Spring 2024 Schedule of Courses Timeline

*Beginning September 5, 2023, departments must submit changes via the SOC Change/New Section forms in myUVM. Changes resulting from proofing must be submitted no later than 4:30 p.m. on October 4, 2023. Changes to sections scheduled in a non-GP classroom that are submitted after this deadline will be processed starting October 23, 2023; changes to sections scheduled in a GP classroom will be processed beginning October 26, 2023.

Please note the following important information regarding the Schedule of Courses processing:

1. Spring 2023 course information has been rolled to the Spring 2024 semester in SWCSCHD.  Please make sure to delete any courses that will not be offered, and if you do not find a course that you expected to have rolled, please add it. 
   • Please note that when a three-digit course displays in the SOC comments, this means the course was ended at the catalogue-level. During your review, you will need to replace this with the appropriate four-digit course. For your reference, here is a link to the three- to four-digit course report: https://go.uvm.edu/renumber , and to the three-to-four digit widget https://go.uvm.edu/change3to4.
2. Courses with the following titles have now been set up for each unit.  Please use that course, rather than Special Topics.  The course number, other than the level, is listed.
   • Undergraduate Research – x995
   • Independent Study – x993
   • Internship – x991
   • Teaching Assistantship – x994
3. Please make sure to review the course and program fee policy. Fees and appropriate detail codes should be entered in the comments section of SWCSCHD during department or dean loading periods, or submitted via the new course/change forms.  Courses with fees that have not been finalized prior to November 14, 2023 will be changed to pending status and will not display on the Schedule of Courses until the detail code and fee amount is submitted to the Registrar’s Office.  No modifications or fee additions are allowed after student registration for the course has opened.
4. Semester courses must span the full term (15 weeks in fall and spring) of the semester in which they are offered, with a minimum of 45 hours of total effort per credit. Part-of-Term courses in the semester or summer must span the full part-of-term in which they are offered and distribute the 45 hours of effort per credit over a shorter time window. For more information, please see University Policy Regarding The Definition of a Credit Hour:   http://catalogue.uvm.edu/undergraduate/enrollmentregistration/registration/
5. Please work with your Associate Deans to follow these guidelines when building the schedule:
   Spread out course offerings over all the meeting patterns.  There are enough rooms to accommodate sections if all the meeting patterns are used.  Please use the Course Distribution tab in myUVM to view distribution of courses across the day. Please contact your Associate Dean or email regsoc@uvm.edu with any questions about using these reports.
6. Expanded Section Descriptions (ESDs) are due by October 31, 2023. Per the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), Article 16.20, faculty members must provide ESDs or a link to a recent syllabus for all of their course sections in the upcoming semester. ESDs help students understand the nature of a course, its learning objectives, pedagogy, and methods of evaluation.  The link to post an ESD, including an instructional video, is located on the Teaching tab of myUVM. Department Chairs, Associate Deans, and Deans can view the status of ESD entries via the “Expanded Section Description Report” located on the Dean/Chair tab of myUVM in the Schedule of Courses Tool section.
7. Travel Courses: Please use “DOM TRAVEL” for domestic travel courses and “INTL TRAVEL” for international travel courses. Alternatively, you may put information about domestic versus international travel in SWCSCHD notes and we will enter the “classroom” information.
8. Course Safety: If your course will use hazardous materials (chemicals, biological hazards, radio-isotopes) please enter “HAZMAT” in the SOC comments. The Registrar’s Office will move this information into the SOC Notes section of SWCSCD for tracking purposes only. The information will not appear in the SOC. Please see https://www.uvm.edu/riskmanagement/identify-hazards for information on hazardous materials.
9. Please review the Instructions for SWCSCHD by logging into myUVM, selecting the dean/chair tab and clicking on ‘SWCSCHD Instructions’ in the ‘Schedule of Courses Tools’ section. You will find a helpful Banner 9 User Guide on the Registrar’s Office Website.
10. 10. The Registrar’s Office is happy to provide additional assistance to departments in using SWCSCHD.  One-on-one help sessions can be arranged by emailing rachel.purnell@uvm.edu.
11. Important Safety Reminder – Please Distribute to All Faculty

    This is a reminder for faculty. UVM strongly discourages the practice of holding classroom break-out groups in hallways, stairways or other areas not designed for assembly. Assembled groups of people in these areas may inhibit safe passage or impede egress in the event of a need to evacuate.  In the case of laboratory buildings, the risks are elevated.  Active laboratories transfer and receive potentially hazardous materials and supplies through these areas. Navigating through groups of people increases the risk of an accident or unplanned release. 

