Managing course proposals in CourseLeaf CIM
Overview
Purpose: This article provides instructions for using the Course Inventory Management form in CourseLeaf CIM. The focus is on the mechanics of using the system. For information about policies, guidelines, deadlines, and other resources related to submitting course proposals, please see the UConn Curriculum Hub. For information about gaining access and logging into CIM, see Accessing the CourseLeaf Curriculum Inventory Management (CIM) System.
Background
The Course Inventory Management form is located at uconn-next.courseleaf.com/courseadmin. All active UConn faculty and staff can access the form to review course or proposal information or submit proposals, but only those added to the appropriate workflow roles may approve proposals.
The form includes information about pending and historical course proposals as well as details of active and inactive courses in the Student Administration System. CIM is directly integrated with the Student Administration System, so this course information is pulled directly from there, and all course changes approved in CIM are bridged automatically to Student Admin.
Searching and Viewing
When you log into the Course Inventory Management form, by default the search results table will include information about all pending course proposals.
Use the course search bar to search for courses. The system searches the subject and catalog number, course title, workflow step, and CIM status. Asterisks can be used as wildcard characters.
The History checkbox allows users to search for the history of proposals (beginning with the 2025-26 academic year) related to a specific course. Check the Archive checkbox to view inactive courses whose course numbers may be eligible to be reused.
Prior to 2025-26, an “archived” course was one which was temporarily inactivated after not having been offered in several years. Beginning in 2025-26, this process was known as “suspending” courses. The Archive checkbox may not be used to retrieve lists of suspended courses. To see such a list, see the Reports page on the UConn Curriculum Hub.
Viewing Courses and Proposals
Once you’ve conducted a search and selected the item you want from the list of search results, the details of the course will appear below the search results table. If there is an active proposal related to the course, the details of the proposal including any edits will display. Otherwise, the course is considered to be “at rest,” and the course details will appear as previously approved.
In addition to the details of the course (and any proposal details for pending proposals), this view also includes several other elements:
Inactivate and Reactivate button: When a course is active and at rest, there will be an option to inactivate the course. Inactive courses will have a reactivate option. Please note, however, that only suspended courses may be reactivated.
Archive Course: Permanently inactivates a course.
Shred Proposal button: If a course is the subject of an active proposal, the Shred Proposal button can be used to permanently delete all proposal information and return the course to the previously approved state.
Preview Workflow: Select the Preview Workflow link to see which approvals are required for a particular course approval. The preview will include both approval and FYI steps as well as the names of everyone who will review the proposal at each step. Because workflow may change depending on the details of the proposal, you can fill out the relevant fields in the form, save it without starting workflow, and select the Preview Workflow link again to see any changes to the workflow. You can also use this method to preview the workflow of a new course proposal.
Ecosystem: The Ecosystem lists all catalog pages and courses that reference the course you’re viewing. This can be helpful in determining the impact your proposal may have on programs or other courses.
Submitting Course Proposals
There are several options for submitting a proposal; the correct one will depend on the nature of the proposal.
Use Propose New Course to create a new course (Fig. 2). When you select this option, there will be a Propose New from Existing Course button (Fig. 2) that you may use if you’d like to use many of the same details of an existing course.
Use Edit Course (Fig. 1, above) to revise an existing course.
Use Inactivate (Fig. 1) to suspend or permanently drop an active course.
Use Reactivate (Fig. 3) to reactivate a suspended course.
Once one of these options is selected, the Course Inventory form will open in a new browser window.
Navigating the Course Inventory Form
The same form is used for all course proposal types. However, the logic of the form is dynamic, meaning that certain fields may be shown or hidden depending on the type of proposal and the values of certain fields on the form. Those factors may also determine which fields are optional and which are required.
If a field is an optional, CIM will allow the proposal to be submitted to workflow. However, please note that curriculum committees may require more information than the form does in order to consider your proposal. If you are unsure of what information to include in your proposal, please see the UConn Curriculum Hub or contact the chair(s) of the curriculum committee(s) that will review the proposal.
New course proposals, Edit Course proposals, and Reactivate Course proposals have many of the same fields, though most of the Edit Course and Reactivate Course proposal fields will be pre-populated with previously approved values. See the Inactivating Courses section of this article for more information about what is required when inactivating a course.
Course Information Section
Topics, Experiential, and Research Courses
These are specialized course types with variable and often individualized course content. They are typically thought of as course “shells” and examples include special topics courses, independent studies, internships, and research courses. Few details are required for proposals for these types of courses and no formal approvals are required - these proposals are sent directly to the Registrar’s Office to be processed.
