Curriculog Frequently Asked Questions

A: Curriculog can be accessed by faculty and staff here, using myUSF credentials. If you have difficulty logging in, please email CurriculogSupport@usfca.edu.

A: Notifications go to people who are originators and approvers in the proposal process.

See the next question for steps to change the frequency of your notifications in Curriculog.

If you think you are receiving notifications in error, please contact CurriculogSupport@usfca.edu. 

Yes. You can change your settings so that you get notifications related to proposals on your list less frequently or more frequently. The options are to get all emails or to get a digest daily, on Monday/Wednesday/Friday, on Tuesday/Thursday, or weekly. To change your notification settings in Curriculog:

• Go to your name on the top right.
• Select “My Settings” from the drop-down menu.
• Click on your name on the left (“My Dashboard” will be to the right of it).
• Scroll down to the “Email Options” dropdown menu in the "User Rights" section and select another option, such as "Weekly Email Digest". This will send each email notifications out in a weekly digest.
• Click the "Save Preferences" button.

In all likelihood, your proposal has made it all the way through the approval process and now has the status of Completed. When proposals are Completed, they no longer appear as active proposals on those various lists. However, you can still view them. Go to the All Proposals tab and use the “Filter by” feature to filter by Proposal Status; choosing Completed under Proposal Status will bring up a list of Completed proposals. If yours isn’t among them, please contact us so we can find out what happened to it.

Under user tracking select "view original with edits” from the drop down menu.

Unfortunately, no. There is only "reject." A "rejected" proposal is one sent back to the originator for changes and for re-submission. 

In all likelihood, you haven’t selected the right item from the drop-down menu in the field “What is the name of the PROGRAM offering this course?” This field sets the proper workflow for the proposal. As the help text indicates, you need to choose the MOST DETAILED name of your program. For example, rather than “Analytics,” choose "Analytics (BS, MS).” After you’ve done that, you should be able to launch the proposal.

You can find out where the proposal is sitting in the approval process by going into the proposal itself, clicking on the “Status” icon in the Proposal Toolbox on the right side of the proposal, and scrolling down. If you like, you can then query the person whose Status is listed as “Working.” If you can’t find your proposal at all, you can check whether it has been fully approved by going to All Proposals and using the filter to see Completed Proposals.

Anyone with access to USF’s Curriculog site can view any proposal that has been submitted, including all comments made by reviewers. Only people who are in the approval workflow can edit a proposal, and they can only do so when the proposal is at their review step.

You can use the Course Modify form to submit a course number change. Be sure the course number you want to switch to is available -- that is, that is hasn't been active in the past ten years. 

You can do that by completing the Course Deactivate form. 

You can do that using the Course Reactivate form.

A: To make changes to an academic certificate program, please use the Program Modify form. To propose a new academic certificate program, please use the Program New form associated with the school that will house the new program. 

To make changes to a professional certificate program, please use the Professional Certificate Modify form. To propose a new professional certificate program, please use the New Professional Certificate form associated with the school that will house the new program. 

A: Please see the Curricular Change Calendar for deadlines and more information.

Deadlines can be found on the Provost's Curricular Change Calendar. 

Please keep in mind that all proposals need to go through a review process, some may need revisions, and all need to be implemented by various staff members after they're approved. The speed with which they move through the process varies according to the type of proposal, the time of the semester, the workload of the various reviewers, and so on. The earlier you start, the better the whole thing works. For courses and smaller program changes, two semesters is advance is advisable. This ensures that your changes will make it through in time to be included in the updates to the catalog and in time to appear on the course schedule at registration time.

At the latest, new course proposals, course change proposals, and minor program changes should be submitted within the first six weeks of the semester prior to the semester in which you want them to go into effect (roughly the first week of October for Spring proposals and the first week of March for Fall proposals; summer submissions are fine for proposals that don't need to be reviewed by faculty committees). Courses that are requesting Core, Cultural Diversity, or Community Engaged Learning (formerly Service Learning) designations, or that are seeking to join the Honors College curriculum or the First Year Seminar program, should add at least four weeks to their lead time. Major program change proposals and new program proposals should be initiated at least three semesters prior to the semester in which you want them to go into effect.

