The curriculum workflow defines the pathway that course and program proposals should take for approval. A separate workflow should be outlined for each form that is created, but multiple forms may use the same workflow steps.
Outline Workflows
To begin, please meet internally with necessary stakeholders to create a simple outline of the workflow process for each form using the guide and examples below. During implementation, your workflow process will be visually diagrammed by your product consultant in order to confirm the process for configuration.
Workflows can be completely linear, or they can branch at different points to send to different user roles depending on how a certain field is answered in the proposal.
Linear Workflows
Example - Linear Workflow Outline:
- Draft
- Department Chair (department dependent)
- College Dean (college dependent)
- Curriculum Committee
- Associate Provost
Example - Linear Workflow Diagram:
Branching Workflows
Example - Branching Workflow Outline:
- Draft
- Department Chair (department dependent)
- Curriculum Committee
- UG Curriculum Committee (if level is Undergraduate)
- GR Curriculum Committee (if level is Graduate)
- Associate Provost
- General Education Council (general education courses only)
- Provost
Example - Branching Workflow Diagram:
Each branch will be indicated by decision (or “trigger”) that needs to be made, and most often references a question on the curriculum form, indicated in Column H of the form template (see form template guide for details):
There are several types of branches. See below for a closer look at our examples.
Example 1: In this example, after review by the Department Chair, a proposal is sent to a Curriculum Committee, but the proposal will go to either the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee or a Graduate Curriculum Committee depending on what “Level” is selected on the form.
Example 2: In this example, a proposal is submitted to the General Education Committee for review only when the answer to the question “Is this a general education course?” is Yes.
Workflow Details
Once the base outline is determined, the following topics should be considered and will be discussed with your consultant during your implementation.
Rejection Path
- Returning to submitter: Our default process allows approver to return a proposal to the submitter, who can then return the item directly back to the stage where it was rejected (alternatively, the proposal can be removed or sent back through the entire process again).
- Returning a proposal to previous stage(s): Approvers at each stage may also have options to return proposals to other previous step(s) in the workflow.
Concluding Workflow
- Withdrawing/Removing proposals: Proposals can be removed entirely (denied or withdrawn) from the workflow at some or all workflow stages.
- Final Approval: The final stage of workflow (and other steps along the way, when necessary) will prompt the conclusion of the workflow process, which creates a new/updated catalog item and sends the proposal into an archived state.
Notifications and Permissions
- Email notifications: You’ll determine settings for overall email notifications on your system, as well as let us know if additional users should be notified of a final approval.
- Curriculum Permissions: After determining your workflow, a spreadsheet will be provided for you to designate the users who should be assigned to act as approvers/reviewers for each workflow step.