation to initiate a designator request.

Creation or alteration of a course designator constitutes a change in the curricular structure of the university. Such a change has implications for the catalog, schedule of classes, BANNER Student Information Systems, MyDegrees, and transfer articulation. Accreditation standards require that designators be “consistent with program content in recognized fields of study.”

Designator requests should be prepared in writing and should address Purpose, Accountability, and Impact of the new designator. Additional details for addressing these considerations are given below.

Purpose: The proposed course designator should have an identified purpose within the curricular structure of Oregon State University.

• What academic programs, including majors, certificates, options and minors will be served by courses within the designator?
• In what ways do the general area and scope of the content constitute a coherent body of knowledge?
• Is the proposed usage of the designator consistent with practice at OSU and other institutions? Give examples.

Accountability: Responsibility for the integrity and oversight of the proposed course designator should be clearly identified.

• What is the academic College of the designator?
• Who is responsible for administering courses in the designator, e.g. scheduling and catalog updates. Who are the faculty contact persons?
• Who is responsible for consistency and outcome assessment for courses in the designator?
• Which units get credit for the SCH generated by courses in the subject code?
• Who is responsible for communicating information about the new designator to stakeholders, including advisors, Admissions, and students?

Impacts: Who will benefit from the new designator and what changes will result from its implementation?

• Will courses in the new designator duplicate or compete with existing ones?
• Are there expected cross-listings or curricular equivalencies?
• How will the new designator affect transfer credits?
• Will any previous existing designators expire as the new one appears?
• How will the new designator benefit students?

Approval by Curriculum Council: May 13, 2011

Approval & Revisions: March 8, 2013

Additional Information: List of Course Designators; Category II Proposals