Most of these course types used standardized numbers. Select the help icon next to the Catalog Number field on the form or see Reserved Numbers for details.
Subject Code
Use the Subject Code dropdown to select a subject area. Only existing subject areas can be selected in the Course form; to add a new subject area, use the Miscellaneous Form. Once the subject is selected, it will automatically populate the Department and College/School fields.
When reactivating some older courses, the Department or College/School field may be inaccurate. For example, the College/School field may say “University of Connecticut” rather than the college or school. If this happens, please select the correct value from the Department or College/School dropdown.
Catalog Number
Once the subject code has been chosen, a “Course Numbers in Use” button will appear (Fig. 4, below). Select that button to view a list of numbers in use by both active and inactive courses. Once a number has been determined, enter that into the Catalog Number field along with any appropriate suffixes (Q, W, and/or E). If you enter a number that is in use, you will get a “Course code is not unique” error and will need to select a different number.
If you do not know what the catalog number will be at the time you submit your request, you may enter placeholder text (e.g. “XXXX” or “2XXX”). Please note, however, that a permanent number must be chosen before the proposal can complete workflow. The Registrar’s Office will roll back proposals that contain placeholder text in the catalog number field.
Cross-Listings
New Cross-Listings
To add a new cross-listing to an existing course or as part of a new course proposal, select the “Add…” link next to the Cross-listed field label.
If adding a cross-listing to an existing course, do not use a New Course Proposal. Instead, locate the existing course and submit an Edit Course proposal to add the new offering.
In the cross-listing window that opens, enter the subject, catalog number, department, and college/school. Unlike the main form, the Department and College/School fields do not populate automatically when the subject is selected.
For existing cross-listed courses, any requisites will appear in the “Requisites, if any” field. For new cross-listings, only complete that field if the requisites for the cross-listing differ from other offerings.
In most cases, requisites for different offerings of cross-listed courses should be identical. The only allowable exception is if one of the offerings is for a particular population of students. For example, many School of Business courses include a BADM cross-listing intended for non-Business students.
Updating Existing Cross-Listings
Existing cross-listed courses will include information about the other offerings below the Subject Code field.
To change the subject code or catalog number of a cross-listing, select Edit. To Remove a cross listing, select Remove. The Make Primary link only changes the subject that displays on the main form. There is no other meaning associated with the Primary subject - it does not for example mean that the Primary subject represents the home department for the course.
Title and Abbreviated Title
Enter the course title in the Title field. This will automatically populate the Abbreviated Title, but you may edit the Abbreviated Title if you wish to change the truncated title that the system generates.
These fields have the same character limits as the course title and short description fields in Student Admin. While the full course title appears in the catalog, the short description field is used in many other instances, such as transcripts.
Department, College/School, and Course Level
As noted in the Subject Code section, the Department and College/School fields are usually populated automatically and only need to be manually edited if a correction is necessary. The Course Level (Undergraduate, Graduate, Ratcliffe Hicks) must be selected manually.
Proposal Information Section
Some of the questions in this section are self-explanatory and may not be included in this article.
Course Proposal Justification
This optional field can be used to provide information that those who must approve the proposal may need to know when they review it.
Proposal Effective Timeline
The effective date of an approved proposal is almost always determined by university policy. If you feel that it is appropriate to future date the proposal, you may answer “No” to the question “Will this course proposal take effect on the standard timeline following approval?” and provide a justification in the field that appears. Please note, however, that exceptions are granted only in rare circumstances.
Related Proposals
If the proposal is related to another proposal, it is important to list any related proposals and detail how they are related. For example, if a new course is being proposed and a program proposal is being submitted to add that course to major requirements, note that here. In most cases, related proposals should be bundled. See Bundling Proposals in CourseLeaf CIM for more information.
Learning Objectives
Learning objectives are required for new course proposals, but proposals to edit existing courses may be submitted to workflow without learning objectives. However, we strongly encourage proposers to discuss their proposals with their chairs ahead of time; many curriculum committees will not review course proposals that do not include learning objectives.
For more information about the policy and expectations for adding learning objectives to existing courses, please see the UConn Curriculum Hub.
Syllabus
Like learning objectives, a syllabus is only required for new course proposals, but many committees will not review proposals that do not include syllabi.
Course Details Section
Course Description
This description appears in the catalog. See the Guide to Drafting Catalog Copy for guidance on what to include in the description.