New courses and course changes that are not fully completed and approved within Curriculog before registration begins may not be entered into the schedule for the upcoming semester and instead will need to wait until the following semester to be scheduled. Please plan accordingly.

The best way to find out what you'll need for a proposal is to log into Curriculog, click on "New Proposal" (left side of the screen toward the top), find the relevant proposal type, click on "Preview Form" (the first icon next to the proposal title) and scroll through it. This has the advantage of familiarizing you with the form itself.

Here are the basics of what you'll need.

For new course forms: 1) An available course number, title and description that fits CAS title and description guidelines. (Course numbers cannot have been used in the past ten years.) 2) A syllabus that is in line with CAS syllabus guidelines. 3) Course info such as format, enrollment cap, level, prerequisites/co-requisites, enrollment restrictions, number of units and how course will meet credit-our requirement, how course will be graded. 4) If the course impacts any other programs, a description of that impact and of discussions with other programs about this new course. 5) Course learning outcomes and how each will be assessed, learning outcomes for any special designations (such as Core) and how each will be met, and info about which Program learning outcomes are being met by your course. (This info should be on your syllabus, so you can pull it from there.)

For course change forms, you need the same information and documents as for a new course form, but you can use the Import function to populate many of the above fields. You'll also need a brief explanation of the reason for the proposed change. Please note that course deactivations and course reactivations have their own specific forms; for all other course changes use the Course Modify form.

Probably the best way to find out what you'll need for a proposal is to log into Curriculog, click on "New Proposal" (left side of the screen toward the top), find the relevant proposal type, click on "Preview Form" (the first icon next to the proposal title) and scroll through it. This has the advantage of familiarizing you with the form itself.

Here are the basics of what you'll need.

For Intent to Propose forms (the first step for proposing new programs): 1) Basic information such as the proposed name, degree type and level, proposed start date, and brief description of the proposed program. 2) Statements about the need and rationale for the program and how that need was established, enrollment projects and the evidence on which those are based, marketing and recruitment plans, resource needs. 3) Any supplementary or supporting documents you would like to include. (A budget form, submitted by the area Associate Dean, is required at the same time.)

For new program proposal forms (after an Intent to Propose has been approved), you need the above information, and: 1) Program learning outcomes. 2) An assessment plan. 3) A curriculum, program curriculum checklist, curriculum map, and sample schedule. 4) A description of space needs. 5) A teach-out plan. 6) Budget (as submitted earlier by the Associate Dean). 7) Information about external partners, if any, and Memorandum of Understanding, if relevant.

For program change forms, you can import much of the program information (as it currently appears in the catalog) with the Import function. You'll also need: 1) an explanation of the reason for the proposed change(s) and the evidence that supports the proposed change(s). 2) If relevant, a description of the impact of the change(s) on other programs and an account of conversations with them about the impact. 3) Course descriptions and/or syllabi for courses that are part of the program change(s) (for instance, courses being added to degree requirements). 4) A revised curriculum checklist highlighting the proposed changes, and a curriculum map if making changes to the program learning outcomes.

As department chair or program director, you are responsible for assuring that any proposals for changes or additions to your curriculum are collectively reviewed, discussed, and approved by the program faculty (or their designees as set out in your bylaws). You’re also responsible for documenting, within Curriculog, the process through which and the date on which the proposal was approved by the program faculty. In order to do this:

• First facilitate a discussion and review of the proposed curriculum change or addition, including reviewing syllabi (syllabus guidelines are here) in a meeting or online communication. This can be done however your program bylaws specify: through a committee, through a full department meeting, or through empowering the chair to make particular types of decisions on behalf of the program.

• When a proposal reaches the Chair/Director approval stage, you will receive a notification that it is waiting for your attention. Open the proposal and scroll down, almost all the way to the bottom, until you reach “For PROGRAM CHAIR/DIRECTOR USE ONLY.” Enter a brief description of how and when the department program reviewed and approved the proposal, then hit Save.

