COCI Policies and Procedures

Policies and Procedures

1. General Procedures
   1. Authority of Academic Senate Committee on Courses
   2. The Approval Process
   3. Types of Proposals Needing Senate Committee Approval
2. Establishment of Courses
   1. Level and Emphasis in University Courses
   2. Scope and Organization of Courses (including cross-listing)
3. Course Specifications
   1. Course Title and Description
   2. Course Classification and Numbering
   3. Credit for Courses
   4. Prerequisites
   5. Mode of Grading
   6. Instructor
4. Summer Sessions Offerings
5. Course Evaluations
6. Credit by Examination

Appendices

1. Expanded Course Description (ECD) Format
2. General Education (GE) Certification
3. Requests for Approval of Appointment of Associate Instructors to Teach Upper Division Classes
4. Grading Variances
5. UC Policy on Minimum Class Size
6. Virtual and Hybrid Courses
7. Policy for the Appointment of Undergraduates as Readers and Teaching Assistants
8. Policy for the Appointment of Nonstudents as Teaching Assistants
9. Policy on Student Facilitated Courses
10. Policy on Equitable Delivery of Instruction in a Course
11. Expedited Removal of General Education Literacies
12. Final Exam Administration Options

Outlined below are policies and procedures developed by the Davis Division of the Academic Senate Committee on Courses of Instruction pertaining to the development, modification, and cancellation of courses offered by departments and other academic units on campus. In considering course requests, each College Committee on Courses as well as the Senate Committee will be guided by the policies described below, recognizing, however, that unusual circumstances may justify exceptions.

1. GENERAL PROCEDURES

   1. The Regents have delegated to the Academic Senate responsibility for authorization and supervision of courses of instruction (Board of Regents Bylaw 40.1); in accordance with this delegation, the Davis Division Committee on Courses of Instruction must approve all courses or changes in courses offered at UC Davis, including Continuing and Professional Education courses yielding credit, before they may be taught or information regarding them be announced in any University catalog, schedule, or other publication. Approved courses are subject to the Committee's review at any time.

   2. Departments, divisions, sections, programs, and other units offering courses (hereafter, the simpler term "department" will be used to refer to any of these units) may initiate requests for approval of new courses or changes in existing courses. Requests must be submitted via the Integrated Curriculum Management System (ICMS).
      1. An Expanded Course Description must accompany all requests, except for cancellations, internships (numbered 92), directed group study courses (numbered 98 or 198), special or independent study courses (numbered 99 or 199), and teaching assistant practicum courses (numbered 396).
      2. Instructors must carefully edit these forms for spelling and grammatical errors. A form with excessive errors will be returned to the department.
      3. The Remarks section of the online form is crucial. It should provide a brief rationale for the request, and in the case of change(s) to an existing course, it should summarize the change(s) and explain the reasons for them. In a case in which a package of several related requests is submitted, a "cover letter" consisting of remarks applying to the package as a whole can be placed in the Remarks section of the courses.
      4. Each request for an undergraduate course is reviewed by the appropriate agencies of the department's school or college; graduate course requests are reviewed by the Graduate Council's Subcommittee on Courses. Course requests that are approved are forwarded to the Senate Committee on Courses of Instruction for final action.

   3. The criteria regarding whether a proposal needs Committee approval are as follows:

      Changes that require Committee approval include:

      1. Course title, number, and unit value
      2. Transfer of course from one academic unit to another
      3. Catalog description
      4. Mode of grading
      5. Any change in learning activity (e.g., substitution of term paper for discussion section, use of a virtual discussion section, or substitution of Web notes for lectures) must be approved by the Committee on Courses before it may be listed in the Class Schedule and Room Directory. (Departments should keep this requirement in mind when planning learning activities for new or amended courses.) Courses with the flexible learning activities "extensive writing or discussion" (W-D) or "term paper or discussion" (T-D) do not require special approval when opting for one or the other, but the department should notify the Office of the Registrar of their decision as far as possible in advance of the course.
      6. Changes in the course that affect its General Education status
      7. Repeat Credit
      8. Credit Limitations
      9. Cross Listing

