Title
School of Nursing: Policy On Elective Course Offerings
Unit Policy
Introduction
Purpose
Elective courses enhance the curricular offerings and enrich the educational experience of all students. They also provide faculty with an opportunity to teach about or expand on important content that is not routinely addressed in required coursework or programs. The School of Nursing is committed to offering elective courses in all programs in an efficient, cost-effective manner. The demands for offering and staffing required courses need to be balanced with consideration of proposals for elective offierings.
Scope of Applicability
All faculty who are planning an elective course offering and Academic Associate Deans.
Policy
Each program has determined whether or not electives are a component of their program requirements.
Process
Course proposals for new elective courses should be submitted to the appropriate Executive Committee for review and approval. Each Executive Committee will review the proposals based on their review process and determine if the proposed elective meets program requirements.
The Associate Dean for each program will propose a rotation schedule for electives and will discuss this plan with the Associate Dean, Academic Affairs. A proposed rotation schedule for electives offered in the School will be reviewed and approved by the Academic Affairs and Policy Council in either November or January for the upcoming academic year. It is preferable that a two-year plan be established, with the caveat that circumstances may lead to modifications.
Faculty will negotiate the ability to teach an approved elective when they meet with their supervisor each Spring to discuss their teaching workload for the upcoming academic year.
The rotation schedule for elective courses will be determined by factors such as:
- Availability of faculty and other resources to cover all required course offerings;
- Need for electives by students in a given program;
- Potential student interest and ability to add an elective course to plans of study;
- Balance of course offerings in a given term;
- Variety of content offerings;
- Priorities or needs in the program; and
- Requirements/obligations of training grants.
Minimum Student Enrollment
Elective courses must meet minimum student enrollment. The current minimum course enrollments set by the University and the SON are:
- Courses at the BSN level: 10 students
- Courses at the MSN level: 10 students
- Courses at the Doctoral level: 5 students
Enrollments will be monitored during registration by the Associate Dean in whose program the course is taught. Faculty and students will be notified by the Associate Dean if a course does not reach minimum enrollment and must be canceled (prior to the University billing date). If cancellation of an elective course is being considered, the faculty member may be given the option of offering an under-subscribed course as an independent study with no workload attached by their supervising Associate Dean.
Exceptions
N/A
Contact Information
Policy Contact
Peggy Wilmoth, Associate Dean Academic Affairs
Other Contacts
N/A
Important Dates
- Effective Date and title of Approver: 4/14/2003 approved by the faculty
- Revised: 3/3/2009 by AAC
- Revised: 4/20/2009 by FEC
- Revised: 9/27/2016 by AAC
Approved by:
Peggy Wilmoth
Associate Dean Academic Affairs