Priority Post is a special edition of our regular quarterly Policy Post that we will send from time to time. Priority Post contains items of utmost importance that we need to share with the Tulane Community in a timely manner.
University Certificates
Historically, Tulane has not had a policy related to the development and offering of certificate programs, at either the undergraduate or graduate levels. As both the number of these programs and the corresponding federal regulations grow, the University Senate Committee on Educational Policy (CEP) felt a policy to govern university certificate programs was needed. The policy sets minimum number of credits, articulates a process for approval (particularly for interdisciplinary certificates), and guides nomenclature for consistency across the university to provide clarity to students about the variety of program offerings. The policy does include a clause to allow for the continuance of already existing certificate programs. The University Senate approved the policy in its November 2020 meeting. The policy is available on the Office of Academic Affairs & Provost Academic Policies webpage.
Fall 2020 Course Evaluations
For most courses, the Fall 2020 evaluation period will open on November 16 and close on November 29. This semester’s course evaluation administration introduces two key process changes. First, all Fall 2020 course evaluations will consist of six core questions as well as one open-ended question to allow for student comments. These core questions were adopted from the recommendations of the Course Evaluation Task Force formed by Provost Robin Forman in Fall 2019. Each School has the opportunity to append additional questions, selected from the newly developed “question bank,” to address the evaluation topics specific to their programs and initiatives. In Spring 2021, departments will also have the opportunity to append specific questions. Second, a new software system will be used to administer this semester’s evaluations – EvaluationKIT. The EvaluationKIT system offers many benefits; in particular, its integration with Canvas will allow students to access evaluations from their Canvas dashboard and will allow instructors to monitor response rates from their Canvas course homepages. The Fall 2020 course evaluation instruments for each School, further information about the new software and the administration of the evaluations, and more detail on the work of the Task Force can be found on the Course Evaluation website. Questions can be directed to the Office of Assessment and Institutional Research at courseeval@tulane.edu.
Graduate Council & Notifications Regarding Professional Programs
Tulane’s Graduate Council approves new graduate degree programs as well as major curriculum changes in existing graduate programs. In order to fully fulfill its role to advise the Provost on all graduate education issues and in order to ensure that the Office of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies has complete and up-to-date information on graduate level program offerings, new professional degree program proposals and major curriculum changes in existing professional programs must be submitted to Graduate Council for notification. Once the Graduate Council has been notified, the proposal may then move to the Provost for his approval. The Graduate Council meets monthly throughout the academic year. Questions and notifications may be submitted to OGPS@tulane.edu.
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