CLAS Home > Course Renumbering

August 24, 2005

To: All DEOs, Undergraduate Directors, and Graduate Directors in the CLAS

From: Helena Dettmer, Associate Dean for Academic Programs and Services, CLAS, and
Dale Eric Wurster, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs, Graduate College

Re: Next Step in Course Renumbering

First, we'd like to thank you all for helping us develop the alphabetical codes that will replace the current "department numbers" in course identifiers. We have almost completed this part of the course renumbering project.

We are now ready to begin the second, and more challenging, part of the process. The Registrar's Office has set up a web site within Infobank, where you can begin to enter new course numbers for your courses. The site is very easy to use. We hope you will begin to work with this site soon. Adding course numbers at the site does not commit you-the numbers will not be finalized at this time, so you can experiment and try out different schemes. At this site, you can also access the course lists of other units, which you may find helpful as you make your own decisions. The College has also set up a site with course-renumbering information.

Note: Each department or course-offering unit must identify one or more individuals who will be authorized to work on the unit's course renumbering site. When you have determined who needs that authority, please provide the name(s) and hawkID(s) to Christina Carlson in the Registrar's Office (at christina-carlson@uiowa.edu or 335-2845) and she will arrange the authorization.

The course renumbering project provides an excellent opportunity to review curricular offerings for potential duplication, including duplication of course texts and context redundancies. We hope you will use this opportunity to examine your curriculum closely for duplication, and may drop courses. You may also identify a need for new courses. Some departments may establish a special committee for course renumbering; others will use existing curriculum committees; still others may create separate committees for the undergraduate and graduate curricula. If you do use two committees, please make sure that there is coordination and discussion between them.

If you have questions about numbering courses at the undergraduate level, please do not hesitate to contact Helena Dettmer (at 335-2633 or helena-dettmer@uiowa.edu) or JoAnn Castagna (at 335-2632 or joann-castagna@uiowa.edu) or Peter Hubbard (at 335-2633 or peter-hubbard@uiowa.edu). Any of us will be happy to meet with you or discuss the process over the phone or by email. If you have questions about numbering graduate courses, please contact Dale Eric Wurster (at 335-2137 or dale-e-wurster@uiowa.edu) or Caren Cox (at 335-2144 or caren-cox@uiowa.edu). As you complete your draft course renumbering, please contact the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. We hope to have all the first drafts by the end of this semester, and will review them and respond to you as soon as possible, and no later than the end of spring semester 2006.

Working with the Registrar, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences has developed the following guidelines for course renumbering of undergraduate courses in our College. The Graduate College has provided similar guidelines for numbering graduate courses. We hope these guidelines will be helpful to you. You may also wish to read this memo from the Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education.

General Guidelines

• As you renumber courses, remember that there are 999 numbers in each level. It is probably a good idea not to "bunch" courses too closely together. After we begin using the new numbers, the Registrar will restrict the use of any dropped course for ten years. Therefore, even if you want to keep certain kinds of courses together, it may be wise to leave unused numbers between each used number, so that you will have numbers at every level available in the future.
• Students and other readers of our course lists and transcripts will assume that the course numbers represent a rough hierarchy. While we recognize that not every curriculum builds on previous work in the same way, we encourage you to make distinctions among your courses and to use all four levels for undergraduate courses (please see below for graduate numbering).
• Consider current enrollments as a guideline for renumbering, especially when you renumber courses currently at the 100-level. If a 100-level course now has a predominant enrollment of graduate students, you may want to make it a graduate-only level course. Courses at the 100-level that do not currently attract graduate enrollment may be most appropriately renumbered under 4000 (see below). Courses with mixed graduate and undergraduate enrollment will be most appropriately numbered at the 4000 level.
• Please consider not only students in your own programs but the needs of interdisciplinary programs (especially at the graduate level) whose students use courses you offer. Please also be cognizant of the needs of programs for which your courses are required cognates. You may wish to consult those programs as you renumber those courses.
• The renumbering of cross-listed courses will be the responsibility of the administrative home department, who should work closely with the cross-listing departments to find mutually satisfactory course numbers.
• In addition to the course level definitions described below, the College has decided that we will use two additional number signifiers: 1) All Honors courses offered by your department should be numbered x995 to x999. Thus if you develop an Honors Independent Study for First-Year Students, it might be numbered 1995, a departmental honors seminar for juniors might be numbered 3996 and an Honors Thesis course for Seniors might be numbered 4099. 2) All Independent Study courses will carry numbers between x990 and x994. Thus, a [non Honors] Independent Study for sophomores might be numbered 2990 and one for Seniors 4990. If you have difficulty incorporating all of your courses into these parameters, please contact JoAnn Castagna.

