Common Course Numbering
What should the SAC expect during this process?
At the beginning of Fall term, the Curriculum Office will reach out to impacted SACs and the PCC CCN subcommittee representatives (where applicable), to schedule a meeting to touch base about what to expect, timelines, and other details. The finalized curriculum is typically approved by the Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC) during Winter term. After final approval, the Curriculum Office will reach back out to those SACs to walk through updating the CCOG(s), attending Curriculum Committee, and any additions the SAC would like to add.
Once it has gone through the recommendation process, it will be updated in Banner and included within the following academic year’s catalog.
As a PCC SAC / faculty member, what are we allowed to change within the state-approved outline?
Additions:
- SACs can choose to add up to 25% additional outcomes per course. For example, if the course has 5 learning outcomes, the SAC can choose to add 1 more.
- In consultation with the curriculum team, minor changes to the course descriptions to conform to PCC’s system and formatting requirements are permitted. For example, PCC course description sentences must start with an active verb. See Course Content and Formatting Guidelines [list] for details. SACs can choose to add minor adjustments and additions to the course descriptions without altering the baseline course description as approved by the faculty subcommittees.
Removals:
- SACs are not allowed to remove any approved student learning outcomes.
- SACs are not allowed to remove pieces or parts of the approved course description.
Alterations / Curriculum Office Purview:
The HECC allows institutions to make non-substantive changes to align with system or formatting requirements. Under this provision, the Curriculum Office will, in consultation with the SAC and the Curriculum Committee, make changes to ensure that the description and outcomes conform to the Curriculum Content and Formatting Guidelines. These changes may include:
- Adding a verb to the beginning of a student learning outcome if there is not one present.
- Adding a verb to the beginning sentences throughout the course description if there is not one present.
- Selecting one verb if two or more are present within a sentence in the course description.
- Making other non-substantive changes to conform to the PCC Content and Formatting Guidelines.
What is the timeline for these changes?
Because of the large-scale collaboration and approvals CCN courses go through, they are typically excluded from our standard curriculum approval timeline. The Curriculum Office will work with impacted SACs directly in order to make the catalog deadline. Typically, we will need to make sure courses go through the Curriculum Committee no later than March or April of the academic year prior to implementation (e.g. go to committee in March, 2025, for implementation in Fall, 2025).
Questions? Please contact Katelyn Goslin at Katelyn.Goslin@pcc.edu.