RCS Course Catalog Resources & Tutorials

Basic Overview

-What is the General Catalog? 

• The General Catalog is comprised of the Courses, Calendar, Academic Programs, Academic Support, Policies, and Archived General Catalogs.  The current policies, structures, and setup of the University of Arizona are contained on this website.  The Courses and Policies section will be most useful to departments as they create and maintain their curriculum as the UA. The policies section contains course policies comprised of HLC, ABOR, and the University of Arizona policies.  These policies ensure a high-quality education to UA students across Campuses, Colleges, and Departments. 

-What is the Course Catalog?

• The Course Catalog houses the structure of courses offered at the University of Arizona. The structure provides the course title, description, units, typically offered, grading basis, repeat for credit rules, course attributes, offerings, academic organization, requirement groups, requisite text (Catalog note), field trips, component type(s) (lecture, discussion, lab, etc.). It lives in UAccess and is used administratively by Departments and Colleges. 

-What is the Browse Catalog?

• The Browse Catalog also provides the basic structure of a course offered at the University of Arizona. It is linked to the Course Catalog and the Schedule of Classes. It provides the overview of the course's learning outcomes, units, grading basis, and component type (lecture, lab, etc.). It lives in UAccess and is used by current and incoming Students. 

-What is the difference between the General Catalog, Course Catalog, and Browse Catalog?

General Catalog contains all information regarding the setup and structure of the Academic side of the UA, with an emphasis on course policy that is maintained by Curricular Affairs.  Room and Course Scheduling uses the policies to setup courses in the Course Catalog once courses are approved by Curricular Affairs. The Course Catalog is then used to build the official Schedule of Classes, with the approved “structure” and set-up of a section being pulled from the Course Catalog. Browse Catalog is open to the public, a more public friendly view to see what could be offered, and there are links to the Schedule of Classes for what will actually be offered, as well as when the course was previously offered.

-How are courses managed in the Course Catalog by Room and Course Scheduling?

RCS receives Course Forms from departments and process accordingly. There are three types of Course Forms: Add, Modify, and Inactivate.

-When can I add/modify/inactivate courses in the Couse Catalog?

Dates & Deadlines page! Anything submitted after the deadline will not be given priority.

- Where do I go to add/modify/inactivate my courses?

UAccess Administrative login> Navigator Bar> Curriculum Management> UA Curriculum Management>Course Management> UA Course Add, UA Course Modify, and UA Course Inactivate.

-What is an add course form?

Adding a new historical record of a course or creating a course that does not already exist. Creating a new Course # ID.

-What is a modify course form?

Adjusting features or information of an already existing course or course #ID i.e., changing units.  

-What is an inactivate course form?

To deactivate a section and no longer make course active. Making the course inactive for future semester to come.

-What is the difference between an add, modify, and inactivate course form?

An add form creates a new Course # ID, a modify form makes changes to an existing Course # ID (less than 25% change), and an inactivate form deactivates a course entirely.

-What priority do my course forms have?

Forms that reach the final approval status before the term deadline are given priority for processing.  Any Course Form submitted after the deadline will not be given priority.

How are course forms routed in the Course Catalog workflow?

RCS receives Course Forms, reviews the form to be sure the structural pieces are filled out, and routes the form.  Mistakes or lapse of information on the form may lead to delays or denial of forms. RCS routes each Course Form to the corresponding department on the approval route (approval may be necessary from multiple people within the department). 

-Who are course forms routed to?

Department heads, college deans with provisioning to approve course courses for the departments and colleges. Also, departments such as Curricular Affairs, Honors College, UWGEC, or departments who are listed as a secondary or whose courses are listed as pre/co-requisites. Please note that Curricular Affairs (Curriculum on the route), is responsible to review the policy compliance for course content. syllables. 

-What are the roles of the people in the route?

To approve and sign off on the add, modification, or inactivation of a course. Needs multiple people to sign off on the request and completion of the Course Form. RCS is the first and last department routed in the process to ensure consistency.

-Why does my course form need to be routed?

UA Policy. To confirm and manage correctly the record of a course in compliance with UA policies.

-How do I check where in the workflow my course form is?

Once a Course Form is submitted, the person who submitted the Form can always sign back into the UAccess Administrative Login page and go to the corresponding type of Form that was submitted.

Under the UAccess Navigator Bar>Curriculum Management>UA Curriculum Management>Course Management> UA Course Add, UA Course Modify, and UA Course Inactivate. Select which type of form you had sent in. Course Forms are specific to the type sent in.

-I am managing my courses for the Course Catalog for my department... but what does it all mean?

-What is the Course ID and how is it used?

Each active Course is assigned a specific Course ID. It is used to trace the history or historical changes made to a course.

-What does the Effective Date of the Course Catalog mean?