       

      Changes that do not require Committee (COCI) approval:

      1. Instructor.
      2. Year.
      3. Quarter, semester or session.
      4. Restrictions (including Prerequisites)

2. ESTABLISHMENT OF COURSES

   1. Level and Emphasis in University Courses

      1. A University course should present an integrated body of knowledge, with primary emphasis upon elucidation of principles and theories.
      2. Courses of the type normally required for admission to the University and those taught by vocational schools should not be offered for credit. The University does, however, have use for courses in which development of skills and techniques is emphasized for the following reasons:
         1. As a necessary and integral part of professional training accomplished in courses that constitute a recognized professional curriculum.
         2. As a means of learning, analyzing, and criticizing theories and principles.
   2. Scope and Organization of Courses (including cross-listing)
      1. Without seeking to determine educational policy or infringe upon departmental judgment regarding course content, the Davis Division Committee on Courses of Instruction will employ the following criteria in evaluating course requests:
         1. Each course should have a clear and important place in the department's curriculum, either filling a gap or strengthening the program without duplication or needless overlap.
         2. There should not be a proliferation of courses, nor should course content be so limited, specialized, or narrow in scope that it could be better incorporated into others.
         3. The content of each course should represent a unified and integral body of subject matter.

      2. When proposed new courses include material generally recognized as falling within the province of another department, the Committee will consult the related department regarding the proposed course, the instructor, and any undesirable overlap of course with their offerings. Course requests coming to the Committee can avoid delays if a statement outlining the results of consultation on overlap with related departments is included in the Potential Course Overlap section of the course form in ICMS.

      3. Requests to cross-list courses will require strong justification in the Cross Listing Justification section of the course form in ICMS, which shows that cross-listing is preferable to traditional means of simply requiring or recommending a course offered by a specific department, program, or graduate group.

         Any combination of such units may request cross-listing. It must be shown that the course cannot be presented without a significant commitment of resources from each of the cross-listing units. Expanded course descriptions should be reasonably detailed, specifying the obligations of the units involved in the presentation of the course. The specific conditions that must be met for the approval of cross-listing courses are:

         (Please note that B.3. was revised 4/99)

         1. Course approval forms must be submitted at the same time by the collaborating units. These proposals must be identical in all respects except for the three-letter identifier (subject) code (and the course number if a common number is not available).
         2. The course proposed for cross-listing must be integral to all of the cross-listing programs.
         3. The course proposed for cross-listing must:
            1. Be regularly taught collaboratively by the units, or
            2. Be regularly offered by the cross-listing units in alternation, or
            3. Be offered by an instructor who is a member of all the units that wish to cross-list, or
            4. Be regularly supported through a significant commitment of resources (e.g., equipment, TAs, staff assistance, etc.) by the cross-listing units.
         4. Because courses should be designed for a particular level and taught at that level, a course may not be cross-listed at lower division and upper division levels or at undergraduate and graduate levels. (See Senate Regulation 762 or III.C.3 of this document.

3. COURSE SPECIFICATIONS

   Much of the information required in the ICMS Course Form will be included in the General Catalog listings of approved courses. In preparing the form, departments should adhere to the following standards.

