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2012-2013 Graduate Programs Academic Catalog
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audit courses. Audited courses do appear on
transcripts. No more than 25 percent of students
registered for any course may be auditors.
Awarding Credit Practices
Graduate Credit:
An academic unit of graduate
credit at CIU is based on the following criteria: (a)
a defined academic plan for the student or
course is outlined through a written course syl-
labus, which includes learning resources and
activities, clearly defined learning outcome or
competencies, and the means through which
these outcomes are to be assessed; (b) a credit
unit (semester hour) reflects a minimum of 42.5
clock hours of instruction and learning activities
per credit hour (the equivalent of 50 minutes of
classroom study per week for at least 15 weeks
plus two hours per week of learning activities out-
side the classroom); (c) a CIU approved and qual-
ified instructor (doctoral concentration in the
discipline) provides and supervises all aspects of
the course; (d) the faculty member of record sub-
mits grades to the Office of the University
Registrar to verify learning outcomes and the
completion of the study, and (e) every course,
regardless of delivery mode, is reviewed by the
faculty during the regularly scheduled periodic
program reviews.
Approval Process:
The faculty of the respective
school must approve the course description, the
amount of credit awarded, and the place of the
course within the curriculum (lower division,
upper division, elective, core, etc.). The unit of
study is approved by the faculty and assigned an
academic prefix and course number prior to the
delivery of the course. The academic dean’s
office ensures that the syllabus aligns with the
faculty approved course description and that the
defined approval procedures have been followed.
Off-Campus Courses
The criteria and approval process above is the
same for off-campus courses as it is for on-cam-
pus courses.
Faculty Directed Study
The requirements above must be met when
designing and delivering a Faculty Directed Study
(FDS). In addition, an FDS proposal must be
reviewed and approved by the academic dean of
the respective school, and must include a mini-
mum of one professor-student contact per credit
hour. (Please see the Faculty Directed Study
[FDS] section below.)
Online and Hybrid Courses
In addition to the guidelines above, online and
hybrid courses will utilize an approved online
course design template that facilitates a delivery
format in alignment with the nature of the content
and learning activities. Course development will
be a collaborative effort between an online
instructional designer and a qualified course
instructor assigned by the dean (as per current
practice).
Consortial Agreements
In addition to the review process above, any
coursework provided via another organization on
behalf of CIU must be authorized by the faculty
via an articulation agreement defining the relation-
ship and demonstrating faculty supervision of the
educational experience. Agreements are reviewed
annually by the respective academic dean’s
office. Graduate programs have no current con-
sortial agreements.
Professional Development and
Conference Courses
These courses are likewise subject to the guide-
lines above. Credit earned within these alternative
educational venues must involve pre- and/or
post-work assigned by the CIU professor
approved to teach the parallel course. Students
are assigned readings and are to submit reflec-
tion papers that overview the content and its rele-
vancy to their professional roles. Following the
group learning experience, an application project
is to be assigned and completed by the student
by a specified date. These are outlined in the syl-
labus and are aligned with the learner outcomes.
The assignments and group learning experiences
must address the measurement of these learner
outcomes. CIU does not grant credit for previous
experiential learning and professional certification.