Core Curriculum Process

Page Updated: April 2, 2021

Submitting a Course to the Core

The key to submitting a course to the Core is preparation. You will need to determine which FCA (or CAO) your course will fall under, whether your course meets the definition of that FCA (definitions can be found at curriculum.unt.edu), and what the necessary course objectives are. You then must develop one or more signature assignments that will allow students to demonstrate mastery of those course objectives and that will allow you or some outside scorer to measure the degree of that mastery. Finally, you will need to follow the necessary steps through the curricular process to gain approval of your course from both UNT and the THECB.

If these seems overwhelming or unduly complicated, consult with the Director of the Core. It is actually advisable to consult with the Director in every case. It is not required, of course, but the Director is a resource for you, and a consultation may prevent a minor mistake that will cost you down the road. The Director can assist with issues of timing, help draft or review signature assignments, and assist with navigating TracDat.

Forms and Other Core Curriculum Processes

As with all curriculum proposals, proposals related to courses in the Core Curriculum are processed through the Curriculog system (unt.curriculog.com). Any member of the UNT community can access Curriculog, but you do need permission to start a proposal. It is advisable to have at least one person in your department who has that permission and who understands the curriculum process.

The vast majority of Core-related curriculum proposals will require approval of the Director of Core Curriculum and a majority of the voting members of the Oversight Committee of the Core Curriculum.

The primary curricular forms relating to the Core are:

Change in Existing Core Course - This involves changes to seemingly minor things like course prefixes, credit hours, description, title, cross-listing, etc. It will nevertheless require you to submit a complete assessment plan (all of the signature assignments you will use to assess your core objectives). Do not take this step for granted. Sometimes, the standards set by the THECB change, so the assignments that passed when you originally created the course will no longer be acceptable.

Change in Existing Core Course Structure - This is the form you use when you are making a more significant change to a core course: you are changing its FCA, you are purposefully changing the assessment method, or you are purposefully changing objectives.

Deletion of a Core Course - You should use this form if you are deleting a course entirely or simply taking it out of the Core. This is usually a non-controversial process.

Addition of a Course to the Core Curriculum - This is relatively self-explanatory. It bears noting that this can be the addition of a brand new course or the addition of an existing course to the Core. In either event, the proposal will need to contain a full assessment plan: a sample syllabus for the course and the assignments that will be used to measure the four Core objectives assigned to the FCA associated with the course.

Critical Note:

If you are creating a new course to add to the core, the curricular process[SM2] of creating a new course and the curricular process of adding it to the Core are SEPARATE. In other words, you will need to submit one form, and begin one process, to have your course recognized as a course by UNT. You will need to start a separate, parallel process to have your course declared as a Core course. Both of these processes are in Curriculog, but they involve originating two separate, parallel proposals.