Please contact safety@uvm.edu with any questions.

While this reminder pertains to all locations, current laboratory buildings include:

• Aiken Center
• Colchester Research Facility
• Bioresearch Complex
• Delehanty
• Discovery Building
• Given Building
• Health Sciences Research Facility
• Hills Building
• Innovation Hall
• Jeffords Hall
• John Dewey Hall
• Marsh Life Science Building & Carrigan Wing
• Perkins Hall
• Rowell Building
• Rubenstein Ecosystem Science Center
• Stafford Building
• Terrill Building
• Votey Building

‘Variable Content’ Courses and Catamount Core Curriculum (CC) Designation

’Variable content’ courses are those courses approved and included in the Catalogue at the course level with very broad definitions but offered in the Schedule of Courses at the section level with specific content. The content of the sections must align with the broad definition of the course. There are three categories of ‘variable content’ courses: Special Topics, Topics In, and Topics In First-Year Seminar Courses. An example of a ’variable content’ course and a specific section: Topics in American History (course); Revolutionary War Economy (section). Faculty are encouraged, where feasible, to regularize courses they plan to teach multiple times with similar specific content by seeking a permanent course designation/number for them.

SPECIAL TOPICS

Special Topics courses and sections may not have CC designations in and of themselves.

Specific Special Topics sections may receive CC designations only as part of the retroactive coding of a permanent ‘specific content’ course or when a section of a variable content course is converted to a permanent content course via a new course CAF. Retroactivity may be granted for a period of no more than four semesters.

TOPICS IN

Multiple ‘variable content’ Topics In courses may be created with similar titles, but with different constellations of CC designations. Ex: SPAN 2200 ‘Intermediate Spanish II’ and SPAN 2202 ‘Interm Span II: Sustainability’.  Topics In courses and their sections must have the same CC designations.

The review of Topics In courses requesting new or additional CC designations at the course level will occur via the course CAF process and needs to meet all relevant requirements and deadlines for that process.

Topics In sections must receive Catamount Core Curriculum Committee (CCCC) approval for the identical ‘variable content’ course CC designations in order to be listed under that ‘variable content’ course in the SOC. CC designations will be attached to individual sections for 5 years, at which point proposers will need to apply for reapproval (see “Tracking Process” below).
An individual section that does not receive CCCC approval in the section approval process must be entered in the SOC as, or changed to:

1. A Special Topics section, or a compatible Topics In section with no CC designations, if no CC designation has been approved. As outlined above, Special Topics sections cannot carry CC designations (see note above re: retroactive coding).

Or

2. Another ‘variable content’ course carrying the identical CC designations it did receive.

TIMELINES

All New Courses
The February 15 deadline remains in place for the establishment of all new courses (whether they are ‘specific content’ or ‘variable content’ courses).

Course Revisions
The February 15 deadline remains in place for all course revisions except CC designation of sections of ‘variable content’ courses.

‘Variable Content’ Course CCCC Review Process
CAFs seeking CC designations for a variable content COURSE must be submitted by the February 15 deadline. Submit the CAF with the requested CC designation(s). The CCCC only requires that the requested CC designation(s) ‘make sense’ with respect to the course title and description. Please do not wait for a section syllabus review to request a CC designation for the COURSE. Missing the February 15 deadline will delay the CC designation(s) approval of the variable content COURSE until the following catalogue year. 

