Proposer Support FAQ

Course proposals should be prepared and submitted by the faculty member primarily responsible for teaching the course unless there are special circumstances (e.g., instructor primarily responsible for the course is retiring or on sabbatical, the course is taught by multiple instructors, or there is not a consistent instructor for the course).

Graduate students are welcome to work with a faculty mentor on the process of developing a course as a professional development and learning opportunity, but cannot submit as the primary proposer.

A course taught by teaching teams of faculty (co-instruction, multiple sections, etc.) should submit a single proposal that has been collaboratively created and approved by the full teaching team.

A course taught in multiple modalities and lengths (asynchronous online, in-person, 7.5-week, 16-week) should submit a single proposal form that covers all versions of the course. The syllabus submission can be for a single version of the course (16-week recommended if possible). 

Valuing evidence-based pedagogical approaches, courses in the GE program should provide all students with high quality, engaged learning experiences.  As such, all GE courses within Civic Institutions, Exploring Perspectives, and Building Connections will:

• Engage students in active and collaborative learning using evidence-based practices (e.g., active learning strategies, scaffolded learning, universal design, etc.) to provide maximum learning opportunities for all students.
• Provide students with ample opportunities to succeed through regular, low-stakes assessment, both formative and summative.
• Incorporate differing voices, work, contributions, and approaches within the course topic and materials.

No. GE courses should not require or recommend prerequisites, except for GE Foundations courses as specified below, nor should they have enrollment requirements that would prevent enrollment by students who are not in a particular major, minor, or college, except in the Honors College. 

• Exception: Requiring the completion of a Foundations requirement. Courses with the Writing attribute may require completion of the Foundations Writing requirement as a prerequisite. Courses with the Quantitative Reasoning attribute may require completion of the Foundations Mathematics requirement as a prerequisite. Departments and instructors should be aware that there are different ways (strands, tracks, courses, exams) by which students satisfy these requirements. While students with the requirement satisfied will have demonstrated proficiency by one method or another, different students will nevertheless have different backgrounds and experiences and instructors should anticipate a diversity of skills.
• Exception: Specific requirements when an alternative is provided. A department may
  sometimes wish to offer a General Education course with specific placement or tracking
  required (for example, a course might require a particular level of math proficiency or course work no higher than first-semester calculus, or a course targeted for honors students offered outside of the Honors College). In such cases, the department, whenever possible, offer parallel tracks or versions of those General Education courses as options for students without those backgrounds or statuses.

No! The new curriculum categories are not "tiered". Civic Institutions (CI), Exploring Perspectives (EP), and Building Connections (BC) courses can encompass any course-level (100, 200, 300, or 400* levels). Students do not need to take EP coursework before BC coursework or vice versa. 

*400 level courses are very rarely approved for General Education, but offerings are possible at this level. Please reach out for additional information.  

Courses are submitted for review through UAccess by your Department Initiator (also known as Course Managment Requester in some departments). Please be in good communication with your Department Initiator well before your desired proposal submission date as they will often have insight into additional department/college-level requirements for submission. If you are unsure who is your Department Initiator, please ask your Department Head. 

If department initiators have questions or would like support in the submission process, please have them contact Tammie Anderson (tammiea@arizona.edu). 

Your course proposal will be reviewed internally by your department and/or college curriculum committee. Depending on your college, this review might take place either before or after submission into UAccess. Please reach out to your Department Head or Associate Dean for information on the requirements and process for this part of the review process.

Once proposals are entered into UAccess, they will be reviewed by Curricular Affairs. Curricular Affairs will perform both an initial intake review and a final pre-catalog entry review. During their review, Curricular Affairs will primarily focus on the policy components of your proposal and syllabus, and will be the evaluator of whether the course meets the "new course add" vs. "course modification" requirements. You may receive communication from Curricular Affairs for additional information throughout the review process (including but not limited to request for prior syllabi for the course to determine if a course meets the "modification" criteria). 

From there, the proposal will be routed to the University-Wide General Education Committee (UWGEC). UWGEC will primarily focus on the pedagogical components of your proposal (both the proposal form and syllabus). Like most peer-review processes, it is likely that you will receive requested revisions from this committee.  

Please see the "What happens next?" section of the Course Proposal Submission and Routing Process webpage for more information on the routing process of your course proposal form.  

Because the review process involves several different review groups (Curricular Affairs, Departmental and/or College Review Committees, and the University-Wide General Education Committee), the approval timeline can vary significantly from course to course. We highly recommend submitting at least one year in advance from the semester start date you are aiming for.  

Submission of a course proposal does not guarantee approval at first submission. Proposers may be asked to make changes to their proposals to ensure the alignment of the course with the Gen Ed curriculum and program structure. In the event that this happens, OGE is prepared to support proposers with a number of materials and services to move your course from proposed to approved.

Support Services include but are not limited to:

• Course consultations
• Gen Ed Mentorship
• 1:1 meetings with the Gen Ed Instructional Support Team
• Course correction reviews
• Access to the Gen Ed Instructional Support Team, inclusive of the Gen Ed Faculty Coordinators.

A "new course add" is either 1) a course that is brand new and not currently in the course catalog, or 2) a course that is in the course catalog (GE or otherwise), but is significantly changing the course content (e.g., significantly different student learning outcomes, title, description from its previous iteration). 

A "course modification" is a modification to a course that is currently in the course catalog (GE or otherwise). To qualify for a modification, the course content cannot be changing more than 25%. This 25% excludes the changes required to bring the course into alignment with GE (determined by Curricular Affairs). Typically, courses submitted for the GE as "modifications" include changes to the course framing and assignments to bring the course into alignment with the perspective-taking approach of the new program. The previous content and learning outcomes, however, do not significantly change. 

If you have any questions or concerns about whether your course qualifies as a "new course add" or a "course modification", please contact Curricular Affairs EARLY in the process to clarify (courseapprovals@arizona.edu). There are slightly different review processes for course modifications vs. new course adds. 

Modifications of existing GE courses must be submitted into UAccess as a "course modification". This includes the submission of an updated Gen Ed course proposal form and syllabus, which will be reviewed by the stakeholders described above under "Who reviews my course proposal submission". Proposers submitting course modifications should complete the Gen Ed Quick Start. If a proposer has previously completed the Quick Start but is submitting a new course modification, we highly recommend reengaging with the Quick Start to review the changes in curricular structure, guidelines, and policies. 

Yes! You are welcome to make updates and changes to your course; however, all changes will need to be submitted as a course modification. Instructors cannot add, drop, or alter the Gen Ed course features (inclusive of the curricular category, attribute(s), or working of GE student learning outcomes) without a course modification.