Special Topics Courses
Special Topics courses are an important element of a discipline’s curricula. These courses allow
faculty to explore new ideas, new methods of inquiry. Special Topics courses are taught at the
300 and 400 levels for undergraduates, and at the 500 or 600 level for graduate students. Special
Topics courses must have the same rigor as the discipline’s required coursework. When
proposing a Special Topics course, faculty (1) prepare a brief statement indicating the
significance of the coursework to the growth of the curriculum and (2) submit a proposed
syllabus that contains potential assignments. This Special Topics proposal should be submitted
one semester before offering the course.
The Director/Associate Director (or select faculty?) of the program reviews the Special Topics
proposal, and discusses potential scheduling opportunities. Each semester a program should not
offer more than two Special Topics courses at the undergraduate and the graduate levels. To
maintain the FTE standards of the College a minimum of 8 students must register for any Special
Topics course.
After offering the course successfully at least 3 times, the Special Topics course must become a
part of the program’s overall curriculum as a new course. If the faculty does not approve the new
course, it may not be taught again for five years. The new course proposal may be revised and
reviewed as many times as needed for faculty approval.
Directed Readings/Independent Study:
These courses are critical for students who are doing research on a topic or creative work for
degree completion. Many CVPA graduate students use these course options to work with a
professor who has expertise in an area of a discipline that is beyond regular classroom study.
Undergraduates who are preparing for final/capstone events may also use this type of course for
further examination of a field of study.
However, relying on directed readings/independent work may interfere with the normal
scheduling of course sections, especially for the graduate level. Combining undergraduate
courses with “directed readings” at the graduate level must be reviewed, especially if a separate
section of a course could serve the students better than this particular fall-back option.
Anytime the combination of undergraduate/graduate study occurs, graduate level work must
have a separate syllabus indicating a higher level of assignments and expectations.
From CEHD:
In addition to regular classroom-based or on-line courses, faculty may earn workload credit by
supervising student teachers or student interns at a ratio determined as appropriate (in terms of
overall time commitment) by Division Directors and Academic Program Coordinators. Faculty
can also earn fractional course credits by mentoring individual students in independent study
courses or by serving on doctoral dissertation committees (see formulas below).
Independent study, directed readings, directed research: 3.33% of a course per credit (this
calibrates to 10% of a course for a typical 3-credit, one semester independent study experience)
11.5.13