Course Monitoring and Review

Heads of Department/Division have broad responsibility, inter alia, for:

• the quality of the delivery of courses and educational programs under their Department/Division;
• maintaining academic standards through monitoring and approving course grades.

It is good practice for faculty/instructors to review course grade distributions annually in regard to historical distributions for their courses and with reference to the University’s Guideline Grade Distribution bands, to avoid grade inflation and monitor the academic standards of assessments and the marking/grading criteria applied. Such reviews may lead to changes to the course curriculum and/or assessment.

The Committee on Undergraduate Studies (CUS):

• annually reviews the assignment of undergraduate course grades across the University;
• monitors course grade distributions to ensure that grading practice is reasonably uniform across undergraduate programs and that appropriate standards are being maintained;
• reports to the Senate on an annual basis on undergraduate course grades.

The CUS is also responsible for approving major changes to courses following course review.

A key component of course monitoring and review is the end-of-course Student Feedback Questionnaire (SFQ).

Faculty/Instructors review SFQ reports for their courses. Reports are also reviewed by Heads of Department/Division, who may discuss SFQ scores with instructors as part of teaching evaluation.

The Committee on Undergraduate Core Education (CUCE) establishes Course Review Panels (CRPs) to review new common core course proposals, course change applications and delivery of common core courses. Reviews aim to ensure that common core course design and content meet the general criteria for common core courses and the course and area intended learning outcomes.

Details on Common Core Course Monitoring and Review can be accessed at the Common Core Program Quality Assurance Handbook (page 22). . Overall mean SFQ scores for common core courses are analysed by the Undergraduate Core Education team, and a summary of SFQ statistics and observations are submitted to the CUCE for review. The Academic Director (Undergraduate Core Education) may approach individual Heads of Department/Division to discuss courses with unusual SFQ scores.