   1. Course Title and Course Description
      1. The course title should be in English and should be brief and explicit.
      2. A description of the course of no more than 40 words should be included unless the course title is fully descriptive of the course content.
      3. The use of identical titles for courses offered by different departments (excluding honors, tutorials, directed group study, special study, seminar, and research courses discussed in paragraphs III-B-4, 5, 6, 7, 10, and 14 below) should be avoided.
      4. If two or more courses offered by one department have identical titles, they must have different descriptions.
      5. The preferred course designation and numbering for courses which cover a broad general subject area but have different sections is "Topics in ____" with A, B, C, etc., used to indicate the individual course segments. These section titles should be listed on the ICMS form and will appear in the General Catalog and on the students' transcripts.
   2. Course Classification and Numbering
      1. UC Davis courses are classified and numbered as follows:
         1. Lower division courses are numbered 1-99.
         2. Upper division courses are numbered 100-199.
         3. Graduate courses are numbered 200-299. Courses in the 200 series are designed to help students develop as scholars, researchers, and creative artists, with the potential to create new knowledge in their fields. Courses have a strong foundation in the theory, methods and principles used in research or in the production of scholarly or creative works. Courses focus on understanding and assessing the current state of knowledge, on research and creative work, and on methodology, as appropriate considering the nature of the field.
         4. Professional courses for teachers and courses intended for TA training are numbered 300-399. Courses in the 300 series are designed to help students become teachers and educators. Courses address problems and challenges facing educators and focus on methodology in teaching, research on teaching, and current teaching practices. Courses may emphasize the development of clear written and verbal communication skills. Courses designed to educate graduate students as teaching assistants should be numbered 390.
         5. Other professional courses (e.g., Law, Medicine) which emphasize material appropriate to a specific professional curriculum are numbered 400-499. Courses in the 400 series are designed to help students become practitioners in their fields. Courses prepare students for critical analysis of problems and the use of theory to solve problems in professional practice, other than teaching. Courses may emphasize aspects of the profession such as ethics, presentation skills, and information gathering techniques. Ordinarily, the content of professional courses is guided by requirements imposed by an appropriate extramural accreditation agency.
      2. Any change from upper to lower division (or vice versa) requires a description of the changes in course content which justify the change in numbering. This information must also be provided for proposed changes from graduate to undergraduate (or vice versa). This information should be included in the Remarks section of the ICMS form. This type of change requires submission of a discontinuation form for the current course along with a new course form for the new course.
      3. The suffix "N" should be used when an existing course is being discontinued and a course with different content is to be given its number. When a department believes students will no longer be affected (after a minimum of four years), an ICMS form discontinuing the “N” course can be submitted along with an ICMS form to recreate the course without the “N” suffix.
      4. A laboratory course associated with another course should be identified by an "L" added to its course number (e.g., Biochemistry 101 and 101L). Courses in sequence with "A" and "B" designations should also use the "L" to indicate a parallel laboratory course.
      5. A lower division course which gives an overview of a field of study for nonmajors should be numbered 10. This number should be reserved for this purpose.
      6. Lower division seminar courses should be similarly numbered 90-91 or 93-96. Upper division seminar courses should be numbered 190. If more than one course of this type is offered, the additional numbers 191, 193, 194, 195, and 196 may be used. Lower division seminars consisting of special topics examined in a small group setting are numbered 90X; upper division equivalents are numbered 190X. Undergraduate seminars which function as research group conferences should be numbered 190C. These courses are limited to one unit of credit and are to be graded P/NP only (no grading variances are permitted). 190C courses may be repeated for credit.
      7. Certain variable unit courses for groups of lower and upper division undergraduates are to be numbered 98 or 198, respectively, and given the title "Directed Group Study." These designations are reserved for courses whose content is not specified to any degree from one quarter to another.
      8. Lower division individual undergraduate special-study courses are numbered 99 and titled either "Special Study for Undergraduates" or "Independent Study." Similarly, upper division courses are numbered 199 and titled "Special Study for Advanced Undergraduates."
      9. A special study course for an honors program should be numbered 194H and titled "Special Study for Honors Students." This type of course is open only to honors students. Additional similar honors courses are to be numbered 195H-196H but each course should have a separate title. A regular course having special requirements for honors students must be identified in the course description and designated by both the regular number and the honors number (e.g., 165, 165H) or be listed as two courses.
      10. Internship courses should be numbered 92 or 192. Internships should have a substantial academic component. They are intended to provide students with an in-the-field educational experience as a complement to their traditional academic study.
