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 schedule a Zoom training session with us. 

1. Login to Coursedog

   using your Illinois State University Central Login email and password.
2. Depending on your access type, you may see Curriculum Management and Catalog & Handbook, Click on Curriculum Management.
3. BEFORE YOU START a New Course or a New Temporary Course proposal, you must first 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. 
4. 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. 
5. Review proposal deadlines and general proposal form instructions 

Learn more about:

• Course Revisions (minor edits and significant revisions)
  
• New Course/New Temporary Course
  
• Inactivate Course
• After a Proposal is Submitted (what authors do if a propsoal is routed back to them by a reviewer)

 

New Course and 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. In the Curriculum Management System, from the home page, on right-side, under the Actions heading, click on + New Proposal. 
4. 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?
5. From the drop down - select Course 
6. You will be prompted with another question
   Do you want to propose a new course, revise an existing course, or inactivate a course?
7. Select Propose a new course or Propose new temporary course.
8. 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. 
9. An Anchor Syllabus is required. 
10. 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.  
11. 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. 
12. Once you start a proposal it will autosave. Saved drafts of proposals may be accessed in the Drafts folder on the left-side navigation. 
13. 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. 
14. 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).
15. Proposals automatically save, and you can go back to it later by clicking on "Drafts" on the left navigation.
16. 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.  
17. Hit Submit Proposal on the right side navigation, under the Actions heading, when you are done completing the fields. 

Inactivate Course

1. Select the Effective Start Term for the when you want the course to be inactivated. Do not enter an Effective End Term.
   
2. Search for the course by entering the subject code and the number, with no space in between. Ex: HIS100
3. Complete the fields on the proposal form. Some fields are just visible but not editable. 
4. 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 

Revise Course

1. From the main Curriculum Management home, click on Courses from the left-side navigation. In the Search box (upper right of the page), enter the course subject code and number (with no spaces).
   
   
2. Select the course and then, to find the most update to date information for the course, 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.
3. 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. 
4. Click on the latest Effective Date that you see so you will be proposing revisions to the latest version of the course
5. Click on Propose Changes on the right side, and select the proposal type that meets your needs.
   Minor Edit to Course - cannot use this to make changes to content or credit hours. You can use this proposal type to request changes to prerequisites. Can only remove attributes using this proposal type, such as Gen Ed, AMALI, IDEAS etc.
   Revise Course - Significant revisions - use to change content, hours add course attribute (Gen Ed, AMALI, IDEAS, etc.)
   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. 

• Minor edits (can only remove attributes using this proposal type, such as Gen Ed, AMALI, IDEAS etc.) cannot make changes to content or credit hours. You can use this proposal type to request changes to prerequisites.
• Significant revisions - use to change content, hours add course attribute (Gen Ed, AMALI, IDEAS, etc. 

Complete the fields on the proposal form. Some fields are visible but not editable.

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. 
• Significant revision proposals require an Anchor Syllabus. 
• Make revisions to necessary fields. 
• 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  
• Proposals automatically save, and you can go back to it later by clicking on "Drafts" on the left navigation.
• 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 a required question, be sure you respond correctly as it will impact the workflow for the proposal. Is this course required in a major (sequence), minor or certificate that leads to professional educator licensure? If you answer No, the proposal will not route to the Council for Teacher Education for review. 
• You CANNOT ADD course attributes such as Gen Ed, AMALI, IDEAS etc.. to a course using the Minor Edit proposal form. You can only REMOVE an attribute.  We cannot disable this functionality on the Minor Edit form so if one is added, we will have to Reject the proposal and the Author will have to start a new proposal using the Revise Course - Significant Revisions Proposal Form, this form ensures that the appropriate committees are included on the workflow. 
• 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.   
• Proposals automatically save, and you can go back to it later by clicking on "Drafts" on the left navigation.
• Hit Submit Proposal on the right side navigation, under the Actions heading, when you are done making necessary revisions to the fields. 

After a Proposal is Submitted

• 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. Decisions include:
  • 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 person making the decision must indicate if they are routing the proposal back to the author or to a previous step in the workflow. Most of the time, if this decision is made, they are routing the proposal back to the author for minor edits.
    • The reviewer will indicate if they want the proposal to 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 email. If the reviewer made comments about the proposal, they will also be included in the email. 
    • To make edits, the author can click Edit, make edits and hit 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. You can see comments made in the Proposal Toolbox area under the Activity tab, and scroll down to the bottom to see the latest. 
      
    • After the author saves the edits made, they must click Approve/Resubmit and Submit Decision in the Proposal Toolbox to move the proposal back into the workflow. 
    • 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.