Coursedog Program Proposals

Coursedog Timelines

Coursedog proposals must be submitted to the Provost Coursedog queue by the following dates.

Proposal TypeEffective TermUndergraduateGraduate
BoR ReviewFall*January 1January 1
BoR ReviewSpringApril 1May 1
UpdatesFall*April 1March 1
UpdatesSpringOctober 1November 1
*Program updates with a fall effective term are preferred. Significant changes effective spring term should be avoided.

Coursedog Best Practices

Specify all requirements.

Requirements must be clearly and consistently defined at all levels: campus, college, program, sub-plan (for example, major electives or a collegiate first-year experience course) so that:

  • they can be easily understood by people outside of the department and the college (e.g., to advisors across campus and at transfer institutions; to prospective students, to transfer students);
  • they can be useful well into the future (if a student is returning 25 years from now, we should be able to quickly ascertain which requirements were in place at that time);
  • they can be represented accurately in APAS/GPAS to keep a record of student progress toward degree (what is programmed in Coursedog will be reflected in APAS/GPAS);
  • the need for exceptions is minimized by programming frequent exceptions into Coursedog;
  • the use of descriptive, explanatory text is minimized by using Coursedog groups to increase clarity;
  • redundancy is minimized (e.g. it is not necessary to restate requirements that are in University policy).
  • the Program Proposal Guide provides a framework to help ensure necessary information is present when entering program proposals in Coursedog. Tip: Make a copy of the template to use as you develop program proposals. 

The number of credits entered in the “program length in credits” field should include all credits necessary to complete a program (including prerequisite courses, admissions requirements, as well as major/minor/certificate requirements).

  • Prerequisite and admissions courses must be included so that:
    • A student cannot be in the major, or complete the major, without them.
    • APAS/GPAS reports better display progress toward fulfilling major requirements. The courses will show as fulfilling major requirements, rather than as counting only for free elective credits.
  • Be clear about variable credit courses if more than the minimum credit availability is required.
    • As a simple example, admission to our hypothetical Alchemy B.S. requires two courses totaling 7-8 credits. The courses listed within the Program Requirements section total 60 credits. Therefore, the “program length in credits” is 67-68.
  • Courses offered for less than 1 credit (e.g. .5 credit courses) must be reflected as a whole number in the program length in credits. When .5 credit courses are present the program length in credits should be rounded up. Please note: new courses for less than one credit should not be proposed.

Consistently use capitalization and formatting.

  • Capitalize names of programs and departments.
  • You do not need to capitalize the names of disciplines, but if you do, please be consistent.

[Graduate Only] Credit ranges for graduate degree types must follow limits established by policy.

Unless a program has previously received an exception to the Credit Requirements for Master’s and Doctoral Degrees policy, the rules below must be followed:

  • Master’s degrees must consist of the following minimum credits:
    • Plan A degrees: 10 master’s thesis credits (xxxx8777) and a minimum of 20 graduate-level course credits.
    • Plan B degrees: a minimum of 30 graduate-level course credits, including Plan B Project credits as defined by each program and approved by the college.
    • Plan C degrees: a minimum of 30 graduate-level course credits.
  • Doctoral degrees must consist of a minimum of 48 credits: a minimum of 24 graduate-level course credits and a minimum of 24 doctoral thesis credits (xxxx8888).
  • No collegiate unit or program may require more than:
    • 36 credits with a combination of course and thesis for a master’s Plan A
    • 36 credits with a combination of course and Plan B project credits for a master’s Plan B, and
    • 48 course credits for a master’s Plan C.
    • 72 credits with a combination of course and doctoral thesis credits (xxxx8888) for the completion of the doctoral degree.

Ensure sub-plans are entered accurately, where applicable.

For programs that have sub-plans (tracks that are posted to a student’s transcript), are the requirements complete, accurate, and up to date? Does the number or range of required credits included in the “program length in credits” accurately reflect the inclusion of any specific course credits required for the sub-plan(s), and reflect current requirements?

What is the difference between a sub-plan and a track?

  • Sub-plan: a formal section of a program plan in Coursedog which must be approved by the Board of Regents.
  • Track: an informal way to group courses in a program. Tracks, if used, should exist in “step 4” Program Requirements in Coursedog and be labeled as tracks.

[Graduate Only] Masters degrees must list all plan types (i.e., Plan A, Plan B, and/or Plan C) as sub-plans using the “option” sub-plan type. 

The “option” subplan type may only be used for master’s plan type designations. Any academic sub-plans must be entered separately as “tracks,” and must indicate which plan types are eligible to enroll in which tracks.

Departmental and collegiate websites should link to the catalog when listing program requirements.

Best practice is for departmental and collegiate websites with information about program requirements to link directly to the University Catalog. This ensures that current and prospective students can always access the most current requirements.

Curriculum coded in Coursedog must translate to APAS/GPAS.

It is not acceptable to have a statement in Coursedog or on a departmental website that “APAS/GPAS doesn’t work for this program.” Requirements should be described clearly enough and with adequate logic so the APAS/GPAS system can track them and provide an accurate record of a student’s progress toward completion of requirements. Coursedog is the official “source of truth” for requirements in place in any given term. Requirements should be clear to current and prospective students, advisors on campus, and transfer advisors in other institutions; and should be written to be comprehensible in the future, when a returning student is working with an advisor to complete those requirements. APAS/GPAS organization will follow the organization of Coursedog, so structure requirements in Coursedog as desired on APAS/GPAS.