      11. Special variable unit courses in which advanced students may receive credit for tutoring other undergraduate students should be numbered 197T (Tutoring). Tutoring in the community should be numbered 197TC. Students enrolled in 197Ts may not lead required discussion sections, required laboratory sections, required tutoring sections, or any other required activity; nor may they grade papers. Students enrolled in 197Ts may only tutor (i.e., help individual or small groups of students either outside of class or within a laboratory) or lead voluntary discussions or other voluntary activities. (AM. 10/08/03)
      12. Graduate seminar courses are numbered 290 and titled "Seminar" when the general subject varies from quarter to quarter. Graduate seminars which function as research group conferences should be numbered 290C, limited to one unit of credit, and graded S/U only (no grading variances are permitted). All 290 courses may be repeated for credit.
      13. A seminar in which the area of study is variable but restricted to some broad subsection of the general field should be given a number in the 291-297 range (preferably the lowest one available). The course title should indicate the general limitation in the field of study (e.g., Pomology 291- Seminar in Postharvest Physiology); titles for such courses need not include the words "seminar in."
      14. A seminar course which has the same general content each time it is offered should not use "Seminar" in its title. The fact that it is a seminar can be conveyed via the learning activities.
      15. Graduate courses that involve variable-subject group study but are not conducted as seminars should be given the number 298 and the title "Group Study."
      16. Special study or research courses for individual graduate students are to be numbered 299 or 299D. Normally, 299D should be reserved for students who have advanced to candidacy and who are involved in dissertation research.
      17. Generally, courses 92, 98, 99, 190C, 192, 197T, 197TC, 198, 199, 290, 290C, 298, 299 may be repeated for credit. See COCI Policy III.C.1.c. for information that must be provided in ICMS.
      18. For single lower division auto-tutorial courses, the letters AT should follow the course number, e.g., 15AT; for sequential lower division courses, such as the Spanish 1 series and the Religious Studies 31 series, the following number and letter arrangement must be used: Spanish 1ATA, 1ATB, 1ATC. Because only five characters are provided on the transcript for recording course numbers, the following number and letter arrangement should be adopted for sequential upper division courses: 101AT, 102AT, 103AT.
      19. "Teaching Assistant Training Practicum" courses should be numbered 396. Such a course is intended for use by active teaching assistants. It is a variable-unit course, allowing registration for 1 to 4 units. The Prerequisite is graduate standing, and the course is to be graded S/U only.
   3. Credit for Courses
      1. Units of credit are assigned to courses based on the "Carnegie rule" which specifies one unit of credit for three hours of work by the student per week. Usually this involves one hour of lecture or discussion led by the instructor and two hours of outside preparation by the student.
         1. Normally two hours of laboratory or studio time (plus an hour of outside preparation) are required for each unit of credit. Proposals for these courses will require assurance in the expanded course descriptions that the Carnegie unit standard is being followed.
         2. If the number of lecture or discussion hours specified in the General Catalog is less than the number of units of credit assigned to the course, some form of additional non-classroom work, such as a substantial term paper, is required of the student. Requests for courses with fewer contact hours than the number of units awarded (e.g., a 4-unit course that meets three hours per week) must be accompanied by adequate justification, which should be included in the Override Calculation Justification section of the ICMS form.
         3. Repeating a course for credit: Normally a given course cannot be taken a second time for degree credit. When a course offering is designed to allow for substantial changes in content (typically, these are "topics" courses) it may be repeated for credit. These circumstances should be explained in the “Repeat Credit, details” section of the ICMS form. The number of times a course may be repeated for credit must be specified in the ICMS form and will be published in the General Catalog description. If a course can be repeated for credit, students may receive credit for more than one section of the course in a single term, within the limits established in the ICMS form.
      2. The approved credit range for variable unit courses is as follows:
         • 90X: 1-2 or 1-4
         • 92: 1-15
         • 97T: 1-5
         • 97TC: 1-5
         • 98: 1-5
         • 99: 1-5
         • 190X: 1-2 or 1-4
         • 192: 1-15
         • 194: 1-5
         • 197T: 1-5
         • 197TC: 1-5
         • 198: 1-5
         • 199: 1-5
         • 297T: 1-5
         • 298: 1-5
         • 299D: 1-12
         • 396: 1-4
      3. Senate Regulation 762, "Credit in Courses," states, "No student, by merely performing additional work, may receive upper division credit for a lower division course or graduate credit for an undergraduate course. Related courses may share lectures, laboratories or other common content but must have clearly differentiated and unique performance criteria, requirements, and goals." On occasion, it may seem desirable for different but related upper and lower division courses or different but related upper division and graduate courses to share some lectures, laboratories, or other common content. (In no case may an identical course be given credit at both levels.) A request for such an arrangement may be approved by the Committee only if accompanied by strong justification which clearly shows that the courses in question have differential goals and requirements as evidenced by the activities of both the students and the faculty involved.