• Scroll back up to the top of the proposal and click on the Decisions icon (a circle with a check inside of it). Select your decision and then click Make My Decision. This will then move the proposal to the next stage.

Members of the College Curriculum Committee, the Core Area Committees, the Honors College Committee, and the First Year Seminar Committee participate in the review and decision process regarding particular types of curriculum proposals. You will get notifications from Curriculog when a proposal is ready for the committee’s attention, and the committee chair will reach out to you, as well, and will explain how the committee will make its decisions. Your main job as a committee member is to review those proposals in advance of a committee meeting or discussion.

• To review a proposal, click on the link in the notification email or go to My Tasks in Curriculog and select the proposal. You can view the full proposal or a summary.

• Your committee chair will facilitate a decision-making process (face-to-face meeting, email conversation, etc.) and let you know the details. Please do not submit comments or an individual decision about a proposal on Curriculog, as these are collective decisions and will be entered into Curriculog by the committee chair.

• The committee chair will submit the decision and feedback in Curriculog on behalf of the committee. If the committee sends the proposal back to the faculty originator for revisions, the same process will begin once the revisions are submitted and the proposal is relaunched back to the committee.

Chairs of the College Curriculum Committee, the Core Area Committees, the Honors College Committee, and the First Year Seminar Committee lead the review and decision process regarding particular types of curriculum proposals and submit the decision and any relevant feedback through Curriculog. You and the rest of the committee members will get notifications from Curriculog when a proposal is ready for the committee’s attention.

• Facilitate a discussion of the proposal or proposals, in person or via email. Everyone will review the proposal(s) within Curriculog but the discussion takes place outside of Curriculog. Please remind committee members not to publish comments or individual decisions on the proposal within Curriculog; this is a collective process, the outcome of which you (as chair) will later communicate in Curriculog on behalf of the committee.
• You can communicate with committee members through regular email; by messaging them from within Curriculog; or using the Agenda function within Curriculog. The latter two options will include a link to the relevant proposal(s) or you can paste a link into a regular email.
• Once a decision has been made, go to the proposal on Curriculog and open it by clicking on the Edit Proposal button. Open Decisions (a blue circle with a check inside) in the Proposal Toolbox on the right. Click the circle for your decision and write any feedback in the comments field. Your main decision choices are Approve and Reject. Approve sends the proposal to the next step. Reject does not actually mean the proposal is denied, but is used to send the proposal back to the faculty originator for revisions. When the originator revises and relaunches the proposal, it will come back to you and the committee, and you begin the above process again.
• Click Make My Decision.

At this point in time, approved additions and changes to courses and programs in the College of Arts & Sciences are still entered into Banner (our course inventory), the General Catalog (online), and DegreeWorks (for the degree evaluation) by members of the Dean’s Office staff, Web Services, and the Registrar’s Office. These changes rarely show up immediately, and can take several weeks to become visible -- longer for the online catalog. When they become visible also depends on what semester you requested as a start date. If you have any questions about the post-approval status of your proposal, please contact Academic Assistant Dean Joshua Gamson.

In addition to the other fields in the New Program (CAS) or Program Modify (CAS) form, it's very important to correctly complete the section called "Program CURRICULUM REQUIREMENTS." Start by watching the brief Curriculog help video on this topic: Click on the "Need help?" triangle at the bottom right of your screen and then search for "Prospective Curriculum." This will pull up a 2.5-minute video that shows you the basics.

If you are making changes to your existing curriculum, be sure to import the existing curriculum (see "Read before you begin" instructions at the top of the form). This will save a lot of time and effort, since you can then edit that information.

Familiarize yourself with the three buttons in the Curriculum Requirements section.

