Official Publications | Request for Change in Course Inventory

Help | Add a course

The Summary form.

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This page shows how to use the Summary form to add a course in the Request for Change in Course Inventory system. Key terms link to a glossary that explains concepts more fully.

See the glossary for any questions about our deadlines, using *NRCRIN, or for information not specific to adding a course.

The Summary page lets you add all the necessary course information. Yellow bars indicate the different attributes of the course, such as title or prerequisite.

To jump to a section of the summary, use the Jump To links at the top of the page.

To add data to a section, press the Add link under its yellow bar. To change information already entered on the form, press the Change link underneath. When pressing Add or Change, an extra row appears for entering or editing information.

Any information you put on the prior Start page automatically displays on the Summary page. So:

If you entered a semester-hour value of 2 on the Start page, it appears under Semester-hour value here.

To record your changes and refresh the page, hit the Save Changes button at the bottom of the page. (Save often, to avoid losing any data.) Save as many changes as you need. Press Sign and Send Forward when finished.

You can also press Withdraw/Deny Request if you want to delete the request entirely.

Sections of the form.

Title.

Type the course's title in the box provided. Don't abbreviate---as you might in the Course Schedule---and don't use ampersands or slashes. End the title with a period.

Same-as statement.

Press the Add link to enter a same-as statement if the course you are adding will have that formal relationship with other courses. See the glossary for more information on same-as courses. Here are examples of same-as statements:

Same as Psychology 384M.

Same as Italian Civilization 349 (Topic 5: Italian Women Writers) and Women's and Gender Studies 340 (Topic 17: Italian Women Writers).

When you enter same-as courses here, you will see a reminder that requests for those courses must also be submitted. Official Publications cannot process your request until the other requests have also been submitted.

Restrictive statement.

If the course has a restrictive statement, press Add and type it in the text box. Such statements define or limit the intended audience for the course. These differ from prerequisites, which spell out requirements that a student must meet in order to take the course. Common restrictive statements include:

For journalism majors only.

Open to all doctoral students in chemistry.

Restricted to freshmen and sophomores.

Subject-matter description.

Use Add to type the course's subject-matter description into the text box. This includes all information that should appear in the catalog about course content. Make it as concise as possible.

Semester-hour value.

This section incorporates information entered earlier on the Start page. To change it, use the Change button.

Semester-hour value is closely related to the contact hours and meeting statement, so if you make changes here, review the other two and make any needed changes to them. For more information, see the Contact Hours and Meeting Statement sections below.

Contact Hours.

Contact hours do not appear in the catalog but are reported to the Coordinating Board.

The system suggests contact hours based on the semester-hour value(s) you've chosen. The summary will display one lecture hour a week for each semester hour of credit earned, and no lab hours. If these contact hours are wrong, click on Change and type corrected numbers in the boxes that appear.

In general, a lecture course must meet at least one hour a week for each hour of credit a student earns. Laboratory courses must meet at least one and one-half hours a week for each credit hour. So:

1 semester hour = 1 lecture hour = 1.5 lab hours

These are some common meeting requirements and their contact hours:

Mechanical Engineering 309 requires the student to meet for three lecture hours a week.
Contact hours: 3 lecture, 0 laboratory.

Biology 309 requires the student to meet for two lecture hours, and one and one-half laboratory hours a week.
Contact hours: 2 lecture, 1.5 laboratory.

Curriculum and Instruction 427L requires the student to meet for two lecture hours and two laboratory hours a week. Students will also travel to a local school for two hours each week to demonstrate the skills learned in the lab.
Contact hours: 4 lecture, 2 laboratory.

Linguistics 391 meets by individual instruction. It has no organized meeting times. Strictly speaking, students meet for 0 lecture and 0 lab hours. However, the Coordinating Board's database won't accept zeroes, so the University reports a number of lecture hours equal to the number of credit hours.
Contact hours: 3 lecture, 0 laboratory.

Contact hours are closely related to the semester-hour value and meeting statement. If you change contact hours, be sure to make any appropriate changes to the other two.

Meeting Statement.