   4. Prerequisites

      1. The enforcement of prerequisites is the responsibility of the instructor and the department and left to the college to approve if the prerequisite is appropriate for the course.
         1. If no prerequisites are stated for a lower division course, it is understood that the course is open to any matriculated student whose standing is appropriate for the course.
         2. Consent of instructor is an implied prerequisite for any individual study course and need not be listed.
      2. The Regulations of the Academic Senate specify that ordinarily the minimum prerequisite for any upper division course is junior standing or completion of at least one lower division course in the same department. Upper division courses may be listed in the General Catalog with no stated prerequisite if this minimum prerequisite is sufficient. Ordinarily, it is not necessary to state "Consent of instructor" as a prerequisite.

   5. Mode of Grading

      The Committee may request additional information on grading procedures where nonstandard teaching practices and/or assignments are involved. As options to the usual letter grade system, the following approaches may be used, as appropriate:

      1. For undergraduates--P/NP (Passed/Not Passed). Grading in undergraduate variable unit courses shall be on a P/NP only basis unless approval for letter grading in specific cases is requested by the department and given by the Committee. (Note: grading variances are not permitted for 190C.) A proposal to grade a regular course on a P/NP basis only must be approved by the Committee. A letter grade variance for 198 courses may be granted when the certain minimum criteria are met.
      2. For graduate students--S/U (Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory). With the consent of the appropriate department or graduate group and approval of the Graduate Council and the Committee on Courses of Instruction, the grades assigned in specific graduate courses may be S/U only. Regulations of the Davis Division also specify that 290C, 299, 299D courses shall be graded S/U only.
      3. For the School of Medicine: Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory.
      4. Deferred grading: In general, requests for deferred grading will be considered only for sequential courses and only where it is difficult or academically inadvisable to assign grades for each quarter of the sequence. The ICMS forms for deferred grading must provide additional grading details in the Grading section of the ICMS form.
   6. Instructor
      The qualifications required of persons responsible for courses or assisting in them (including readers) are specified in paragraph 750 of the Academic Senate Regulations. Any exceptions must be approved by the Committee on Courses.

4. SUMMER SESSION OFFERINGS

   Courses approved for offering during the regular academic year may be offered in a summer session without further approval from the Committee on Courses of Instruction provided that there are no changes in the course specifications other than an appropriate adjustment of class meeting hours per week. The number of such a summer session course is the same as for the regular session course, with the addition of the prefix "S."

5. COURSE EVALUATIONS

   Registered students must be given an opportunity to evaluate courses offered for academic credit, but course evaluations are optional for Guest Lecture Seminar, Research, and Internship Courses where the course does not include a substantial project, term paper or exam.

   Delegation of Authority

   MOUs that delegate oversight of course contents to a school or college also delegate the evaluation process to the respective school or college for those courses.

   Minimum Elements of the Course Evaluation

   (Every course evaluation must contain the following two questions as written in addition to an opportunity for comments.)