• The one on the far right ("View Curriculum Courses") is the inventory of classes that you can use to build or revise your curriculum; you can add courses to this list using either the "import courses" button below the list of courses. When you are importing courses, be sure to select the most current Catalog, and be sure to uncheck the box that says "Exclude previously imported items." If you want to put courses into the curriculum that don't yet exist in the Catalog, you'll need to use placeholder courses (see below).
• The one in the center ("View Curriculum Schema") opens up the architecture of the curriculum. If you've imported the curriculum, you should see the current version of your program, broken up into sections (called "Cores" in Curriculog). Editing this is how you indicate proposed changes to the curriculum. Here, you can add and remove courses, add and remove sections ("cores"), add text, and move things around. If you want to include courses that don't yet exist in the Catalog, select "add text" and type a course number ending in XX (e.g., 4XX) and the course name; this will be a "placeholder," and will be replaced once the course has been approved through the review process and added to the Catalog.
• The one of the far left ("Preview Curriculum") shows you the curriculum as it's build in the Curriculum Schema section. This is an easy way to check your work. (Ignore any words in brackets.)

Build your proposed curriculum by creating (for new program) or editing (for changes to existing program) the Curriculum Schema and double-check it using the Preview Curriculum function. 

It's also useful for you to upload either the program checklist; if you're making changes, please upload the existing checklist with proposed changes clearly marked. Remember that the checklist is an internal document for the program to use in advising students, and should be an exact match for the curriculum and requirements as they appear in your Curriculum Schema within Curriculog. 

Either way is fine. If you've submitted the courses and they have entered the Catalog, you can place them into your program curriculum proposal. If the courses you need for the program change aren't yet approved and in the Catalog, please enter them as placeholders in the proposed program curriculum. Do that by selecting "custom text" in the Curriculum Schema and entering a placeholder number (a combination of number and two X's works best, such as ENGL 2XX - Horror Stories). This will be replaced once the course has been approved or entered the Catalog. Keep in mind that each new course included in a program change must go through its own individual approval process.

No. Programs and courses get reviewed separately; your overall curriculum has been approved, but the individual courses need to be submitted in Curriculog, reviewed and approved, in order to enter the USF Catalog and your program curriculum.

Since these course change forms are used to automatically update the Banner inventory and catalog, the simplest thing to do is to submit a separate form for each course (though you can make multiple types of changes to a course within a single form). By request, we can sometimes accept a "batch" change (for three or more courses undergoing the same type of change); once you get the go-ahead to do that, submit the Course Modify form under a single course number and title, indicate in at least two places in the proposal that this is a batch change for multiple courses, and attach a list of all the course changes you are requesting.

Since these don't involve changes to the degree requirements you don't need to complete a Curriculog form. Instead, please send the proposed changes to electives or program description, along with confirmation that these changes have been reviewed and approved by the program faculty, to Josh Gamson and Ella Frazer. We will submit the changes using an administrative Curriculog form (which assures that we have a record and that the change moves over to the Catalog and Degree Works without errors).

Typically, before a proposal for an Honors College Curriculum (HONC) course is submitted, the Honors College director will initiate a discussion with the faculty member; faculty members can also approach the Honors College director with their course idea. The course is submitted through the regular Curriculog proposal process (New Course form). Before the Honors College director approves the proposal, the director consults with the faculty member's department chair regarding the course content for the proposed Core area, and works with the faculty member to implement requested or recommended changes from the home department; the proposal is then reviewed by the Honors College Committee, and the Honors College director works with the faculty member to implement requested or recommended changes from the Honors College Committee. These conversations and actions are noted in Curriculog. After that, the proposal goes through the same course review process as any new course.

If you’ve started a course or program proposal but not moved it to the next stage, you should do so within three months; after that, the proposal will be canceled. If you have received feedback on a course proposal and need to make revisions, you should respond to the changes and restart the proposal within six months; after that, the proposal will be canceled. Revisions to program proposals should also be done in a timely manner, but proposals will be canceled on a case-by-case basis only after consultation with the originator.

No, unless no Special Topics course number yet exists in your program. Special Topics can be offered one time, with departmental approval, as a mechanism for testing out new course possibilities. If the program would like to then teach the course again, it should be proposed via Curriculog as a new course with its own number.