9.2 Reference Materials

  • Style Guide  – Departments are responsible for submitting proposals that are grammatically correct and free of spelling errors. Course Contacts and Department Chairs should proofread the entire course proposal before submitting. Staff from the Registrar’s Office and the Senate will not be copy-editing proposals. For consistency across campus, proposers should follow conventions in the CMS Style Guide.

  • COCI Checklist for Syllabus Development (PDF) - This checklist is intended to support faculty in syllabus development. It includes explanations for the kind of information COCI expects to see in a syllabus, and best practices. 
  • Template for New Course Review (Word) – This form, provided by the Political Science Department, is used by the Course Contact to collect information from faculty proposing new courses. The form can be revised as needed for any department.

  • Components of a Course Syllabus(link is external) (PDF) – A checklist of components of a comprehensive course syllabus can be found at the website of the Center for Teaching and Learning.

  • Template of a Course Syllabus - A sample template of a typical syllabus, modified from a version used by the Mechanical Engineering Department. 

  • Workload worksheet (Word) – This worksheet can be used to help an instructor plan the workload for a course.

  • Work hours chart (PDF) – This chart shows the estimated total number of required hours of student work per week, according to unit value and term length. Work hours are reviewed for any new course, change in unit value, or change in the instructional format. The workload should be reflected in the syllabus.

  • Contact hours conversion chart for summer courses (PDF) – Use this chart to determine the class contact time when you are creating an equivalent summer version of a fall or spring course. Equivalent summer versions must have total contact hours (over the course of the whole term) equal to or slightly greater than the contact hours during the fall or spring terms. 

  • Petition for final exam group change  (PDF) – This petition is used to request a change to the exam group. Note that to maintain fairness and consistency across campus, COCI will only approve requests for exam group changes under exceptional circumstances. New procedures require the instructor to explain the reason for the request. 

  • COCI & CMS Glossary (PDF) – This directory provides definitions and uses to common abbreviations and terms used by COCI and within CMS.