The date in which a record of a course is/was valid. Always use the most recent Effective Date when scheduling. Moving forward, anything processed after the effective date must follow that record.

-What does the Status of a course in the Couse Catalog mean?

Inactive means course cannot be scheduled at the section level. Any active section/ record in the Course Catalog RCS can use in the Schedule of Classes. 

-What are the Description, Long Description, Long Course Title, and how do they differ? 

The Description of the course is a succinct label of the course to identify it and is usually a short version of the long course title at 30 characters(spaces are included in the character count).  The Long Course Description is a focused statement which informs a student about the subject matter, approach, and breadth of the course material being covered in a course. 

-What is the Description? How long can it be?

The Description of the course is a succinct label of the course to identify it and is usually a shortened version of the long course title.  Character limit is 30.

-What is the Long Course Title? How long can it be?

The Long Course Title should give a short, general description of the subject matter covered.  The character limit is 100.

-What is the Long Description?

The 

-What does the Course Units/Hours/Count mean?

• Minimum Units: The least amount of credit a student can receive for taking a course.
• Maximum Units: The most amount of credit a student can receive from taking a course.
• Academic Progress Units: Units that a student is currently enrolled in the current semester. Units that a student is currently in progress completing. For each college, a student must complete foundational courses before progressing to higher numbered courses. 
• Financial Aid Progress Units: To receive the proper amount of financial aid, a student must be registered with at least 12 units to be considered full-time or must be enrolled in so many units per semester. 
• Last Course of Mult Term Seq: Indicator on the last course in a multi-course sequence.  Currently only used by MEDP.
• Enrollment Unit Load Calc Type: Delivered function of UAccess, not in use at UA.
• Course Count: Delivered function of UAccess, not in use at UA.
• Course Contact Hours: The number of hours a student is required to complete working in the classroom in order to receive a unit of credit. One unit equals one week minimum of full in-person class work.

-What does Course Grading mean?

• Grading Basis: The grades assigned to the course that will be used on the student's records. Please see the General Catalog- Grades and the Grading System
• Graded Component: The component that the grade is assigned to.
• Grade Roster Print: Delivered function of UAccess, not in use at UA.

-What does Typically Offered?

The semesters in which a course is typically offered but not necessarily restricting the department to offer them in these semesters only. Serves as a reference for a student to plan their schedule ahead of time.  

-What are the Repeat for Credit Rules?

Only for special topic courses (Seminar, Colloquium, Symposium, etc) where a student is achieving new learning outcomes every time they take the course. 

-What are the Additional Course Information fields?

• Instructor Edit: "No Choice"
• Add Consent: "No Consent"
• Drop Consent: "No Consent"
• Requirement Designation: Only used for Honors College courses with the HNRS prefix.
• Equivalent Course Group: Logic attached for courses where 70% of the content overlaps. Students will receive message during registration that credit will only be given for one course in the logic, system will not stop them from registering.

-What are Course Attributes? 

Attributes indicate further information about the grading of the course, whether course has Course Equivalencies or is mutually exclusive, writing emphasis, if the course is Cross-Listed, if course is honors, Gen Ed, etc.

 

-What is the Course Offering tell me and how do I use it?

• Course Offering Nbr: the sequence of departments or subject that are Cross-Listed with one another. Typically, the first offering nbr is designated for the home department or department that owns the course. Each corresponding subject is filled accordingly as a new course offering nbr.
• Academic Institution: UAZ00 for the University of Arizona         
• Academic Group: UA General for general University of Arizona course
• Subject Area: Area of profession or subject a course covers      
• Campus: MAIN campus for Main Campus students, UA Online Campus for Online students, and DIST Campus for approved Distance offered sections.
• Academic Organization: the department that owns the course or is in charge of offering it for a semester/term.
• Academic Career: Undergraduate, Graduate, Medical, etc.
• Course Typically Offered: When a section of the course is most likely to be offered. Not restricted to these.
• Tuition Group: Tuition difference based off Tuition group.
• Dynamic Class Date Rule: Delivered function of UAccess, not in use at UA.
• Allow OEE Enrollment: This field is seen only historically on Correspondance courses.  
• Course Approved box: If approved then checked
• Catalog Print: if the schedule print box is checked then the course appears in the general class search conducted by students. When unchecked, students will be unable to search for the class as the section is only made seen or available to department representatives.
• Print Instructor in Schedule:Delivered function of UAccess, not in use at UA.
• Schedule Print: Delivered function of UAccess, not in use at UA.
• Schedule Term Roll: Delivered function of UAccess, not in use at UA.
• Use Blind Grading: Delivered  function of UAccess, not in use at UA.
• GL Interface Required: Delivered function of UAccess, not in use at UA.
• Split Ownership: Delivered  function of UAccess, not in use at UA.