CLAS Undergraduate Course Level Definitions
Course numbers 0000 through 0999 will not be used by CLAS departments for courses carrying College credit. Instead, these numbers will be reserved for non-credit courses (e.g., Basic Algebra) and for courses that are offered to non-matriculated students (e.g., in Upward Bound, or other enrollments of students who are not yet enrolled in an undergraduate college). It is unlikely that you will have any of these courses in your curriculum; if you are in doubt about whether to use a course number from this level course, please contact one of us.

Course numbers 1000 through 1999: use these numbers for introductory, elementary, and general-education courses that are appropriate for first-year students and others with no special background. Courses numbered in 1000 - 1999 ordinarily will have few or no prerequisites (exceptions might include some introductory Mathematics, Chemistry, and similar courses that require specific high school preparation, ACT scores, or UI test scores as prerequisites). Programs whose four-year plans include required courses that must be taken "before the third semester" ordinarily will number those courses at this level.

Course numbers 2000 through 2999: use these numbers for lower-level undergraduate courses, those that would ideally be taken by second and perhaps third-year students. These courses might build on materials from the 1000 series courses, and may carry prerequisites. Programs whose four-year plans include required courses that must be taken "before the fifth semester" ordinarily will include those courses at this level.

Course numbers 3000 through 3999: use these numbers for upper-level undergraduate courses, courses for majors, courses that require significant prerequisites, and so on. Programs whose four-year plans include required courses that must be taken "before the seventh semester" will ordinarily include those courses at this level. Courses at this level are undergraduate courses, but please note that the Graduate College will grant graduate credit to graduate students who take courses numbered 3000 and above.

Course numbers 4000 through 4999: use these numbers for advanced upper-level undergraduate courses, including senior seminars, advanced independent study courses, honors thesis work, and so on. Use these numbers for "dual use" courses whose enrollments include both undergraduates and graduate students, and for which graduate students can receive graduate credit. Specific courses included in the four-year graduate plan "checkpoints" in the "Before the eighth semester begins" and the "during the eighth semester" categories ordinarily will also be numbered between 4000 and 4999.

Course Level Guidelines -Graduate Courses
Courses Numbered 5000 to 5999 are graduate courses. However, undergraduates, with the advice of their advisers, may register for these courses without special permission. Use these numbers for introductory or first-year graduate courses. This category may include the first course of a core sequence, and may also include orientation courses or colloquia for entering graduate students. The professional colleges (for example, Medicine, Law, Dentistry, Pharmacy) may use course numbers in this sequence for courses they offer that are open to students (graduate students or undergraduate students) who are not pursing professional degrees.

Courses numbered 6000 to 6999 are graduate courses. They are not open to undergraduates without special permission. Use these numbers for intermediate graduate courses. You may elect to dedicate the 6000 level to graduate work normally taken after the first year or to first-year graduate work inappropriate for use as an undergraduate elective. The professional colleges may use course numbers in this sequence for courses open to their graduate students who are not pursuing professional degrees.

Courses numbered 7000 to 7999 are graduate courses. They are not open to undergraduates without special permission. Use these numbers for advanced graduate courses. These numbers may complete a master's level course sequence, or complete the course work progression toward a doctoral degree. You may elect to incorporate numbers from this level for thesis or research hours and capstone projects. The professional colleges may use course numbers in this sequence for advanced courses open to their graduate students who are not pursuing professional degrees.

Courses numbered 8000 to 8999 and 9000 to 9999 are used by the professional colleges for students in their professional programs. CLAS units will not use these numbers, unless there is a cross-listing with a professional college. [For more information, on these course numbers, please contact the Registrar's Office.]