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Periodic Review

Faculty

The Periodic Course Review process is a regular review of existing courses in the University Studies curriculum. The annual review is completed by a faculty committee and supported by Undergraduate Studies and the University Studies Advisory Committee.

The goals of this ongoing review process are:

  • to sustain awareness of University Studies category SLOs and their relationship to UNCW’s learning goals;
  • to give departments the opportunity to reflect on their courses in the curriculum in relation to best practices in the category; and
  • to identify courses that are not working as part of the category.

Background

The Faculty Senate’s charge to the USAC (p.37) places among the Committee’s duties to review both existing and proposed content of University Studies curriculum. As part of meeting that charge, the USAC proposed—via a 2014 motion that was approved by the Faculty Senate—a mechanism for reviewing regularly the existing courses that form the curriculum.

The review process was operationalized in early 2020 and implemented in Fall 2020. This ongoing curriculum review both provides evidence that University Studies courses continue to meet the student learning outcomes for each component and also eliminates the need for an extensive recertification process when changes are made to the exisitng curriculum.

Three Year Schedule

The ongoing review process operates on a three-year schedule, organized by component:

  • Year 1: Approaches and Perspectives
  • Year 2: Foundations and Explorations Beyond the Classroom
  • Year 3: Building Competencies

Annual Process

The review process for a given component begins with each academic year with any concerns or recommendations being reported to departments in the following fall:

  1. Fall of Academic Year: Departments are notified by the Director of Undergraduate Studies of their existing University Studies courses that are included in current year’s review cycle and given instructions for submitting course syllabi and supporting narrative, with a due date in early spring semester of the same academic year. Workshops to support departments in their effort are offered during the fall semester.
  2. Spring of Academic Year: For each course being reviewed, departments submit all course section syllabi from the current AY and a brief narrative description that positively asserts the place of that course in the University Studies component in which it resides.
  3. Summer following the Academic Year: Review Committee use a rubric to review a random 20% sample of syllabi. Each syllabus in the sample is reviewed by two committee members. The Review Committee compiles and delivers a report of the review results to the University Studies Advisory Committee chair and Director of University Studies by June 30.
  4. Fall of next Academic Year: the USAC chair and US Director deliver review findings and any flagged courses/recommendations to the USAC (potentially at the first USAC meeting of the academic year). USAC will report to departments in September any concerns or recommended revisions to SLOs or course in a given category with a due date in early spring for revisions submitted to USAC.
Files for the ongoing review process (SharePoint)

Contact

For questions regarding the review process, contact Dr. Don Bushman.