Submitting Course Proposals in Coursedog

Before you begin a proposal, review the Form Instructions and information about the various course types on the procedures section of this site.  

If you need assistance anytime before starting or while you are working on a proposal, email Curriculum@ilstu.edu to ask questions or request a Zoom training session. Please provide 3-4 dates and time-frames that will work for you. 

1. Before starting a New Course or a New Temporary Course proposal, request an available course number to use by emailing Curriculum@ilstu.edu Course numbers must be inactive for a minimum of 5 years before they can be reused. Temporary course numbers must be 189Axx, 289Axx, 389Axx, 489Axx or 589Axx.
   Decimal course numbers in Coursedog requires an uppercase "A" in the number. 
2. Do not submit any type of course proposal related to a cross listed course. Coursedog does not successfully process cross listed courses without our office completing additional processes. Email curriculum@ilstu.edufor assistance. 
3. Review proposal deadlines and general proposal form instructions 

New/Revised Course Proposals Associated with Program Proposals

1. If new or revised course proposals will be associated with program proposal(s), new or revisions, be sure that you submit your course proposals first and that the Starting Effective Date/Term for the course proposal(s) is before or the same as the Starting Effective Date/Term associated with the program proposal.
2. It is best practice to wait to submit program proposals until all of the associated course proposals have been approved. However, you can start working on your program proposal while course proposals are working through the approval workflows; but be aware of the following.
   1. You will be able to add new courses to a program proposal's Requirements that have proposals "in-flight"/working their way through the approval workflow, a note will appear next to the course in the Requirements section indicating "pending in workflow". 
   2. New courses must be fully approved to be added to the Sample Plans of Study section of a program proposal. Sample Plans of Study are required for all undergraduate major and sequence proposals.
   3. If you are proposing revisions to a course, including changing credit hours, hold on adding the course to the Sample Plan of Study section of the program proposal until the course revision proposal is fully approved. The Sample Plans of Study section auto-calculates the credit hours for each semester and the overall Sample Plan so you want the course revision proposal to be fully approved so the new credit hours are reflected in the Sample Plan of Study. And, be sure that the Starting Effective Date/Term for the course revision proposal(s) is the same as the Starting Effective Date/Term for the associated program proposal(s), which is always the start of a new Catalog Year (Summer Term). 

Links to Step-by-Step Instructions and Videos 

• New Course/New Temporary Course
• Course Revisions (minor edits and significant revisions)
• Inactivate Course
• Steps After a Proposal is Submitted
  • Proposal dashboard overview
  • Steps for authors if a proposal is routed back to them by a reviewer
  • Reviewing proposals, who can/needs to 'vote' (approve, route back, reject) on proposals in Coursedog 

New Course and New Temporary Course

Coursedog Training Video: Propose New Course or New Temporary Course

1. You must request an available course number from Curriculum@ilstu.edu before you start the proposal.
2. Temporary course numbers must be decimalized 189Axx, 289Axx, 389Axx, 489Axx, or 589Axx. Coursedog requires an uppercase "A". 
3. Link to the Coursedog Curriculum Management System - Log in with your ISU Central Login email and password. 
4. In the Curriculum Management System, from the home page, on right-side, under the Actions heading, click on + New Proposal. 
5. You will be prompted with this question: 
   Do you want to Propose/Revise a: Course; Major (sequence), Minor or Certificate; Or submit a curriculum-related form?
6. From the drop down - select Course 
7. You will be prompted with another question
   Do you want to propose a new course, revise an existing course, or inactivate a course?
8. Select Propose a new course or Propose new temporary course.
9. You will be taken to the New Course or New Temporary Course Proposal Form. These are two separate forms because there are different workflows associated with them. 
10. An Anchor Syllabus is required. 
11. If you get an error message when you enter the course number, that says the number is not available, and it is the number you received approval from Curriculum staff to use, send an email and we will investigate the issue.  
12. Complete the fields on the form. The notes next to some fields provide important guidance. If you have questions about how to complete a field, stop and email Curriculum@ilstu.edu Some fields are only visible to you, not editable. 
13. Once you start a proposal it will autosave. Saved drafts of proposals may be accessed in the Drafts folder on the left-side navigation. 
14. You cannot add or remove any IAI (Illinois Articulation Initiative) attributes. The process for IAI approval is outside of the ISU curriculum approval process. Email itransfer@itransfer.org for assistance with this process. 
15. Temporary courses can only be active for one year. They may not be used to satisfy any major, sequence, minor, certificate, general education program requirement or any University-level requirement (AMALI, IDEAS, BS-SMT).
16. Proposals automatically save, and you can go back to it later by clicking on "Drafts" on the left navigation.
17. Do NOT submit a proposal for a new cross listed course without consulting with the Curriculum staff first. We will have to assist with this process.  
18. Hit Submit Proposal on the right side navigation, under the Actions heading, when you are done completing the fields. 
    
    

Revise Course

Coursedog Training Video: Revise Course

1. If the course proposals are associated with a program proposal(s) be sure that you submit your course proposals first and that the Starting Effective Date/Term for the course proposal(s) is before or the same as the Starting Effective Date/Term associated with the program proposal. Program proposals are always effective with the start of a new Catalog Year. ISU Catalog's start on the first day of Summer Term. 
2. Before you start the proposal determine the latest effective date of the course that you want to propose revisions for so you select the correct Effective Start Term. There may already be approved revisions for the course for a future term so you want to use that same term or after that term for your proposal or your revisions will overwrite the others once your proposal is approved.  
3. Link to the Coursedog Curriculum Management System - Log in with your ISU Central Login email and password. 
4. From the main Curriculum Management home, click on Courses from the left-side navigation.
5. In the Search box (upper right of the page), enter the course subject code and number (with no spaces).
   