The meeting statement should describe in words what Contact Hours describes with numbers. It should inform students of all required meeting times. Press Add and type the course's meeting statement into the text box.

If the course you are adding has multiple values, be sure to compose a meeting statement that covers all the semester-hour values.

Degree-plan statements.

Degree-plan statements limit or explain the applicability of a course toward a degree or a degree requirement. Press the Change link here and you'll be shown common degree-plan statements; check the box next to each statement that applies to your course.

If the course needs other degree-plan statements, type them into the text box provided. Examples:

Offered on the pass/fail basis only.

Offered on the credit/no credit basis only.

May not be counted by students with credit for Mathematics 301.

May not be counted toward the Bachelor of Business Administration degree.

If you entered replacement course data on the Start page, here is the place to enter a statement indicating that the new course and old course may not both be counted. Your statement might look like one of these:

Human Development and Family Sciences 312 and 321 may not both be counted.

Middle Eastern Languages and Cultures 372 (Topic 11: Music Cultures of the Middle East, Past and Present) and Middle Eastern Studies 334C may not both be counted.

Geography 493M and 396T (Topic: Advanced Remote Sensing and Quantitative Landscape Ecology) may not both be counted.

Prerequisite.

The prerequisite includes any requirements a student must meet before enrolling in the course, including completion of other courses, and department, college, or University requirements. Pressing Add under the prerequisite section takes you to a separate entry page, with its own separate help page.

The system can accommodate simple prerequisites like the following:

Psychology 301.

English 316K and six semester hours of upper-division coursework in English.

Management 336 with a grade of at least C.

Credit or registration for Physics 373.

Radio-Television-Film 340, 366, or 366K.

Upper-division standing and Architectural Interior Design 530T.

Justification for adding this course.

A justification is required on every request. It should explain why the course is being added. It is seen by all the administrators who approve your request, and sometimes by the Coordinating Board.

Official Publications uses this information to help understand your request. If your justification helps explain what you're trying to do, it may prevent delays in processing your form.

Examples of clear justifications:

1. When adding a course
To support the new degree program in nanopsychology.

2. When adding a new course while dropping an old one
The department curriculum committee has decided that this subject matter should be offered as an upper-division course, to be taken after students have completed introductory coursework in the major.

Some unclear justifications:

Request of instructor.

Curriculum update.

Degrees toward which this course will apply.

You may use abbreviations here, such as MBA for Master of Business Administration.

Expected enrollment per semester.

Type an informed guess here. This figure is used by administrators who approve your request, and sometimes by the Coordinating Board.

Average size of similar current courses.

Type an informed guess here. Like Expected Enrollment above, this figure is used by approvers and sometimes the Coordinating Board.

Comments.

In this box, you can type a note to another person in your routing scheme or to Official Publications. Comments will be seen by all of the approvers; as the originator, you can write a note to the chair, who can add a note to the dean, and so on. Please keep in mind that the comments, like the rest of the request, can also be viewed by anyone with access to the system.

You can also use the comments to send a note to Official Publications when you need to clarify some information, especially if you're not sure you entered it correctly. Also use this space if you have crucial information that you couldn't place elsewhere on the summary.

Saving the form.

Save your latest changes by pressing the Save and Continue button at the bottom of the page. Check your information carefully. If all is correct, hit Sign and Send Forward.

The system will make its final checks. If you've left out information, or entered data incorrectly, an error message at the top of the page will ask you to make corrections. Make your final corrections, press Save and Continue again, and then press Sign and Send Forward.

When you've sent the request forward, the system will tell you the request has moved to the next approver in your routing scheme. The approver won't be notified. It is your responsibility to make sure your approvers check their system inboxes regularly.

Approvers may make additional changes to your request. They can also deny your request, which makes the form permanently inactive. Notification copies of denied requests will be sent to your inbox.

To check the status of a request that has been sent forward, you can search the system by using Forms In Progress. The link can be found in the left navbar or on the system homepage.

If you're not ready to send your request forward, save it to your inbox by pressing Save Changes, then log off of the system. You can get back to the request and continue working at any time, so long as you send in the request before the deadline.

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