-How do I use the course offering number?

You can navigate through the offering numbers to see which courses have Cross-Listing’s. Course offering number one is usually the home department.

-How do I know how the primary academic organization is for the course?

The Academic Organization (four-digit number) under the Offering tab in the Course Catalog will always give you the name of the department that owns the course.

-What is the Enrollment Requirement Group?

• Requirement Group: Places a specific code to exclude or include the correct students for a course. Restricts enrollment to certain students in special circumstances. E.g., Honors Requirement Group (015056) that requires “Student must be active in the Honors College. Requirement Groups are indicated and stamped with a 6-digit number. Requirement Group cannot contradict anything in the Long Description of the Course Catalog.
• Long Description:Specifies the details of a course and informs students what they need to know or explains what the course will cover in a semester. 

-What are Course Catalog Characteristics?

• Experimental Course:  Temporary course that lasts a year designation.  The course will have a preset inactivation record. 
• Per Unit Fee: Delivered  function of UAccess, not in use at UA.
• Flat Fee: Determined by Curricular Affairs through the Course Fee approval process.  Fees are charged to students taking an in-person or hybrid course.
• iCourse Fee: Not in use since 2015.
• Other Fees: Notify students that fees are pending in the Course Fee Approval process.
• Purpose of Fee: Course rationale for charging a fee to students on top of tuition costs, i.e. lab supplies, equipment refresh, trips, etc... 
• Give the rationale for the request (include purpose & establishment of fee & history of increases)
• Change of Course ID for GRO: Delivered  function of UAccess, not in use at UA.
• Co-Convened: Undergraduate course combined with a Graduate Course. The last two corresponding catalog numbers must match in order to be Co- Convened. Listed in the Course Catalog also.
• Engineering Science Units: Delivered  function of UAccess, not in use at UA.
• Course Requisites: Students must meet the Course Prerequisites in their preparation to take the course.  
• Field Trips: Are there any specific field trips involved with a course that requires students to meet for class outside of its normal meeting pattern.

-What are Course Catalog Components?

• Course Component: The type of structure a course has. 
• Instructor Contact Hours: Instructors must meet with students a minimum of 15 contact hours per unit. 
• Default Section Size: 1. Departments can input correct enrollment number and section size.
• Workload Hours: Instructors can split the workload hours to all add up to the corresponding unit workload.
• OEE Workload Hours: Not in use since 2013. 
• Final Exam: Yes/No option. Each course is given a designated final exam time at the beginning of the semester located on registrar.arizona.edu. This final exam time is dependent upon the meeting pattern of the course during the semester.  
• Provider for Authentication: Delivered function of UAccess, not in use at UA.
• LMS Extract File Type: Delivered function of UAccess, not in use at UA.
• Auto Create: Selected to have components prepopulate on the Adjust Class Association in the Schedule of Classes.
• Graded Component: The component of the course that is graded or where the student receives credit on their transcript. 
• Primary Component: the component of the course receiving/generating the most workload hours. 
• Optional Component: a component that is listed on the Course Catalog but has the optional box checked. At this point the department can dictate whether or not to offer the optional component for a semester.
• Generate Class Mtg Attendance: Delivered function of UAccess, not in use at UA.
• Include in Dynamic Date Calc: Delivered function of UAccess, not in use at UA.
• What is the different between a single component and multiple component class?
• When should I use multiple components? 
• What is Course Attendance? Delivered function of UAccess, not in use at UA.
• What is Room Characteristic Required? Delivered function of UAccess, not in use at UA.

In order to be added to the Course Catalog, new courses must include a syllabus for review in the Course Management process. The final syllabus review is handled by Curricular Affairs, Provost's Office. If you have any questions, please contact Curricular Affairs, Pam Coonan at coonan@email.arizona.edu. 

• The policy on Undergraduate Course Syllabi can be found in the General Catalog. This page also includes a template for instructors to start with when creating syllabi for new courses. 
• The policy on Graduate Course Syllabi can be found in the General Catalog.
• There is no campus wide policy for the Law, Pharmacy, or Medical careers. Departments should follow guidance from their college when creating syllabi for new courses in these careers.

We encourage everyone to drop in to RCS Open Labs for help with the Course Catalog, Schedule of Classes, and Event Scheduling. Please feel free to drop in and recieve one-on-one training. After our Open Labs, you are welcome to stay the rest of the day in our collaborative work area and ask questions as you fill out our forms or schedule your classes during Open Scheduling. 

RCS Office Hours will take place will be held daily (except on University Holidays) at the following times in M LNG 347: 

• Monday: 11-11:50 am

• Tuesday: 8 - 8:50 am

• Wednesday: 11-11:50 am

• Thursday: 8 - 8:50 am

• Friday: 11-11:50 am