Courses form field details

Select undergraduate for course numbers 0-599.

Select graduate for course numbers 600-999.

Read the Important! field, it will guide you to complete this section.

Undergraduate: Should always be the fall term of the following academic calendar. If an other effective date is required, reach out to the Office of the Registrar.

New: Course does not currently exist/needs to be created.

Change: Course is in the Kuali CM database with a Quest ID number and a modification is needed to the course.

Retire: Course is in the Kuali CM database with a Quest ID number and the desire is to inactivate the course (no longer make it active).

See creating new courses - what to consider.

Undergraduate: No

Graduate: Yes

Undergraduate: No

Graduate: Yes

Undergraduate courses currently appear in the 100, 200, 300, 400, and for Engineering only, 500 levels. See more information on undergraduate course numbers.

Graduate courses appear in the 600, 700, 800, and 900 levels. 

Courses have three digits (exceptions: PD courses, high school equivalencies, uncredited seminars which may have one or two digits). Courses may have letter suffixes (e.g., 100A, 266L).

The official course title; can be no longer than 100 characters (including spaces).

• Also appears on a student’s official transcript.

• Should not contain any abbreviations or "&".

• Use numbers (e.g., 1/2) instead of roman numerals (e.g., I/II) for accessibility purposes.

• Appears on the Schedule of Classes, Course Selection Offerings List, throughout Quest (academic requirements reports, student's academic record, class rosters, etc.), student's unofficial transcript, WaterlooWorks grade reports, etc.

• Abbreviations may be used, while considering where it will appear and clarity should be retained.

• See the full list of guidelines to create abbreviated titles.

The description should be reviewed to remove grammatical and typographical errors.

Review undergraduate guidelines for writing a description. 

Courses are assigned unit weights, which are used to calculate weighted averages.

• They can vary from 0.00 to 3.00 credits.
• Most one-term courses carry a 0.50 unit weight.
• List of currently used unit weights: 0.00 (e.g., non-credit seminar), 0.13, 0.20, 0.25 (labs), 0.75, 1.00, 1.50, 2.00, 2.50 (term abroad), 3.00 (clerkship).
• Use two decimal places in Kuali CM.
• If unit weights are changed, they will automatically update where displayed in the plans and course requisites.

If the course can be used to satisfy an Undergraduate Communication Requirement in any program or plan on campus, 'yes' should be selected for this field.

If 'yes' is selected, every proposal for this course will be reviewed by the Undergraduate Communication Requirement Group (via the workflow).

Component is a term used to refer to the various course meet types. Components do not display in the academic calendars as of fall 2024, but approval to add/remove components attached to a course is required. See list of available components.

All components that could potentially be scheduled should be listed. Only those listed are considered approved and can be scheduled.

Note: Within Kuali CM, there is no limit to the number of components that can be listed for a course. However, scheduling limits the number of components that can be attached to a class to three; students can be enrolled in the primary component, and then enrolled in up to two more components (i.e., Related 1 and Related 2). 

"Standard" refers to a numeric grade and a pass at 50%.

Undergraduate course special grading options include:

• Grading on a credit/no credit basis
• No grade required

• Pass grade = 60%

• Pass grade = 70%

Some courses, like work-report courses, need to be coded as not charging a fee for students. In this type of scenario, leave this field blank and add pertinent details in the rationale field. The office of the Registrar will reach out, after final approval, to ascertain necessary details.

Options for graduate grading basis include:

• Alpha Grading Basis
• Credit/No Credit
• Credit/No Credit (TRACE)
• No Grade Required
• Non-Graded Component
• Numerical Grading Basis
• Student Option

When a course is deemed to be repeatable, this means a student can take the same course multiple times or can enrol in multiple sections of one course simultaneously, normally subject to different content. 

See more information on topic courses and repeat rules.

Undergraduate: Selection must be 02-10 only. Each faculty may have guidelines for consistency, reach out to the applicable undergraduate office. 

Graduate: Options include 02-10, 30, and 99.

By default, all courses require no consent to add or drop, unless either of the following two are approved:

1. Department consent

2. Instructor consent

New courses require the proposer to indicate the type of consent needed for students to add/swap and drop a course (i.e., department consent required, instructor consent required, no consent required).

Notes:

• Students will not be able to self-enrol in courses requiring consent to add; they will need to obtain approval via a Course Override Form or a permission number. 
• "or by department/instructor consent" is not to be added to prerequisites since many academic units are open to the possibility for students outside the academic unit and/or faculty to take their courses.

Notes are used to give students additional pertinent information about the course that cannot be coded in another area of the course. It is not appropriate to include information that should reside on a departmental/program website.

Notes should be formatted as a list of round bullets and follow the guidelines dictating allowable notes.

Committee approvals: Most proposals will go through this path and culminate at the applicable Senate Council. 

Editorial: A quick way to submit corrections to the Office of the Registrar or Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs. If approved, the change will be updated in the Kuali CM database. If the changed field is listed in the academic calendar and is made to a published version of the academic calendar, the change will be viewable as an amendment (an "addendum").

Undergraduate: See more information for what changes are editorial vs needs approval. 

More than one can be selected and all faculties and institutions that should approve the curriculum must be added.

AFIW: List self + associated faculty (if applicable)

Faculties: List self

Non-faculty/AFIW areas: Leave blank

Note: In the scenario where a course has been created by using the Duplicate function, a user will need to Save and Exit the form, then go back to the form via Edit, before being able to fill in this field. This is a known issue and the vendor is investigating a solution.