‘Variable Content’ Course Sections for CCCC Review
The CCC designation review of sections of the following ‘variable content’ courses may continue beyond February 15; multiple sections may be attached to a single CAF for CCC review/processing.

When entering CAF:

1. Attach a copy of the syllabus for each section (if multiple sections are submitted on a single CAF).
2. Check “Yes” for “Does this course action include a General Education action?”
3. In “Brief Description” box list title(s), the desired CC designation(s) (all must be the same on the CAF and should match the course CAF designations), the first term section is to be offered, and if retroactive coding is desired, to which terms.
4. Do not check any of the General Education boxes

The General Education process coordinator (John Sama) will notify both the RO and the Provost’s Office when CCC CAFs need to be advanced through workflow after February 15. Note that the deadlines below do not reflect any additional time that would be needed in case of requests for proposal modification, and committee decisions will be final for the following semester.

Extenuating circumstances such as late hires, instructor changes due to medical leaves, etc. may allow for expedited approval of an offering within a Topics In ‘variable content’ course carrying CC designations. In these cases, the Associate Dean responsible for enrollment management should contact J. Dickinson and Veronika Carter as soon as possible with a copy of the proposed syllabus.

TRACKING PROCESS

The General Education Coordinator (John Sama) will maintain a spreadsheet of all ‘variable content’ course sections approved or denied for CC designation(s), as well as the date by which approved courses must be reapproved (generally, 5 years from the approval semester). The Registrar’s Office will refer to this spreadsheet to confirm the eligibility of ‘variable content’ course sections listed in the Schedule of Courses.

The concept of ‘Approved for Graduate Credit’ (AGC) where a single course meets the needs of both undergraduate and graduate students does not exist in the new numbering system. While programs establish independent graduate-level curricula over the next five years, the aim of AGC for prior 200-level AGC courses was achieved with 3/5000-level or 4/5000-level co-locations. Only prior 200AGC courses were be set up to be co-located across undergraduate and graduate levels and only if they were approved for potential co-location with the relevant paired new course in the process carried out 2023-2024.

1. Co-location requests from the pool of previously approved potential co-locations must be approved by the Dean of the Graduate College each term.

2. The list of approved locations is here. This list is final. No additional co-locations will be approved.

3. Submit the syllabus for both the UG and GR section of the course. Co-located courses at different course levels MUST have separate syllabi; the outcomes, assessments, readings, and other course components must show evidence that the two different courses are each being taught at their corresponding levels.

4. Send the email to gradcoll@uvm.edu with ‘Colocation Request’ in the subject line.

5. The deadline for submitting the co-location request is one week before Department Proofing of the Schedule of Courses for the desired term.

6. Co-location requests for 3/5000-level and 4/5000-level courses are valid until 2028. After that time, the co-location will expire. These co-locations serve as a ‘bridge’ while the units develop permanent 5/6/7000-level courses.

7. Below is information that was historically correct but is no longer in effect:

In the Spring of 2023, the Graduate College approved a finite list of courses that are eligible for co-location.*  Only courses from this list can be co-located in future terms but still must be approved each term.

For Fall 23/Spring 24/Summer 24 ONLY, co-location requests with Special Topics may be requested.  This one-time exception is to allow units time to create the actual permanent courses desired for co-location. UG/GR co-locations with Special Topics are only permitted with 5990 Special Topics sections.

*New Co-location requests submitted after May 8th will no longer be considered.  As explained in February 2023:
If you are unable to complete the work for the 200-level AGC co-locations by the February 15 deadline, an extension to May 8, 2023 is allowed. Courses that are not received by May 8, 2023 are no longer eligible for co-location.  Academic Deans may submit a request for an extension of the co-location deadline to February 15, 2024; this request must be submitted by May 1, 2023 and approved before May 8, 2023. See the “Cross-listing, Concurrent Cross-listing/Co-located” section for processing instructions for courses that were granted an extension.

Same-course cross-listings still exist in the 4-digit course numbering scheme. Early in the renumbering project, we introduced the term ‘concurrent cross-listing’ to describe different courses that meet together. We have replaced ‘concurrent cross-listing’ with the clearer term ‘co-located’.