   1.  Please indicate the overall teaching effectiveness of the instructor.

        (5 = excellent; 4 = very good; 3 = satisfactory; 2 = fair; 1 = poor)

   2.  Please indicate the overall educational value of the course.

        (5 = excellent; 4 = very good; 3 = satisfactory; 2 = fair; 1 = poor)

6. CREDIT BY EXAMINATION

   The privilege of taking an examination for credit usually will be granted only to students (undergraduate and graduate) enrolled in UC Davis degree programs who are in good standing and are registered either in the current quarter or semester, or in the spring quarter or semester prior to a summer session in which the examination is taken (SR 540 and 542). Credit by examination may not be appropriate for all courses, but may be applied for any course listed in the current General Catalog with the required approvals. Application shall be made on a petition form available from the Registrar. 

   The application must be approved by:

   1. The instructor who will administer the examination. The instructor will specify the exam date.
   2. The chair of the department/academic unit offering the course. The chair’s approval is limited to confirmation that the proposed instructor has the appropriate background to administer the exam for the specific course.
   3. The dean of the student’s college or school, in the case of an undergraduate student, or the Dean of Graduate Studies, in the case of a graduate student. 

   The application, if fully approved, is forwarded to the Registrar, who issues to the student a permit for the examination and sends notice of the action to the instructor by whom the examination is to be conducted. The examination may not be taken until the permit has been issued. 

   Credit by examination is not available (a) if such credit would duplicate credit presented by the student for admission to the University; (b) in elementary courses in a foreign language which is the native tongue of the applicant; (c) in subjects for which the University has no competent examiner; or (d) to repeat any course a student has completed previously, regardless of the grade earned.

   Credit earned by examination may not be applied toward satisfaction of the General Education requirement. 

   The final result of a student’s work in an examination for credit shall be reported to the Registrar in terms of the following grades: A, B, C, D, F, P, NP, S, U. The "I" grade (incomplete) is not acceptable. Optional P/NP or S/U grading is subject to approval by the appropriate dean. 

Expanded Course Description

To facilitate the work of the College and Divisional Courses Committees, requests for approval of a new course, restoration of a course, or modifications to an existing course must be accompanied by an Expanded Course Description.  The Expanded Course Description includes at least the following information.

1. SUMMARY OF COURSE CONTENTS: Provide a brief (100-200 word) description or concise outline of the major topics that would generally be covered in this course. The summary should include some notes about how the course content will support the General Education literacies being requested/taught.

2. ILLUSTRATIVE READING: List the text or a few (2-5) illustrative readings for this course. If there are no readings, please use this field to describe why it is pedagogically appropriate that this course does not include readings.

3. FINAL EXAMINATION REQUIREMENT: Per Systemwide Senate Regulations 770 and 772, all non-laboratory undergraduate courses must include a final exam unless COCI has determined that it is appropriate to waive the final exam requirement. If the course will have a final exam, please select “Yes Final Exam.” If the course will not have a final exam, please select “No Final Exam” and use the justification field to explain why it is appropriate that COCI waive the final exam requirement and if applicable, describe the assignment/s that will serve in lieu of a final exam. For additional information regarding final exams, see Davis Division Regulation 538 and COCI's Final Exam Administration Options.

4. POTENTIAL COURSE OVERLAP:  Overlap with existing courses must be listed and justified, by citing significant differences in prerequisites, emphasis, disciplinary perspective, or depth of coverage.  It is required to consult with the relevant faculty/department in cases of substantial overlap and to note such consultations here.  If no overlap is foreseen, state “no course overlap."

Note: DDR 535, Special Study Courses, states that “the content of a special study course shall not duplicate the content of an existing course.”

General Education (GE) Certification of a Course

Please see the Committee on General Education and the General Education website for for information on General Education Certification.

