If you are a committee member on a governance committee - whether that be an undergraduate or graduate studies-level committee, a faculty-level committee, or a Senate-level committee, you will receive a curriculum package containing proposals for your review. That curriculum package contains proposals for curriculum review built in our curriculum management system, Kuali Curriculum Management (CM).
This guide will provide you with some tips on what to review within the package, focusing on using the Kuali CM system.
Jump to: Agenda page | Proposal
However, if you are reviewing a curriculum package that has been provided in a PDF package format, note that the information presented in both formats is the same, but how you navigate your package will depend on the package format.
The Kuali CM agenda page will provide an overview of the content that is presented for consideration. At lower levels of governance, there may only be one agenda page for the entire committee meeting. In higher levels of governance, each faculty/area presenting content will have provided one.
What to review
- Review the content under Summary; this will provide an overview or explanation of what is within the agenda page.
- Other Business and/or Attachments; these are optional fields that may be used and may contain pertinent information.
- Course Proposal Details; if applicable, this will provide a summary of what is occurring to courses.
- Programs & Plans Proposal Details; if applicable, this will provide a summary of what is occurring to programs and plans and if they are categorized as major or minor modifications.
- Regulations Proposal Details; if applicable, this will provide a summary of what is occurring to regulations.
Navigating the page
- You will be required to click on the blue links under the "Code" column - under each section - to view the individual proposals.
- Tip: Want to do this more efficiently? Instead of opening a proposal and then going back to the agenda page, right-click on the link and choose to open the proposals in a new tab. This will ensure the agenda page stays open and you can close the proposal tab when you are done reviewing it.
- You can choose to Print the agenda page if desired.
- You can add a Comment - visible to all users - on the agenda page if appropriate. See our commenting guidelines.
- The Send button will open a window to share the Agenda with other Kuali CM users.
- Do not use the Archive button.
PDF format
If you are reviewing a PDF formatted curriculum package, the content is the same. However, you lose all functionality that comes with using Kuali CM.
- It is a static representation as of the day the PDF was created (recent updates/fixes may not be included).
- All the proposals referenced on the agenda page will be included and follow the agenda page; there is no need to click on any system-generated links.
Each individual item of curriculum in Kuali CM is housed separately and will be presented as individual proposals (including cross-listed courses), as part of three distinct databases:
- Courses
- Programs & Plans
- Regulations
Overview of general features
The following features are only available within Kuali CM.
- You can access and review Comments made by others during the governance approval path and can create new Comments.
- If applicable, you can navigate to the current version of the curriculum using the Return to link.
- From there you can:
- review all historical versions by toggling through the options via the Effective Date area in the coloured ribbon/header;
- review all historical revisions (if applicable) by toggling through the options via the Revisions pull-down menu (if it displays); and
- review the previous approved proposal (with mark up and rationale, etc.) by selecting View Original Proposal link.
- From there you can:
What to review
Header ´¥ÌýProposal Information section ´¥ÌýEffective Date & Career section ´¥ÌýProposal Details section | Curriculum content sections | Dependencies section
Header
Provides information about the piece of curriculum you are reviewing (e.g., course number and title, plan name, regulation name, etc.) and the proposed effective date.
Proposal Information section
- Workflow Status: This is where you can see where the proposal is in the workflow. This is an interactive field and by selecting expand, you can see the entire trail of where the proposal has been and where it is going next.
- PDF format note: Only the workflow step displayed at the time the PDF was generated will be visible
- Changes: For proposals that are changing existing curriculum, a summary of changes occurring within the proposal. This will help guide you to quickly find what is changing. This list is automatically generated by the system.
- Tip: Using the knowledge of what field is changing can allow you to use the Table of Contents on the right to more quickly go to the section that houses that field (if you are comfortable with the proposal form).
- The following Change statements can be ignored:
- participants: This refers to the fact that there are comments on the proposal. Comments are only accessible via access to the system.
- Admin Notes: This refers to an admin-only field that is not visible to you.
- Requisite Summary: This refers to an admin-only field on course proposal forms that is not visible to you.
- Tip: You can expand the Changes summary if "Show All" is displayed (only the top 5 show automatically):
Effective Date & Career section
This will show, along with the information in the header, what effective date the proposal is for.
Proposal Details section
Provides key information relating to the proposal: the type of proposal, rationale and background, consultations that have occurred, and any supporting documentation.
Tip: Reviewers are encouraged to review this section thoroughly before moving on to the rest of the proposal as it provides needed context.
Curriculum content sections
The curriculum content will be housed in several sections, which will vary depending on the type of curriculum being proposal (courses, programs & plans, or regulations).
- If it is a "new" proposal > everything should be reviewed as all the content is new.
- If it is a "retire" proposal > everything can be ignored as none of the content will have changed.
- For changes to existing curriculum >> look for, in addition to the Changes summary, fields with:
- Compare boxes:
- These will be yellow (for Proposed) and blue (for Existing).
- PDF format note: These will have the Proposed/Existing headers and may be shaded in grey (shading will depend on the PDF creator's settings).
- These will be yellow (for Proposed) and blue (for Existing).
- Word-for-word track changes for requisites (course proposals) and course requirement lists (program & plan proposals).
- What is being added will be bold and in green font; what is being removed will be struck out and in red font.
- PDF format note: There will be no colour - what is being added will be bold; what is being removed will be struck out.
- What is being added will be bold and in green font; what is being removed will be struck out and in red font.
- PDF format note: If a "Fetching rules..." statement is visible in requisites (course proposals) and course requirement lists (program & plan proposals), it is a PDF generation error. It means the PDF was saved before the HTML page had finished rendering properly
- Compare boxes:
Dependencies section
If populated, which is done automatically by the system, the Dependencies section indicates all the other courses and programs/plans where the proposal is linked (e.g., due to requisites or plan requirement lists).
Reviewing this list is beneficial to understanding the potential impact the change or retirement proposal will have on other curriculum.
Generally, all the other academic units/programming areas should be aware of the change and listed as consulted within the Proposal Details if the curriculum is being retired or if the change will impact them. For example, a change in a course description might be relevant to academic plans so that they can assess whether the new description still applies to their curriculum.
Tips:
- Can preview where the curriculum is located by opening the down arrow.
- Can open the other curriculum's record by selecting the "View" link on the right.
- PDF format note: These links will be inactive.