The concept of ‘Approved for Graduate Credit’ (AGC) where a single course meets the needs of both undergraduate and graduate students does not exist in the new numbering system. While programs establish independent graduate-level curricula over the next five years, the aim of AGC for existing 200-level AGC courses can be achieved with 3/5000-level or 4/5000-level co-locations. That said, the use of 3/5000-level and 4/5000-level co-locations should be minimized. No more than 50% of the 3-digit 200-level AGC courses should be used as 3/5000-level or 4/5000-level co-locations.

NECHE accreditors were concerned with the number of credits in graduate programs that were 200- level courses approved for graduate credit – noting specifically that not all course syllabi for these courses had the required clearly defined graduate- level expectations exceeding those for undergraduates.

We need to show significant progress towards increasing the percentage of our graduate curriculum that is graduate only (6000- and 7000-level) in the 2024 5-year interim report to NECHE. This is why only 200-level AGC courses are permitted for undergraduate/graduate co-location. It is also why these undergraduate/graduate co-locations will expire in 2028. The co-location is intended to serve as a bridge while the unit develops 6/7000-level courses.

Cross-listing

• Refers to two or more courses that are identical with the exception of the subject prefix and sometimes course number.

• If they do not already exist, courses in a proposed cross-list must be created via the CAF process.

• Reviewed and approved via the CAF process.

• Require only one approval at the time of the initial cross-listing.

• Are continuing in nature, and recorded in the Catalogue.

Co-located

• Refers to two or more different courses meeting in the same space at the same time, taught by the same instructor during a specific semester.

• If they do not already exist, courses in a proposed co-location must be created via the CAF process.

• If they include only undergraduate courses, do not require formal approval each semester but must be monitored by the college/school dean’s office(s) for separate syllabi and no more than one course level of separation when they are included in the Schedule of Courses.

• If they include both undergraduate and graduate courses, are reviewed and approved each term, initially (for Fall 2023, Spring 2024, and Summer 2024) via the CAF process.

• If they include both undergraduate and graduate courses, must have formerly been a 200-level AGC course.

• Are periodic in nature, and recorded in the Schedule of Courses.

Co-location Process for Courses that were Granted an Extension

• Submit a new course CAF for the missing course (3/4000- or 5000-level) of the co-location.

• Attach both syllabi to the CAF.

• Note in the comment section of the CAF the subject prefixes and course numbers of the co-located courses.

• Submit the CAF as soon as possible. It should reach the Graduate College by January 16, 2024 to maximize the likelihood of its review and approval for the February 15, 2024 deadline. Courses not received by this deadline are no longer eligible for co-location.

• Back-and-forth communication and syllabi revision is often required before co-location approval is granted; the sooner the CAF is submitted, the greater the likelihood it will be approved in time to meet the February 15 deadline.

• Colleges/schools may have earlier internal CAF submission deadlines which should be observed.

• Co-location requests for 200-level AGC courses are valid until 2028. After that time, the co-location will expire. These co-locations serve as a ‘bridge’ while the units develop permanent 6/7000-level courses.

•  With the exception of approved 3/5000-level or 4/5000-level co-locations, courses separated by more than one level may not be listed as co-located (e.g., a 1000-level and 2000-level co-location is acceptable; a 1000-level and 3000-level co-location is not).

•  4000-level courses (capstone, Senior seminar, Senior thesis, “Senior only”) may only be co-located with a 4000-level course or a 5000-level course.

•  6000-level courses may only be co-located with 6000- or 7000-level courses.

•  Co-located courses at different course levels MUST have separate syllabi; the outcomes, assessments, readings, and other course components must show evidence that the two different courses are each being taught at their corresponding levels. Students from each section may meet together either in-person or on Teams, but each section must have its own gradebook in Brightspace as graduate students will have more advanced expectations and different learning activities and assessments.  This means the sections cannot be merged.  Certain tasks may need to be done manually, such as adding students to a Teams meeting or using limited Yellowdig functionality.