Center for Curriculum and Transfer Articulation (CCTA)
| Courses: General Information | ||||||||||||||
The Maricopa County Community College District Course Bank includes a variety of academic and occupational courses designed to provide students with knowledge and skills that will promote their continued educational success, enhance their personal growth, and enable their meaningful participation in their communities. The development and maintenance of these courses is led by college faculty, in collaboration with college and District administrators, the Center for Curriculum and Transfer Articulation (CCTA), and members of the community. | ||||||||||||||
| Types and Levels | ||||||||||||||
Courses offered by Maricopa colleges are of two general types depending on the kind of competencies they cover and the student goals they serve. Academic Courses are designed to provide general education and knowledge; Occupational Courses are designed to provide workforce readiness and to develop occupational or paraprofessional skills. Additionally, Maricopa courses provide content at different levels of knowledge and skill. Developmental courses generally cover pre-college-level competencies and prepare students to take college-level courses; First-year courses generally cover competencies that do not require previous experience or knowledge of the subject and are often introductory and survey courses; and Second-year courses generally cover competencies for which some previous experience or knowledge may be desirable, sometimes including prerequisite courses. | ||||||||||||||
| New Course Development | ||||||||||||||
| Creating a New Course: The need or desire to create a new course often occurs to an individual faculty member or a group of faculty in discussion of their classes, students, and discipline. In the early stages of considering the feasibility of a new course, the faculty identifies the focus of the new course, the content that it would cover, and, in collaboration with the Curriculum Development Facilitator (CDF), ascertains whether such a course already exists by searching the District Course Bank. If no similar course already exists, the prospective initiator discusses ideas for the course with appropriate colleagues, chairs and administrators, and develops the competencies or outcomes that students would be intended to develop or gain as a result of taking the course. From these competencies, the faculty determines what topics would have to be covered in the course in order for the students to develop these competencies. These topics, arranged in their logical order, form the basis of the course outline of the prospective course. [Note: the development of a new course may sometimes necessitate the creation of a new subject. For more information, see below: Creating a New Subject. | ||||||||||||||
 | Required Course Elements If the course seems desirable and feasible, the initiator contacts the college CDF for assistance in formally developing the necessary course elements. | |||||||||||||
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| Additional information required in the development of courses includes: | ||||||||||||||
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| Special Courses: MCCCD curriculum procedures provide for a few specialized courses that are created to respond to particular instructional and/or workforce needs. The processing of these courses requires variation from the standard processing. | ||||||||||||||
| Interdisciplinary Subjects/Courses | ||||||||||||||
| Suffixed Courses | ||||||||||||||
| Common Competency Courses | ||||||||||||||
| Experimental Courses | ||||||||||||||
| Training for Business, Industry and Government Courses | ||||||||||||||
| Special Projects Courses | ||||||||||||||
| Field Studies Courses | ||||||||||||||
| Aerospace Studies and Military Science Courses: | ||||||||||||||
Review by Instructional Council: All new courses are submitted by the initiating college to the relevant instructional council(s) for review and recommendation. IC Review MCCCD Curriculum processes provide for a minimum of ten instructional days for instructional council review. Faculty initiators are encouraged to keep instructional council(s) well informed of intended proposals and to elicit their input in advance of the formal review. It is the responsibility of the Curriculum Development Facilitator, during the development of the competencies and outline of a new course, to alert the faculty initiator of the possibility that the course involves overlapping disciplines and to recommend informal discussions of the proposed new course with all relevant instructional council(s).
If the Instructional Council does not respond within the 10-day period, the initiating college may proceed with the processing of the proposal. If a curriculum proposal receives a negative recommendation from an Instructional Council, the initiating college may nevertheless submit it to CCTA for continued processing. Proposals submitted with negative Instructional Council recommendations are removed from the Online Agenda and placed on the General Agenda for discussion and action.
Review by College Curriculum Committee: Each college follows its own process for reviewing and approving curriculum proposals initiated by members of its faculty. When a new course proposal has been approved by the College Curriculum Committee, the Vice President responsible for curriculum authorizes its submission to CCTA for further processing.
