1. Seattle Central Home Page
  2. About Us
  3. Councils, Committees & Taskforces
  4. Curriculum Coordinating Council
  5. Course Approval Committee

Course Approval Committee

The CAC reviews new and revised courses submitted by faculty. The committee considers compliance with college standards, accreditation standards, curriculum policies, and alignment with the college mission, values, and learning outcomes.
All new and revised courses must be reviewed and approved by the CAC prior to approval by the Vice President for Instruction. The CAC maintains and facilitates documents related to the course approval process.

Course Approval Committee Goals

  • Enable programs to offer high quality courses that support college-wide and program level learning outcomes.
  • Promote curriculum development.

The Course Approval Committee will

  • Review course proposals and provide feedback.
  • Ask questions.
  • Ensure that the course approval process is followed.
  • Determine if course tags and learning outcomes are in alignment with the appropriate program and college-wide learning outcomes.
  • Promote professional development opportunities for curriculum.
  • Work with the Instructional Assessment Committee to provide support for new and revised course development.

Course Approval Process

  • There are 8 possible stages through which a course approval submission can pass in the ACAS.
  • All course approvals must be submitted through the Automated Course Approval System (ACAS).
  • The Course Approval Committee Review is the 6th stage; it can take several weeks before the course approval submission reaches the Course Approval Committee Review stage.
  • The Course Approval Committee members will be using this rubric to review your course approval submission.
  • Faculty should take into account the time to receive CAC review feedback and complete any CAC editing requests.
  • Course outlines are not approved until all editing requests have been completed. So please make sure to submit your course approval submissions well in advance of the quarter that you anticipate offering the course.
  • If you are revising all or a large number of courses in your program, please contact Josh Whorley, Course Approval Committee (CAC) Chair, to set up a time to receive an orientation to the Seattle Central College course approval process. Please do not begin the revision process until you have completed the orientation.

CAC Review Submission Deadlines

The application to revise, adopt, or create a course must reach the Course Approval Committee 90 days before you'd like to offer the course.Contact your division or unit administrators to check if there are any internal deadlines by which you must have your course outline officially approved in order to have your course entered and ready in the schedule of classes for the quarter you desire to offer the course.

The Course Approval Process and the Instructional Assessment Committee (IAC)

Please make sure that your Program Learning Outcomes have been approved by the IAC. If they haven't, please contact Emily Castillo or Melana Yanos, Co-Chairs of Instructional Assessment Committee (IAC), for guidance. List of Approved Program Learning Outcomes. If the course you are adopting, establishing or revising fulfills requirements for the A.A. or A.S. Degree, please use the A.A./A.S. Learning Outcomes for your program learning outcomes. The IAC can also help with course learning outcomes