   
6. Select the course and then click on the blue effective dating information in the upper right-hand corner. You will see the current and any future effective dates for the course.
7. In this example, you will see the current effective date and a future effective date (Spring Semester 2027). This means that the course has changes approved for the Spring 2027 semester. 
8. If the course you want to revise has a FUTURE effective date, this means that when you propose revisions for the course you MUST select that semester or later so that your revisions will not overwrite the revisions that have already been approved for the course.
   In the above example, you can select Spring 2027, Summer 2027, Fall 2027 or later, when you start your proposal as long as the deadline has not passed for course revisions for that semester.
9. Do not Click on Propose Changes located under Actions on the right-hand side. 
10. Click on Home on the left-side navigation and then on right-side, under the Actions heading, click on + New Proposal. 
11. You will be prompted with this question: 
    Do you want to Propose/Revise a: Course; Major (sequence), Minor or Certificate; Or submit a curriculum-related form?
    From the drop down - select Course
12. You will be prompted with another question:
    Are you requesting minor changes or significant revisions (adding a new attribute, changing credit hours, or changing content)? 
    Refer to the following to determine which proposal type you need to use based on the types of revisions you wish to propose.
    1. Minor Edit to Course - Use this proposal type to request minor edits to course titles, descriptions, or to request changes to prerequisites (including courses that are offered by another department as long as you upload an email of support from that department chair). This proposal only routes to the Department Chair and the AVP for Undergraduate or Graduate Education. 
       You cannot use this proposal type to request changes to content, credit hours, components (i.e. lecture, lab) or to add or remove a course attribute (for Gen Ed, IDEAS, AMALI, etc..).
    2. Revise Course - Significant revisions - Use to request changes to content, credit hours, component type(s), add or remove course attribute(s) (Gen Ed, AMALI, IDEAS, etc.). This proposal routes to the Department Curriculum Committee, Department Chair, College Curriculum Committee, Dean, and the AVP for Undergraduate or Graduate Education. 
       If you are unsure which to use, email Curriculum@ilstu.edu BEFORE you start your proposal. Ensuring you have the correct proposal form will save everyone time and frustration.
13. Complete the fields on the proposal form. Some fields may be visible but not editable and will differ between form types. 
14. Proposals automatically save, and you can go back to it later by clicking on "Drafts" on the left navigation.
15. Click Submit Proposal on the right side navigation, under the Actions heading, when you are done making necessary revisions to the fields. 

General information about Course Revision Proposals - Minor Edits and Significant Revisions

• Data fields that are integrated with our Campus Solutions system will be pre-populated with the data as of the effective date for the course. 
• Depending on the proposal form type you selected, Minor Edits or Significant Revisions, some fields will be visible only and some will be editable. 
• Revise Course - significant revision proposals require an Anchor Syllabus. 
• Do NOT submit a proposal to revise a cross listed course without consulting with the Curriculum staff first. Coursedog handles cross listed courses differently and there are administrative tasks that must be done as part of the process. 
• This is required question, Is this course required in a major (sequence), minor or certificate that leads to professional educator licensure?, will impact the proposal workflow after it is submitted. Be sure to respond correctly. If you answer No, the proposal will not route to the Council for Teacher Education for review. 
• Do NOT add or remove any IAI (Illinois Articulation Initiative) attributes. The process for IAI approval is outside of the ISU curriculum approval process. Email itransfer@itransfer.org for assistance with this process.   

 

Inactivate Course

1. Link to the Coursedog Curriculum Management System - Log in with your ISU Central Login email and password. 
2. Select the Effective Start Term for when you want the course to be inactivated. Do not enter an Effective End Term.
3. Search for the course by entering the subject code and the number, with no space in between. Ex: HIS100. Select the course and click Go to Form. 
4. Complete the fields on the proposal form. Some fields are visible but not editable.
   The notes next to some fields provide important guidance. If you have questions about how to complete a field, stop and email Curriculum@ilstu.edu  

 

After a Proposal is Submitted - Reviewing proposals and making decisions ('voting') on proposals

Coursedog Training Video: Proposal Dashboard, Reviewing Proposals and Making Decisions on Proposals

• After a proposal is submitted, it will move through the workflow steps associated with the proposal type. 
• The reviewers associated with each workflow step will review the proposal and the reviewers who have permission to make decisions on proposals (committee chairs, department chairs, deans, AVP for undergraduate or graduate education) will make a decision. At each workflow step, the designated person for that workflow step will make a Decision about the proposal. Decision options: 
  • Approve - Moves the proposal on to the next step in the workflow
  • Reject - Kills the proposal, this cannot be undone by anyone, including the Curriculum staff or Coursedog. The author will receive an email notifying them that the proposal was Rejected. 
  • Route Back 
    • The reviewer will indicate if they want the proposal to go back to the Author or to a previous step in the workflow, and if the proposal should go back through the entire workflow or to return the proposal to the current step. The reviewer must also include comments about their decision. 
    • If a proposal is routed back to the Author, the Author will receive an email from Coursedog. The email will include a link to the proposal. The Author should review comments by the reviewer. Scroll down to the bottom to see the latest comments.  
    • To make edits, click Edit, make edits and click save. A prompt will appear asking if the proposal workflow should reset and go back through the entire workflow or return to the current step (back to the reviewer who routed the proposal back to the author).
      The Author will typically select "return to current step" but they should review any comments made by the reviewer, they may indicate that the proposal should route back through the entire workflow if significant edits are needed. You can see comments made in the Proposal Toolbox area under the Activity tab, and scroll down to the bottom to see the latest. 
      
    • If the Author decides they do not want to make the edits, and they don't want to resubmit the proposal back to the workflow, they can click Reject. Clicking Reject kills the proposal and this cannot be undone by anyone.