Review by CCTA: New course proposals are submitted to CCTA through ACRES. Necessary editorial changes are identified by CCTA staff and changes are implemented by the initiating college. When the proposals are finalized, they are placed on the District Curriculum Committee Online Agenda for a vote by all DCC members.
Review and Approval by DCC: Shortly after the deadline for submission of curriculum proposals for a given processing cycle, a summary of all proposals submitted is sent to the CDFs, Curriculum Technicians, and CCTA personnel to alert them to upcoming proposals. When the monthly DCC Online Agenda is finalized, a report of all proposals is sent to all voting members of DCC and other involved personnelfor their review prior to the voting period. Members with concerns regarding curriculum proposals are expected to utilize these reports and to contact the initiating college in an attempt to reconcile these concerns. If necessary, a college Vice President may ask that a proposal be moved from the online agenda to the General Agenda for discussion and action. Such requests must be made before the online voting period begins.
Review and Approval by the MCCCD Governing Board: Curriculum proposals approved by DCC are forwarded to the MCCCD Governing Board for its review and approval. Upon Governing Board approval, curriculum information is integrated into MCCCD online systems.
Creating a New Subject or Modifying an Existing Subject
As a natural consequence of the evolution of academic disciplines, it sometimes becomes necessary to recognize a new branch of study or a new area of focus that is not adequately and naturally addressed within existing subjects. If it becomes necessary to create a new subject or to modify an existing subject, the proposed subject and the three-letter prefix designating it must be approved before new courses in the subject can be processed. NOTE: Overlapping Content: It is the responsibility of the Curriculum Development Facilitator, working with the initiator, to determine if a proposed new subject will include content that overlaps a discipline that is the responsibility of an instructional council other than that named in the proposal. If overlapping content exists, the instructional council overseeing the other discipline is to be informed of the proposed new subject and given the opportunity to provide input.To create a new or modify an existing subject and prefix, the faculty initiator(s), assisted by the Curriculum Development Facilitator, defines the focus of the instruction that will be presented under the new subject and how coursework in the new or modified subject will enhance the academic and/or occupational course offerings of the District. Recommended hiring qualifications for faculty teaching courses in the new subject are also defined. [NOTE: hiring qualifications are recommended to the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost, who is responsible for the approval of all faculty hiring qualifications.] A name that will clearly identify the focus of the subject is determined and a prefix is selected that suggests the name of the subject and is not in use by any discipline within the District.
This information is forwarded to the relevant instructional council(s) for evaluation and approval. It is then forwarded to CCTA by means of a New Subject Request or a Modified Subject Request form in ACRES New Subject Request. If the instructional council does not accept the request, the initiating college determines next steps, which may include discussion with CCTA.
Upon receipt of the New or the Modified Subject Request, the Center for Curriculum and Transfer Articulation places it on the Online Agenda as an information item. This information alerts the colleges of impending course proposals in the new subject and reserves the new subject pending completion of the review and approval process.
The new subject proposal is placed on the General Agenda for action. If the new subject is approved, CCTA notifies the colleges of its availability and elicits from the colleges information regarding their future use of the subject and the department/division (Academic Organization and Group) at each college that will have responsibility for the new subject.
Course Modification
Courses in the MCCCD Course Bank are modified through the Course Modification process. Any element of a course can be modified; however, course modification is not used to alter the basic nature and/or level of a course. Changes that are so extensive that the course becomes essentially a different course require the deletion of the course and the creation of a new course incorporating the desired changes. This would occur, for example, if major content areas are to be added or deleted, or if competencies are to be significantly changed.
Course Modifications Effect on Existing Curriculum
Certain course elements are monitored closely by the Center for Curriculum and Transfer Articulation (CCTA) because they impact other existing courses, programs, class schedules, and the catalog-building processes. These types of changes and the deadlines for each are listed in Modified Course Details. The Curriculum Processing Calendar also contains specific information on these types of special deadlines.