Course Policies and Practices

• Cross-listing refers to having one course offered under two or more different course prefixes, such as ENGL444 and WGSS444: Feminist Critical Theory. Cross-listed courses meet together in the same room at the same time and have the same instructor. The students have the same expectations and are taught the same content. The course numbers for both courses should be at the same level (e.g., both 400-level classes), although it is not necessary for the numbers to be identical. Cross-listed courses must have the same information (description, prerequisites, restrictions, etc.), because there is only one entry for the course in the CIM course module. This course entry can be searched for by using any of the cross-listed course numbers used for the course.  
  • Units that want to add a cross-list to an existing course can do this is as a regular modification proposal in CIM; however, because the existing course is already approved, the interested academic unit can request an administrative action to add the cross-list by contacting cmsupport@umd.edu. The email should copy the appropriate departmental and college representatives for all of the academic units involved. Academic units that want to "break" a cross-list by separating the courses into independent courses should submit a modification proposal in CIM.
• Jointly-offered refers to the practice of allowing two or more independent courses to meet at the same time in the same location. Typically, this is used for courses at two different course levels to meet together at the same time, such as ANTH454: Travel and Tourism and ANTH654: Advanced Studies in Travel and Tourism. In this case, the 400-level undergraduates and the 600-level graduate students will meet together in the same classroom for lectures and discussion, but the two groups will work from different syllabi, with the graduate students required to complete additional, more challenging work.
  • Please remember that in some cases, graduate students can take courses at either the 400- or 600-level. Joinlty offered 400- and 600-level courses should have distinctly different titles and descriptions so that it is evident in the Graduate Catalog that these are substantively different courses with different expectations. This practice follows the University System of Maryland guidelines for course numbering and maintains the integrity of graduate education. 

The University of Maryland follows the Maryland Higher Education Commission's (MHEC) policies governing the assignment of academic credit (see COMAR 13B.02.02.16(D)). Under current MHEC regulations, a credit hour is based on an amount of student work defined by the institution and consistent with commonly accepted practice in postsecondary education. In most courses, this work includes both instructional activities led or facilitated by the instructor and independent work completed by students.

General Expectations

As a general guideline for semester-based courses, one semester credit hour typically represents approximately one hour of direct faculty instruction and at least two hours of out-of-class student work each week over a 15-week semester, or the equivalent amount of work over a different academic period.

Different instructional formats engage students in different ways. For lecture and discussion courses, student work typically includes a combination of scheduled instructional time and independent work completed outside of class. For laboratory, studio, practicum, internship, and other experiential courses, a greater portion of the required student work occurs during supervised instructional activities. Regardless of instructional format, courses should require an equivalent overall amount of academic work for the credit awarded.

Contact Hours and Instructional Format

Although MHEC's credit hour definition is based on total student work rather than prescribed contact hours, the university continues to collect instructional format and expected contact hours as part of the course approval process.

When submitting a new course proposal in the Curriculum Inventory Management (CIM) system, proposers identify the instructional format (for example, lecture, discussion, laboratory, studio, or experiential learning). Based on the instructional format and credit distribution entered, CIM calculates the expected contact hours using the university's established guidelines. These guidelines represent the university's standard expectations for the amount of instructional activity associated with each instructional format and are used during the curriculum review process to help ensure that courses provide an appropriate amount of instructional activity and overall student work for the credit awarded.

As a rule of thumb for standard semester courses:

• Lecture and discussion courses typically meet approximately one hour per week for each credit awarded.
• Laboratory and studio courses typically require approximately two hours of scheduled instruction per week for each credit awarded.
• Experiential courses, such as practica and internships, typically require approximately three hours of supervised activity per week for each credit awarded.

Courses that combine instructional formats should apportion credit among the applicable formats. For example, a 3-credit course consisting of approximately two-thirds lecture and one-third laboratory should be entered in CIM as 2 lecture credits and 1 laboratory credit.

Online and hybrid courses should provide an equivalent amount of student work appropriate to the credits awarded.

Additional University Policies

The Graduate School has additional restrictions concerning the pace at which graduate credit may be awarded. The Graduate Catalog specifies that no more than three contact hours per day may be accumulated and that no more than one credit hour per week may be awarded. See the section entitled Criteria for Courses to be Accepted for Graduate Credit in the Graduate Catalog.

Similarly, the Undergraduate Catalog establishes maximum semester credit loads. Students may not exceed the published maximum credit limits without prior approval of their dean. See the section entitled Credit Hours and Maximum Credits Each Semester in the Undergraduate Catalog.

