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New Undergraduate/Graduate Course Requirements

Source: Graduate Faculty Council Document No. 916, Approved March 31, 2003

U/G course proposals must include differential requirements and their associated grading schemes for graduate and undergraduate students. (Separate syllabi for graduate and undergraduate students are recommended.)

Examples of appropriate learning opportunities for graduate students in such courses include:

• Meeting with graduate students outside of the scheduled class time
• Holding Web-based discussions among the graduate students
• Requiring graduate students to critically analyze current literature in the field
• Having graduate students lead a discussion or give a presentation
• Having graduate students complete a more complicated or sophisticated design or laboratory project
• Writing a substantial research paper

For graduate students in U/G courses, approximately 1/3 of the grade shall be based on requirements that differ from those of undergraduates.

Rationale: Courses offered for credit to both undergraduate and graduate students must be structured in ways that provide appropriate learning opportunities for both groups. Graduate students should be asked to complete course requirements that are consistent with the goals of graduate education in their chosen fields (e.g. mastery of knowledge, creative scholarship, research competence). Simply assigning different weights to the same set of requirements for undergraduate and graduate students, or requiring more pages for a paper are generally insufficient on their own as bases of differentiation.

New U/G and G course proposals must be accompanied by the following materials:

1. A course outline including information about
   • Content: Course description, brief list of topics to be covered, and major readings to be assigned
   • Types of skills and/or knowledge that students are expected to acquire
   • Context: explanation of the department's reasons for adding the course, how the course will fit into its curriculum, and where applicable, other curricular changes associated with the introduction of this course.
   • Requirements: exams, papers, projects, etc.
   • Grading formula
   • Format: lecture, discussion, lab, other teaching methods and learning experiences. For distance learning and hybrid courses, document how student-to-instructor, student-to-content, and student-to-student interactions will take place.
2. Variable topics courses should include complete information for one subtitle as outlined above, and two other potential subtitles should be identified.
3. A brief curriculum vita for the initial instructor providing evidence that he or she has the necessary scholarly credentials to teach the course. Those who teach combined U/G courses should be members of the graduate faculty.