IUPUI

Suggestions for Completion of the New Course Request Form

Curriculum Subcommittee of the Graduate Affairs Committee

General

To facilitate the approval process for new course requests, the Graduate Office thought it would be helpful to you if we shared some insights on errors commonly made on new course requests. Some of the points are merely technicalities, but several might prove helpful in the overall development of your curriculum and your courses. This document will fit into Section 2 of your Graduate Advisor Manual.

• Unless your program results in a professional degree, item one on the request form should be answered as Graduate School;
  
• Courses that offer credit for internships are usually offered for variable credit, e.g., 1-6 hours (item 7). Because the "instruction" for such courses takes place outside of the usual classroom setting, they require non-lecture contact hours. In the case of internships, four non-lecture contact hours is usually considered the equivalent to one credit hour; thus, using the example above, item 12 would be answered "Non-Lecture Contact Hours Variable from 4 to 24." The rationale for this is based on the assumption that six hours of course work per week is equal to working about twenty hours per week (half-time student, half time employee) with an additional four hours per week devoted to the academic requirements for the internship. Your department ultimately decides the actual time commitment needed to fulfill the requirement, but it should be logical, and it should result in an equal ratio of credit hours (item 7) to non-lecture credit hours (item 12).
• Similarly, independent research courses, laboratory course, and clinical or fieldwork experience usually are listed for variable credit and as having variable non-lecture contact hours. Your department should decide upon a ratio in determining how many non-lecture contact hours equals one credit hour for these courses and use that ratio consistently. Currently, the policies for undergraduate courses of this nature are:
• independent research courses, 3 non-lecture contact hours equals 1 credit hour;
• laboratory activities, 2 non-lecture contact hours equals 1 credit hour; and
• clinical/fieldwork experience, 4-5 non-lecture contact hours equals 1 credit hour.
• Students are frequently allowed to take internship courses, independent research courses, and topics courses multiple times. For such courses, your department should stipulate the maximum number of times and/or credit hours that students are allowed to take under this title and have it count towards the degree requirement. This should be clearly yet concisely stated in the course description, item 10 of the New Course Request.
• The course description must not exceed 50 words.
  
• Generally, upper level graduate courses require prerequisites, and these should be listed in the description followed by "or consent of instructor" when appropriate. For lower level graduate courses, we discourage listing specific undergraduate courses as prerequisites. Mention a general requirement (P: previous course or experience in...) followed by "or consent of instructor."
• Although item 17 requests a complete outline of the course, the curriculum approval process requires a complete syllabus. The syllabus should include an explanation of how course grades will be determined (e.g., how much of the grade is based on exams, assignments, etc).
• If undergraduates are allowed to register for the course, clearly indicate whether or not they will be evaluated by the same criteria as graduate students. If the graduate course is taught in conjunction with an undergraduate course, clearly indicate the standards by which the graduate students will be evaluated as opposed to those for the undergraduates. A key question to answer is, "What distinguishes this graduate level course from an undergraduate course?"
• The grading scale for the IU Graduate School differs from the grading scale for undergraduates. A grade of a "C" is failing by Graduate School standards, and to earn a degree from the Graduate School, students must have at least 3.0 graduate GPA. For this reason, several graduate programs do not accept any grade below a "B". Each department should set a policy on the lowest acceptable grade for their graduate program. This should clearly be reflected in the grading scale that you include in the syllabus for each new course request submitted by your department for graduate credit. Avoid using statements that a grade of C is satisfactory for a graduate course.
  

  Indiana University Graduate School Grading Scale
  A = 4.0
  A- = 3.7
  B+ = 3.3
  B = 3.0
  B- = 2.7

• Item 19 requires letters of support from those programs that already offer courses that may overlap with a newly proposed course. We suggest that you send a description of your proposed course, the rationale for offering it, and its syllabus to any program where the possibility of overlap exists. Ask them to review your course and then provide you with a letter of support stating that no significant overlap exists.