Academic advisor input

Check with your academic advisors about what questions frequently arise, what information may be missing, and how the current information in Coursedog could be presented more clearly. Ask if the requirements as listed in Coursedog translate clearly into University systems such as Grad Planner, APAS, and GPAS and APAS reports used by students and advisors.

[Undergraduate Only] Residency requirements must be clearly defined, and align with University policy.

Major, minor, and certificate residency requirements should be clearly defined in Coursedog and not exceed that defined by the Campus-Specific Credit Requirements for Undergraduate Degrees and Majors, Minors, and Certificates policy.

Majors: “at least half of upper-division (3xxx-level or higher) credits that satisfy major requirements…” be earned at the campus awarding the degree. Please make sure this requirement is defined in Coursedog under “Program Requirements” and in the “Other requirements” field.

For example, a program may have:

  • Minimum length in credits: 35
  • Lower division required courses: 8
  • Upper division required courses: 27

For this example, the program would enter into the other requirements field: “At least 14 upper division credits in the major must be taken at the University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus.”

Minors and Certificates: The residency requirement does not need to be listed in Coursedog as it is standard for all minors and certificates in APAS. The policy states that “at least 3 upper-division credits that satisfy requirements for the minor must be taken through the campus that will award the minor” or certificate. Individual programs should not establish a higher minimum credit requirement than is defined in policy.

Review the sample plan for accuracy.

Sample plans are required for majors, but not for minors and certificates. Sample plan edits are made in the collegiate shared Google Drive and must be completed prior to submitting the course to the Provost queue in Coursedog.

Sample plans for majors:

  • must show how the degree can be completed within the specified number of credits (e.g., 120 credits or 15 credits a semester);
  • must include all required courses and prerequisites for the major (including first-year experience courses and admissions course requirements);
  • must show how the LE and WI requirements can be met;
  • should clearly indicate if any summer term enrollment is required.
  • should follow naming conventions suggested in the Sample Plan Procedures.


Combination sample plans:

For programs that are often paired with another program, such as popular double majors or a common combination of a particular major, minor, and/or certificate, consider providing a sample plan showing those combinations. This information is very useful to students and advisors.

[Undergraduate Only] Add all cross-listed identities.

All identities (designators and numbers under which the same course is offered) must be listed so that students get credit regardless of the designator. All active versions (aliases) of the course must be listed in Coursedog. Here is a hypothetical example: for the Immortality B.S., ALCM (Alchemy) 101 is cross-listed with GOLD 101, but only ALCM 101 is currently listed in Coursedog. Everywhere ALCM 101 is listed as an option to fulfill a requirement, GOLD 101 must also be added.

Indicate overlapping programs that students are not permitted to combine.

If the requirements of a program have so much overlap with those of another program that students will not be allowed to complete both, that should be stated clearly in Coursedog. For example, the CBS Biology major states

“Students completing another major in the College of Biological Sciences are not eligible for the BS in biology. In addition, students completing a degree in biology are not eligible for the following CBS minors, due to overlap: biochemistry, microbiology, plant biology, and behavioral biology.”

Please note, you do not need to indicate that students may not complete a major or minor with the same discipline name (i.e. Sociology BA, Sociology BS, and/or Sociology Minor). This is redundant with policy.


Integrated Degree Program

Follow the Integrated Degree Program Guidelines if applicable to your program.


Coursedog Roles

Coursedog proposals should be built/updated/reviewed for accuracy, consistency, and clarity at every stage. If these points are unmet, the proposal should be returned to the responsible person/role.

Coursedog Queues


Author

  • Ensure planned course maintenance has occurred before submitting a program proposal. This includes course inactivations and the full approval of new courses. (Courses that are not fully approved may not be included in program proposals.)
  • Build/update programs in Coursedog using guidance provided in the Coursedog Program Proposals page of the Curricular Hub.
  • Ensure that program review and approval has occurred before submitting the proposal.

 

College(s)

  • Ensure that program review and approval has occurred before advancing a proposal to the Provost queue. 
  • Review proposals to ensure consistent language, grammar, and formatting adhering to guidance provided in the Coursedog Program Proposals page of the Curricular Hub.
  • Confirm accuracy of the curriculum and credit totals.

 

Provost: Office of Undergraduate Education & Graduate School

  • Maintain information in the Curricular Hub outlining standards and timelines for proposal submissions.
  • Review proposals for policy compliance, adherence to best practices, established naming conventions, and accuracy in credit totals. 
  • Review new program proposals for articulation of need/demand, mission resources, efficiencies, and program planning. 
  • Ensure consultation has taken place as appropriate.

 

Board of Regents

  • Proposals in the BoR queue have been identified as ready for review by the Board of Regents at an upcoming meeting.

 

Degree Audit (APAS/GPAS)

  • Accurately encode APAS/GPAS based on the approved curriculum in Coursedog. 
  • Seek clarity from the program and OUE/Grad School as needed. 
  • Return proposals, in communication with Program/OUE/Grad School, to be updated/edited as needed.

 

Catalog Review

  • Ensures that public-facing text (in the catalog) conforms to University editorial standards. It helps to ensure consistency across all entries when it comes to grammatical style and formatting.

 

Coursedog Program Review Timelines

  • Provost Queue: Proposal review typically occurs within 4 weeks.
  • Degree Audit (APAS/GPAS): 
    • Proposal updates in APAS/GPAS typically occur within 6 weeks or will be returned to the previous queue for corrections.
       

Please reach out to OUE or the Graduate School if you have questions regarding the timelines