• A syllabus is required to be submitted with all new undergraduate and graduate course proposals, except in the case where the course is being created as a generic base course for suffixed offerings, such as special topics courses, where the syllabi will vary by suffixed offering. 
• Required components for syllabi considered in the course approval process (approved by the Senate Programs, Curricula & Courses Committee in December 2001, to be updated as needed): 
  1. A description of the rationale and overall theme of the course, with an overview of course content.
  2. A statement of the objectives, including what kinds of skills and/or knowledge the students are to take away from the course.
  3. A list of co- and pre-requisites, if applicable.
  4. Examples of texts, readings, or other resource materials.
  5. An overview of the course structure, format, and pedagogies. For example, would the course involve lecture; discussion; laboratories; student presentations; written examinations; oral examinations; papers; homework assignments; or use of the internet or other IT resources for research, chat rooms, or listservs.
  6. A statement of student-faculty interaction opportunities, including, for example, length of office hours, email and telephone access, review sessions, and study groups, if these are important for defining the nature of the course.
  7. A general statement of the grading scheme.
  8. The syllabus presented to the class will, of course, include additional information, such as the name of the TA, office hours, grading schemes, policies on make up exams, policies on academic dishonesty, accessibility, and religious holidays, and specific readings and assignments. 
• Attendance/class participation. The University policy on attendance is available in the Undergraduate Catalog. Please note: For purposes of the course approval process, syllabi should not mention "attendance" at all, but rather should use the terminology "class participation" if in-class participation is to be part of the assessment process (such as in a foreign language course). Obviously, students cannot fulfill the requirement for class participation if they are not present for the class.
• Departments are encouraged to use the course proposal process as an opportunity to ensure that syllabi include reminders about academic integrity, information for students with disabilities, etc. A list of recommended components is available through the Office of the Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs.

See also the full University of Maryland policy on grading symbols and notations used on transcripts.

• Regular, Pass-Fail, Audit (RPA) is the default grading method for undergraduate courses. Academic Affairs and the Office of the Registrar strongly recommend the use of this grading method in all undergraduate course proposals to maintain the greatest flexibility for the department, as it allows the Dean to permit a late change in grading method (e.g., to Audit) in the case of a student emergency such as grave illness or injury. Pass-Fail and Audit options may be offered or restricted at the discretion of the department on a semester-by-semester basis, so approval of these options does not automatically require the department to offer them.
  • Pass-Fail is a limited undergraduate grading method option for students. Graduate students are not eligible to receive this grading option. Pass-Fail cannot be offered by itself but is offered with Regular or Regular, Audit. See the Undergraduate Catalog section on Registration, Academic Requirements and Regulations for additional restrictions on Pass-Fail. 
• Regular, Audit (RA) is the default grading method for graduate courses. Graduate research (e.g., 799, 898 and 899) can be graded through a regular grade or satisfactory/fail, or both. 
• Satisfactory-Fail can be offered on its own. It is usually offered on the graduate level (e.g., for thesis and dissertation research), but can also be offered at the undergraduate level. 

Courses are numbered as follows, per University System of Maryland policy III-6.10:

• 000-099 Non-degree-credit courses 
• 100-299 Lower-division courses, primarily for first-year students and sophomores 
• 300-499 Upper-division courses, primarily for juniors and seniors
  • 400-499 courses may be available for credit toward some graduate degrees 
• 500-899 Post-baccalaureate courses 
• 900-999 Post-doctoral courses 

Repeatable courses are those in which a student may enroll for credit multiple times when course content differs. Repeatable courses are either (1) standard academic elements such as colloquia or thesis research, or (2) umbrella special topics courses through which new courses are piloted or discrete iterations of a broad theme are offered. It is the responsibility of the student's department to monitor students who exceed program limits for particular repeatable courses. 

All repeatable courses must use a number ending in "8" or "9," such as ENSP399: Special Topics in Environmental Science and Policy. Individual topics are then differentiated from each other by adding a letter suffix to the course number (e.g., ENSP399A: Special Topics in Environmental Science and Policy: Introduction to Environmental Law).

Certain letter suffixes should be avoided because they are used to designate special sections dedicated to particular academic programs, such as Honors (H), College Park Scholars (S), or sections of English courses designed for students for whom English is a second language (X). 

The course scheduling system allows users to choose from two types of permission. The permission of department option actually blocks students from registering for the course without an electronic (or paper) stamp from the department. The permission of instructor option does not prevent students from registering, but does allow an instructor to request that a student who has registered without permission be removed from the class. Obviously, the permission of instructor option should not be used as a primary means of restricting entry into the class, but should instead be used in conjunction with prerequisites (e.g., GEOL 102 or permission of instructor.)

Please note that when Workday Student is implemented, permission of department will supersede any prerequisites or restriction information. Consider whether the prerequisite and/or restriction information will be enough to condition eligibility for the course.

You can request a new course prefix by sending an email to pcc-submissions@umd.edu. Please indicate the reason for the new prefix and also how the prefix should be described in publications (e.g., CHEM is listed as Chemistry in the academic catalog and schedule of classes). Often, a new course prefix is requested as part of a new program proposal, in which case the new prefix will not be approved until the program proposal is approved. 

If your unit wants to change the course prefix for all of the courses in the department or program, please review this important guidance as this is a lengthy and multi-step process. Changing the course prefix for one course only requires a course modification proposal.