Equivalent Courses
This is an administrative field used to link W and non-W versions of courses. It is read only for non-administrators.
Credits
Select a static credit value or, for variable credit courses, specify the minimum and maximum value separated by a hyphen (i.e., “1-3”).
Repeatability
Courses that are repeatable for credit allow students to earn credit for a course more than once. This is distinct from the university’s standard repeat rules which allow students to retake a course for a better grade. Repeatability is commonly used for variable content courses, such as topics courses and independent studies, but may be appropriate in other circumstances.
If a course is repeatable, proposers must provide three pieces of information:
Number of completions: This is the number of times a student may pass a course, including the first attempt. If there is no limit on completions, enter “99” in this field.
Total credits allowed: The total number of credits a student may earn in the course. For courses with no limit, enter “999” in this field. Otherwise, the total credits should normally equal the number of permitted completions multiplied by the number of credits (or maximum credits for variable credit courses). However, departments may enter a number lower than this value if they choose.
Allow multiple enrollments in the same term: This determines whether a student can enroll in more than one section of a course in the same term. In most cases, the answer to this question is yes for repeatable courses. However, there may be some situations where the answer is no, such as a course that students must take in every semester for particular majors. Please note that this cannot be overridden administratively - the answer to this question must be yes for any student to enroll in multiple sections.
Course repeatability does not necessarily impact the number of credits of a course which may be applied to program requirements. Even for a course that allows unlimited repeatability, departments determine at the program level how many of those credits can count toward requirements.
General Education/Common Curriculum
Courses that satisfy General Education (pre-2025) or Common Curriculum requirements have additional approval requirements in workflow, even if the proposed changes do not include changes to these attributes. For existing General Education and Common Curriculum courses, these fields are pre-populated.
Grading Basis
There are three options for grading basis:
Graded: Use this for standard, letter-graded courses.
Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory (S/U): S/U graded course proposals require additional approvals - undergraduate S/U course proposals are reviewed by the University Senate and graduate-level courses by the Graduate School.
Honors: Use this for courses that will only be offered as honors courses. For courses that will have a mixture of graded and honors sections, select Graded.
Scheduling Components
The value of this field will determine which components are available to schedule for the class. The dropdown list includes all valid options as well as combinations of components for classes that will be scheduled with more than one component (such as lecture/discussion or lecture/lab). For lecture/lab or lecture/discussion courses, it is recommended that you select the option that includes Lecture - Stand Alone to provide flexibility; many courses offered as lecture/discussion classes on the Storrs campuses are offered as Lecture - Stand Alone sections on the regional campuses.
Lecture - Stand Alone courses can include a variety of instructional activities - the component does not limit these to being lecture-only courses. Lecture - Stand Alone can be thought of as equivalent to “structured” or “traditional” classes.
Enrollment Requisites and Requirements
For the purposes of course proposals, the term “requisite” refers to any enrollment requirements or restrictions on a course. These can include:
Prerequisite courses that the student must complete prior to enrolling.
Corequisite courses that may or must be taken concurrently.
Enrollment conditions such as particular majors, or academic level (i.e., sophomore, junior, etc.), or school/college.
Credit restrictions that prevent students from earning credit for a course after completing another course.
Proposals for existing courses with requisites will contain a single text box with the requisite details. If the requisite is changing, the text in that box can be edited directly.
For new course proposals or proposals to add requisites to courses that previously had none, this is broken out into four questions. Unlike most other fields in the course form, requisite information does not automatically bridge to the Student Administration System; requisites are always manually programmed by the Registrar’s Office. These questions are intended to provide the Registrar’s Office with the information it needs to build the requisites, and Registrar staff may edit the text of requisites for clarity and consistency.
All four of these fields are optional - complete only the fields that apply. If you are familiar with the standard language of requisites, you may enter all the relevant information in the “Requisites, if any” field, even if they contain items referenced by the other fields.
Inactivating Courses
When inactivating courses, just three pieces of information are required.
Inactivation Type: Select Suspend if a course is not regularly being offered but may be offered again in the future. If a course will no longer be offered, select Drop to permanently remove it from the curriculum. Either option will result in all references to the course being deleted from the catalog before the next edition is published.
End Term: The last term the course should appear in the catalog. Policy typically dictates when drops take effect.
Justification: A brief explanation of why the course is being dropped.
Before submitting a proposal to inactivate a course, be sure to carefully review the Ecosystem to determine the potential curricular impacts.