What is a Course Outline?

While instructors enjoy the academic freedom and are empowered to choose the resources and teaching strategies best for their course, the scope of the content of each course is described and defined in an official document called the Course Outline of Record. When this document was first drafted the majority of the faculty in the appropriate department/discipline agreed to support it and sought approval from the college/district curriculum committee, the Board of Trustees and the state Chancellor's office.

The format and standards for course outlines are defined in Title 5, as described in the Curriculum Standards Handbook for community colleges. All Course outlines contain the following information:

• Catalog description of the course - a short paragraph as a well developed overview of topics covered
  Statement of need/justification - degree, certificate, transfer or other need
• Prerequisite skills - entry skills without which student success is highly unlikely
• Objectives - in measurable terms what students will be able to do: "upon completion of the course the student should be able to...."
• Course content - a complete list of all topics taught in the course
• Methods of Instruction - Types or examples of methods of instruction as well as assignments and how they are evaluated.
• Assignments - the basis for grading as related to skills and abilities in objectives
• Texts/instructional materials - sample texts (with date of publication) and other instructional material.

The course outline of record serves as a reference document throughout the college community and forms the basis for a contract between the student, instructor and institution. It defines the fundamental, required components of the course that the institution expects the faculty to teach and the student is guaranteed to receive. On an even broader scale, course outlines are used in accreditation reviews and serve as the basis for transfer articulation agreements with four-year institutions such as the CSU's and UC's.

The course outline is a "document with defined legal standing". The course outline is a critical resource that is used to develop the syllabus and plan lessons. The syllabus is, of course, distributed to the students and will likely contain some of the information in the course outline, e.g. course objectives, textbook. But the syllabus also contains information specific to the class an individual instructor teachs (e.g. their contact information, assignments).

Even though every community college has an official course outline of record for every course offered, the degree of adherence to the letter of the outline varies greatly by college, department, and even by course. A course in the nursing department, for example, may require strict adherence to the course outline since specific content may be required for state certification. In other cases, the course outline may be more like broad guidelines. Be certain that your department has agreed on the policies to be followed with regard to each course outline and that the outline is updated as needed.

The information found in the course outline of record will be extremely valuable to you as you guide your faculty, particularly part time faculty and make critical decisions about content, strategies and student outcomes.