How to Propose an Online Course

We at MTSU Online are happy to help you with as you propose a course for online delivery. Please follow the steps below. Before you propose a course for online delivery, the course must have been approved sometime in the past by the Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (UCC) or the Graduate Council for inclusion in the MTSU curriculum. If you are proposing an online course that does not exist at MTSU in any delivery method, that course (like all new proposed courses) goes through the UCC or GC for approval.

1. Consult with your department chair to ensure they are aware of and support your online course proposal.
2. Review the description of MTSU Course Types and choose a course type to develop. This page describes the various course types and the faculty stipends associated with development.
3. Read about the expectations and procedures for course developers.  
4. Read and be familiar with the Online and Distance Education Guidelines from MTSU Online.
5. Submit a Curriculog proposal. The online course proposer (the faculty member) submits a Curriculog (Modern Campus Curriculum) proposal using the “Online Course Approval Form for All Colleges” form.
6. The following entities will have the opportunity to support or decline your proposal in Curriculog, as outlined in this workflow.
   • Online Course Proposer (faculty)
   • Initial Review (Carol Hayes, Coordinator of Faculty Services for MTSU Online)
   • Department Curriculum Committee
   • Department Chair
   • College Curriculum Committee
   • College Dean
   • MTSU Online (Trey Martindale, Associate Vice Provost for Online Learning)

• When your course proposal is ultimately approved or declined, you will be notified via email. You can also track the proposal progress through Curriculog. Carol Hayes, the MTSU Online Faculty Services Coordinator, will send an Online Course Development Agreement Form to you (the faculty proposer and developer).
  • This form specifies the developer’s duties and obligations and facilitates developer compensation.
  • Compensation will not be paid until all parties have completed and signed the agreement.
  • Note that non-standard courses such as internships, practicum, independent studies, etc., are not compensated. If a course is a “Special Topic”, it goes through this online course approval process (but not an additional UCC approval).

How MTSU Online Reviews and Prioritizes Course Proposals

A course development proposal most likely to be accepted for (re)development is for a course that:

• is part of a fully online, or soon-to-be fully online, degree program
• is in high demand by online students
• is a key elective for students seeking to complete a degree online
• is significantly outdated relative to the field of study
• has a strong justification from the proposer and a strong endorsement from the department chair

Typical reasons a course proposal might be declined

1. The chair, department, or college curriculum committee did not support or approve the proposal.
2. The faculty member proposed more than two courses to develop. In our experience, developing more than two courses in a term by a single faculty developer is very challenging due to faculty time constraints.
3. The unit or department proposed so many courses that MTSU Online needed to “triage” the most crucial courses, to be fair to all the departments proposing.