Academic Policy and Guidelines on Rigor and Guidelines for Courses Carrying Academic Credit for College Credentials
The University of Nebraska at Omaha is committed to ensuring that all academic courses carrying credit for undergraduate and graduate degrees have appropriate content and rigor. The following processes and guidelines are designed to ensure the academic quality of all UNO courses and compliance with HLC Assumed Practice B.1.e. The Higher Learning Commission Assumed Practice B.1.e states “Courses that carry academic credit toward college credentials have content and rigor appropriate to higher education.”
All new and revised UNO courses are reviewed and approved at the departmental/school, college, and university levels. At each level, committees evaluate the content and expectations for the course. The academic unit proposing the new and/or revised course has the preliminary and primary responsibility to ensure that the course contains that the appropriate content, student work, and assessments for the academic program and course level. The college and university committees review the proposed new and/or revised courses to ensure these requirements are met and consistency with college and university expectations. Beginning Fall 2017, the course approval process will utilize Courseleaf CIM, prior to Fall 2017 the course approval process utilized CCMS (a locally developed system known as Course Catalog Maintenance System). NOTE: See Master Syllabus Form
The criteria below are offered as general criteria to assist in discussions as courses are developed, revised, and evaluated. The criteria is NOT exhaustive. Importantly, the faculty in each discipline is responsible for ensuring that all courses developed and revised are appropriate for the level proposed. If there are concerns or questions, faculty are encouraged to include an explanation of how the courses meets the general criteria with the Master Syllabus.
Criteria for evaluating course content and rigor:
- Intellectual challenge appropriate to the level (lower-division, upper-division, graduate, etc) proposed
- Scope and intensity of content appropriate to the level and credit hour proposed
- Required effort from and challenge to students appropriate to the level and credit hour proposed
- Difficulty of language, thinking, understanding, and application appropriate to the level proposed
- The course focuses on the theories, principles, and concepts of one (or more for interdisciplinary courses) academic disciplines
- Where appropriate, the content is similar to comparable courses offered at other higher education institutions carrying academic credit for a college credential.
- The course does not repeat or focus on content that is offered as part of a high school only curriculum.
- The course is not offered as developmental or remedial to prepare students for college-level work.