Last Update: April 22, 2024 (added Ready to Submit Checklist link)

Whether you are submitting an entirely new course for the core curriculum or revising an existing course for inclusion, the submission and review process is the same.

1. Review the overview of the structure of the CSU Core to identify the requirement you intend the course to satisfy. This will indicate which OT-36 learning outcomes and core competencies must be integrated into the course.
2. Download the fillable Course Approvals Document for your chosen requirement and (if applicable) chosen OT-36 outcomes. The approvals document contains advice and links to resources, and you should also consult the step-by-step guidance provided later on this page.
   • The Example Completed Documents page includes completed forms and other documents from fellow faculty. It will be regularly updated as courses are approved (and permission granted).
3. Design, or redesign, your syllabus to emphasize the inviting and accessible nature of the course, its Inquiry Orientation, and its status as part of the Inquiry Core Curriculum by embedding the Core Curriculum Syllabus Statement.
   • You are not required to include the OT-36 or core competency learning outcomes in the syllabus, but your course-specific learning outcomes should be broadly aligned to them.
   • All syllabi at CSU must include all information required by the Faculty Senate Syllabus Template
4. Develop the overview and instructions for your Signature Assignment(s). Be sure it is clear how the signature assignments will be able to assess the core competency learning outcomes associated with them. Ideally, you should include a fully worked out set of evaluation criteria (such as a rubric), but at the very least indicate how you will determine whether a student has achieved the core competency learning outcomes the signature assignment is designed to assess.
5. Use the Ready to Submit Checklist document to self-assess your documentation prior to submission.
6. Launch your proposal in Curriculog, complete the integrated questions, and then attach your completed Core Course Approval Document, Syllabus, and Signature Assignment overview(s)/instruction(s).
   • If you are submitting an existing course for inclusion in the Inquiry Core, it should be submitted using the 25-26 UGRD Course Modification (adding/editing Core content) proposal form in Curriculog.
   • If you are submitting a new course, not currently in the CSU catalog, it should be submitted using the 25-26 UGRD New Core Course proposal form in Curriculog.

General Requirements for all Core Curriculum Courses

To align with OT-36 and enhance the quality of the Core Curriculum program, all courses proposed for the Inquiry Core Curriculum, must meet the following requirements:

• Be offered at the 100- or 200-level;
• Be designed, in content, structure, and presentation, to be inviting and accessible to first-year non-major students;
• Not be a special topics course; and
• Not focus exclusively on content coverage (as indicated by being designed around the OT-36 learning outcomes)

Completing the CSU Core Approval Document

The requirement-specific course approvals documents contain instructions to help with their completion. More details are provided below for each step.

OT36 Outcome Mapping

The OT36 Outcome Mapping page is designed to ensure alignment with ODHE OT36 requirements and to streamline the process of submitting courses to ODHE for OT36 approval. The grid provided is identical to the “Submission Preparation Template” provided by ODHE. This means that once your course is approved at CSU, you should be able to copy your answers over from this page to the OT36 document.

The grid is organized into four columns, with the first already completed and containing the requisite OT36 learning outcomes. To complete the rest of the grid, do the following:

1. In the “Course Embed” column, you should describe how the outcome is achieved in the course. Typically, this will involve stating the course learning outcome(s) that specify the OT36 Outcome in the course and describing relevant content of the course.
   • Ex. If the OT36 outcome is “Employ principles, terminology, and methods from disciplines in the arts and humanities”, I may say “Course learning outcome 1, ‘Identify and articulate a variety of perspectives on key debates in political philosophy’, speaks most directly to this outcome. Students are introduced to key concepts in political philosophy, such as justice, and engaged in learning about key debates on topics in political philosophy.”
2. In the “Assessment of Outcome” column, you should specify both which assignment(s) will assess the outcome and how they will assess it. You should be specific; for instance, if an outcome will be assessed through an exam, briefly describe what the exam question(s) will be. You do not need to state all details of assessment but should provide a representative sample.
   • Ex. If I will be assessing understanding of basic knowledge through regular quizzes, I would say “this outcome will be assessed through weekly quizzes completed in class. Each quiz will contain 5 multiple choice questions, such as “According to Immanuel Kant, which type of consent is relevant for establishing political authority?”
3. In the “Evidence of (a) and (b)” column, you should specify where in your syllabus or signature assignment instructions/overview reviewers can look to verify what you have said in the previous two columns. Be specific, by pointing out where in the syllabus or other documentation reviewers should look. If necessary, consider attaching additional documentation to your Curriculog proposal. For instance, you may attach a copy of an exam or quiz.
   • Ex. To evidence the concepts and quizzes, I would say “Page 5 of the syllabus has the course schedule, which includes the topics of study. Page 3 of the syllabus discusses the weekly quizzes.

Inquiry Orientation

The Inquiry Orientation page is aimed at helping you design your course in line with OT-36 requirements to not be “exclusively content focused”. Additionally, an inquiry orientation can help you spark student curiosity and invite students to investigate important questions or problems using the methods of the discipline and content of the course.

The major problems/questions prompt encourages you to think of your course as an investigation into one or more major problems or questions, rather than simply as a list of topics of chapters in a textbook. In constructing this list, you should be thinking both about the fundamental problems or questions of your discipline and the sorts of problems or questions that would intrigue an 18-year-old first-year college student. Importantly, the problems and questions you list here should be meaningfully reflected in your syllabus or other course documents; they should be made explicit to students.