Request for Approval of Appointment of Associate In___(AI) to Teach Upper Division Classes

Graduate students should be appointed to teach upper division courses (numbered 100-199) as an Associate In____ (AI) only as part of their professional development. Such students in almost all cases will be in the later stages of their PhD program, and have had experience as a Teaching Assistant or equivalent. Graduate students should not, except in exceptional circumstances, be used to teach upper division courses merely to meet staffing shortages. This rule applies to the summer terms as well as the rest of the academic year.

Appointment of Associate Instructors or AI's for upper division courses must first be approved by the Committee on Courses of Instruction. Requests for approval, in line with the statement above, must contain:

1. Certification that the student has advanced to candidacy for the PhD degree (or explanation for why an exception to this requirement is appropriate).
2. Evidence that the student has previous teaching experience (including as a TA), and a summary of student evaluations from this experience.
3. Certification that the student's dissertation advisor, and the chair of the department offering the course, have approved the request.
4. Certification that a faculty member will serve as a mentor to the student, available to provide guidance and feedback.

Except in exceptional circumstances COCI will not approve more than one request for an AI appointment for a student in each year (Summer Session I through the following spring). A petition must be submitted for each course and quarter in which you would like to appoint an AI.

AIs should not be used to solve long-term imbalances between enrollment and staffing.

• Form to Petition to Hire an Associate Instructor (CAS authentication required)

Grading Variances

Undergraduate variable-unit courses are graded on a Passed/Not Passed basis unless a request for a specific variance is received and approved by the Committee on Courses of Instruction. Committee approval is also necessary to change the grading of those variable-unit graduate courses that are graded Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory and those that are letter-graded. The Committee will forward approved variances to the Office of the Registrar. Approval is not automatic.

In every request for a grading variance, the instructor must provide the following information:

1. The course number, section, course title, term, and CRN.
2. An explanation of the reason for the request.

For variances from a P/NP or S/U grade to a letter grade the instructor must also provide the following:

3. Assurance that the tests, assignments, papers, and other classwork required of the students are comparable to the work done in regularly scheduled classes.
4. A description of an appropriate basis for determining letter grades, including the relative weights (in percentages) of all graded components..

Requests for grading variances may be made in one of two ways.

1. Before the class meets.

   Requests must be received by the Committee on Courses before the first class meeting.

   In addition to the items mentioned above, the instructor must submit a copy of the course syllabus, in which it is explicitly stated that the mode of grading will be other than that listed in the General Catalog and (if the course is listed as P/NP or S/U) that each student will have the option of reinstating the original grading mode in the following way. By the usual P/NP (or S/U) deadline (the 40th day of instruction) the student must take a copy of the syllabus to the Office of the Registrar and file a 'Grading Variance Exception' petition.

2. After the class has met.

   Requests must be received by the Committee on Courses by the fifteenth day of instruction. In addition to the items mentioned above and a copy of the course syllabus, a list containing the students' names and signatures must be appended to the request. All students enrolled in the course must indicate (by signature) their agreement with the change in the mode of grading from that stated in the General Catalog.

   If the course is listed as P/NP or S/U, the agreement must note that each student has the option of reinstating the original grading mode in the following way: by the usual P/NP (or S/U) deadline (the 40th day of instruction), the student must take a copy of the syllabus to the Office of the Registrar and file a 'Grading Variance Exception' petition.

• Form to Request a Grading Variance (CAS authentication required)

UC Policy on Minimum Class Size

Although this matter is not within the purview of the Committee on Courses of Instruction, this information is provided as a convenience to departments. The full account of the policy on minimum class size norms is available in President Hitch's 3/14/73 memo to Chancellors. What follows is an excerpt of the key points:

• Minimum class size norms for lower division courses: 12
• Minimum class size norms for upper division courses: 8
• Minimum class size norms for graduate courses: 4

Exceptions to these norms may be allowed in certain circumstances, including:

1. The course is required for the degree and cancellation would delay the graduation of students who wish to enroll.
2. The course is required for the degree and it must be offered at a specified time in order to maintain a proper sequence of courses.
3. It is a new course and the enrollment potential remains to be developed. If enrollment in a class falls below the norm for two successive offerings, it should only be offered again after review and serious consideration by the department chair.

