Improving Curriculum Transparency Through Course Attributes
Learn how colleges and universities use CourseLeaf to identify and communicate course attributes that improve transparency, support institutional initiatives, and help students find relevant courses.
Overview
Colleges and universities increasingly rely on accurate curriculum data to support institutional priorities, strengthen academic planning, and provide students with clear information about course offerings.
At Wichita State University and Worcester State University, CourseLeaf helps academic leaders identify and communicate course attributes that support institution-specific initiatives through connected curriculum workflows and academic catalog management.
By managing course attributes through connected curriculum workflows and the academic catalog, institutions can consistently identify courses, improve transparency, and provide reliable information for students, faculty, and administrators.
Creating Consistent Curriculum Information
At Wichita State University, the Registrar's Office uses CourseLeaf to identify courses containing diversity-related content. This helps students find relevant courses while providing administrators with consistent data to support institutional reporting.
According to Gina Crabtree, University Registrar,
"CourseLeaf delivers exactly what they promise. CIM allows us to see course proposals first and head off problems; it allows transparency so that anyone can see where a proposal is in the workflow, and it allows us to keep all information related to a course or program change in one place in the CIM system."
To support the university's institutional goals, CourseLeaf CIM prompts faculty to identify diversity-related content during the curriculum approval process and automatically applies the appropriate designation to approved course descriptions.
"CourseLeaf CIM adds the diversity content statement to the course description and guarantees that it is always included in the same place," said Crabtree. "This automated process reduces the chance for human error and inconsistency. Neither myself nor my catalog editor have to worry anymore."
Supporting Institutional Priorities
At Worcester State University, academic leaders used CourseLeaf to introduce a new curriculum identifier that distinguished courses focused on topics of race, ethnicity, and gender as part of a broader curriculum initiative.
According to Ryan G. Forsythe, Vice President for Enrollment Management,
"The new courses are dedicated entirely to topics of diversity, and from a pedagogical point of view, they are completely different from non-diversity content area courses. When it came to adding these new courses to our catalog and identifying them as different from other courses, we turned to CourseLeaf."
The new workflow also created greater visibility into curriculum changes while making approved information available to students, faculty, and administrators.
"We needed to change our course form to reflect the addition of a diversity content area, and CourseLeaf was with us throughout the process," said Forsythe. "We expect to be held accountable for meeting our stated outcomes for DEI, and now we have it all in writing so that any student or faculty member can see how this content is being shared and taught across the campus."
A Flexible Foundation for Transparency
For both institutions, the goal extended beyond adding new course identifiers. They wanted a consistent, transparent process for identifying, managing, and communicating important curriculum information across campus.
By connecting curriculum workflows with the academic catalog, CourseLeaf helps institutions ensure course attributes remain accurate, visible, and consistent while reducing the manual effort required to maintain them.
Reflecting on the partnership, Forsythe said,
"Even though I might have a thousand questions, the CourseLeaf team is always there, always responsive."
Learn How CourseLeaf Can Help
CourseLeaf helps colleges and universities create more transparent, connected curriculum workflows that improve the accuracy and visibility of academic information while supporting institutional priorities.