• You may choose to organize your entire course around one big question or problem, or you may choose to organize distinct units around different questions or problems. Or some combination.

The stages of inquiry prompt ensures that students are given opportunity to actively engage in the inquiry process and achieve the OT-36 learning outcomes. The precise structure of the inquiry process may vary with discipline, but can broadly be organized into five steps:

• Identifying and refining a topic of interest;
• Formulating a research question or similar “angle” that drives the exploration of the topic;
• The researching and gathering of resources relevant to exploring the research question;
• The analysis and evaluation of research and resources and their relevance to the research question; and
• The synthesis of research and information to answer or better understand the research question.

It is not expected that students will be actively engaged in all of these stages of inquiry. Instead, some may be provided or modeled by the instructor. But students are expected to be actively engaged in at least some of these stages and supported in the inquiry process through the use of activities and assignments.

You can find additional resources on the Designing for Inquiry page.

Core Competency Mapping

The CSU Core Competencies are Cleveland State’s means of expanding on OT-36 learning outcomes in a way that allows for Inquiry Core Curriculum program assessment and continuous improvement.

In general, the core competencies are fixed for each requirement, and provided to you on the form. Some requirements have a choice between “written communication” and “oral communication”, reflected by the provided dropdown box. The mapping of core competencies to each requirement was done with the OT-36 learning outcomes in mind. It should generally be the case that if your course is designed to achieve the OT-36 learning outcomes, it is already designed to achieve the designated core competencies. They just provide a more specific structure that cuts across the OT-36 categories.

To complete this page, do the following:

• For each provided core competency, identify the two learning outcomes you will most focus on developing and assessing. Consult the CSU Core Competencies page for the list of learning outcomes associated with each core competency. While you are encouraged to develop and assess the others (and likely will implicitly), the two you choose here should be the most significant to your course and/or the signature assignment(s) you are providing.
  • If the core competency provided was “Critical Thinking”, I would indicate that I am focusing on the outcomes of “State a specific position (i.e., perspective, thesis, or hypothesis) that is thoughtful, recognizes complexities, and acknowledges limitations” and “State conclusions and related outcomes (consequences and implications) logically and in a priority order.”
• For each identified learning outcome, if you have a corresponding course learning outcome, provide it. Additionally, or alternatively, you may describe the activities or other learning that will occur related to the core competency outcome.
  • For the first critical thinking outcome listed above, I may say “The team activities completed in class will involve students either being assigned a position to defend or choosing one. In the philosophical essay, students will be required to state a thesis and defend it.”

Signature Assignment(s)

Signature assignments are both the vehicle for helping students see the value and purpose of their educational experiences and for allowing CSU to engage in required program assessment and continuous improvement procedures.

Ideally, signature assignments reflect the most important learning in the course – they are an opportunity for students to demonstrate what they learned in a way that is visible to them and could be shared with pride.

More narrowly, a signature assignment must:

1. Be some type of authentic assignment. It should engage students in doing what you do as an academic or what you or they may do as professionals. In general, this just means standard “school assignments” like quizzes and exams cannot count as signature assignments, unless it can be shown that such things are done in an authentic way.
2. Be a clear means by which achievement of one or more of the core competency learning outcomes can be assessed. You may use one signature assignment to assess all core competency learning outcomes, or you may use multiple as needed. But each core competency learning outcome you chose on the previous page must be assessed in at least one signature assignment.
3. Include a reflection component. Reflection helps students to make their own learning visible to them and to draw connections between what they learned and other aspects of their lives. Reflections can focus on the resulting signature assignment itself (for instance, the student could engage in guided self-assessment), the process of constructing the signature assignment (for instance, a discussion of the iterative writing process the student used), or some relevant aspect of the course (for instance, asking a student how their view on some matter changed throughout the semester, as evidenced by the signature assignment). Or they can focus on something else deemed important for drawing connections. More information on crafting reflection assignments can be found on the Designing for Reflection page.

To complete this page of the approval document, do the following:

1. In the first column, provide the name (or a brief description) of each signature assignment. This is largely to assist reviewers in finding the right materials.
2. In the second column, indicate which core competency learning outcome(s) the signature assignment is assessing and briefly describe how it is a vehicle for that assessment.
3. In the third column, describe the reflective component of the signature assignment, specifically noting at least one reflection prompt you will ask students to engage in. You are encouraged to provide several prompts to students to allow personalization, but need not provide every possible prompt you will provide here.

Inquiry Pathway

The final page is optional. Inquiry Pathways provide a unique CSU pathway through the core curriculum, whereby students complete at least three core curriculum courses organized around a single theme. This provides greater opportunity for drawing connections and making meaning of their learning.

If you would like your course to be included in one or more pathways, you need only:

1. Select the pathway from the dropdown box. Note that additional pathways will be created. If your course is a possible fit for a future pathway, the Core Curriculum Director will reach out to discuss inclusion.
2. Describe how the course meaningfully and substantively contributes to the pathway theme. You should reference the Inquiry Pathways page for information on each pathway, and use that information to help you make your case.