AS YOU search through the Course Offering Directory for an interesting elective, you will probably encounter the following message, "No Course description is available for this course in the record." The COD arrived this past Friday and, like every year, left much to be desired. In the past I have been critical of students' ability to find specific information about courses on the COD, but I now realize that even basic information can be difficult to find. The course descriptions found on the COD are often outdated or nonexistent. Students sometimes have no idea what certain courses will teach and, naturally, have no inclination to take them. While relief is coming, the responsibility must be placed on individual departments in the meantime to ensure accurate descriptions are available for all courses.
The COD often recycles course descriptions from year-to-year, even if the description no longer applies. For example, the last line of the course description of CHEM 222 reads, "No credit may be received for CHEM 222 if CHEM 181L and CHEM 282L have been taken." A look at the chemistry majors Web site reveals that this, in fact, is not true. Quite the opposite -- some chemistry majors who take CHEM 181L and CHEM 282L are required to take CHEM 222 to fulfill their degree requirements.
This change was made over a year ago, yet the course still has the incorrect description. While a student could easily check with an advisor about this statement's validity, it makes one question how often course descriptions are changed in other instances. For example, course descriptions remain the same even if the professor has changed.
While this is understandable for an introductory level course when coverage of topics is rather consistent, it does not seem so appropriate for upper-level courses. In upper-level courses, professors often vary topics as they deem fit. Yet, no matter the level or department, course descriptions remain the same year to year even if the actual course changes significantly due to a new professor or natural evolution of the course.
While outdated course descriptions can be misleading, at least they give some sense of a course -- when they are available. To demonstrate how often they are not available, I randomly chose a department in the College of Arts and Sciences to see how many of its courses had course descriptions. In the department I chose, anthropology, many of the 400-level courses were independent study or research courses (courses that may logically not have course descriptions) so I chose to look at courses below the 400 level. Out of the 27 100-, 200-, and 300-level courses offered next spring, 12, or over 44 percent, had no course description. To ensure this was not a fluke, I looked through the history department to see that 14, over 24 percent, of the 58 sub-400 level history courses offered next spring did not have course descriptions.
University Registrar Carol Stanley described the process of updating the course offering directory for the College of Arts and Sciences: The information on the COD comes directly from ISIS -- that is, the time, the place, the instructor, and all other logistics. Course descriptions, however, come from another system and are approved by the Committee on Educational Policy and Curriculum. Individual departments, if they foresee change, must forward these changes to the CEPC, which approves them and forwards them to the University Registrar's office. But the University Registrar only updates the course record once a year and changes are only made if a department initiates the change. The incorporation of course descriptions, then, onto the COD is delayed at best.
Stanley said new software called PeopleSoft will be integrated within the next year. With the change, there will be no delay between CEPC approval and integration onto the course record. In the meantime students are left with little information. Students who call the Registrar for more information are directed to Toolkit and a possible syllabus. The Registrar, Stanley says, tries "to give as much information as possible."
The system currently in place is clearly inefficient. Professors presumably have already written course descriptions for these courses, but they simply are not available for viewing in the COD. Second, the new system will have no impact on departments which simply do not initiate changes in course descriptions.
Instead of using a passive system, the University should require that all departments submit a course description for every one of their courses to CPEC. If a professor is simply teaching the same course over again, then they, of course, could use the same description. Furthermore, for any new courses or courses that are undergoing important changes, a Web site could be generated off of the department page with new course descriptions. While the Registrar is working towards integrating new software, students should not have to suffer with inadequate information on the COD.
The COD contains important information for many students. Any student seeking elective courses relies on it to find a novel or worthwhile course. While students could always seek information in other ways, it should not be that difficult -- the COD's job is to provide sufficient information about the courses available. Instead, we must tolerate a consistently inaccurate and inadequate directory when significant improvements are easily within reach.
Rajesh Jain's column appears Wednesday in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at rjain@cavalierdaily.com.
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