These policies do not apply to independent study, research courses, or thesis work.

Virtual and Hybrid Courses

Definitions

Courses in which an average of one or more contact hours per week are conducted online should be classified as hybrid or virtual. Contact hours are defined as time when instructors are presenting to or interacting with students (e.g., lecture, laboratory, discussion). Contact hours do not include office hours. Courses taught entirely online are referred to as ‘virtual’ courses; while courses that are mixtures of online and in-person contact hours are referred to as ‘hybrid’ courses. The Committee notes that remote instruction, which is the practice of temporary modification of instructional delivery due to a change or anticipated change in campus operating status due to pandemic, natural disaster, or other events, is not the equivalent of online instruction.

In-Person Courses with Some Online Activity

As above, courses in which an average of one or more contact hours per week are conducted online should be classified as hybrid or virtual. Courses with less than one hour per week of online contact hours (less than 10 hours total in a quarter length course) should not be classified as hybrid or virtual and do not need additional approval from COCI. Examples of allowable online contact hours for in-person courses:

• Week 6 of a lab course is an online lab activity that students complete synchronously or asynchronously.
• The instructor of a course must be away from Davis for one of their lecture sessions and holds an online synchronous lecture during the normal lecture time or records an asynchronous lecture.
• A class is having a guest speaker in week 3 who will be presenting remotely. Instead of meeting in-person, the students and speaker meet online.

Submission in ICMS

The Committee has designated two learning activity codes to be used in course approval forms for these courses. The learning activities are Web Virtual Lecture (WVL) and Web Electronic Discussion (WED).

WVL - Web-based and/or technologically-mediated activities replacing standard lectures.

WED - Web-based and/or technologically-mediated activities replacing standard discussion sections.

The Committee recognizes that ‘web virtual lecture’ and 'web electronic discussion' may be inadequate descriptions, as online activities can do more than mimic regular lectures and discussions. We do not intend that the listed activities restrict what instructors do, but rather than add new activities, we ask that instructors select WVL or WED and then describe the activities more fully in the Justification of Units section of the Integrated Curriculum Management System (ICMS) form.

The course number must include the suffix “V” for completely online/virtual courses. The course number must include the suffix “Y” for hybrid courses.

Two courses that have the same subject code and course number but will be taught with different online/in-class learning activities (i.e. BSK 101 and BSK 101V), must be equivalent except for their learning activities and manner of instruction. All prerequisites, credit limitations, descriptions, General Education attributes, units, grading mode, etc., must be the same. These courses will be coded as equivalent in the Registrar’s course database, so they will fulfill the same degree requirements for students.

To allow COCI to assess whether or not hybrid and virtual courses meet UC Davis’ standards of rigor and quality, proposers must submit three additional documents to ICMS via the Attached Files tab when submitting a proposal for a new or modified hybrid or virtual course:

1. Responses to Supplemental Questions for Proposers of Hybrid and Virtual Courses. 
2. A letter from the department chair or individual responsible for department curriculum which indicates that the department has discussed how this course and its hybrid/virtual nature fits into curricular plans.
3. A sample course outline or syllabus that describes how the online activities will be structured.

Faculty should be aware that the Registrar normally would not assign regular classroom space for online learning activity codes (for example, a hybrid course with 3 lecture hours each week and 1 hour or web electronic discussion each week would be assigned a classroom for 3 lecture hours, but not for the 1 hour of web electronic discussion). Furthermore, for courses without traditional lecture/discussions components, the instructor should coordinate with the Registrar regarding the dates and times of any "in class" examinations. The Registrar will inform instructors within the first 3 weeks of the quarter of the room assignment(s) for the midterm examinations. Final examination times for online-only courses will be assigned the "TBA" time slot.

Participation may not be more than 10% of the total grade, unless approved by the Committee.

Policy for the Appointment of Undergraduates as Readers and Teaching Assistants