Course Descriptions: Catalog and MyUI Schedule

Every course scheduled on MyUI must have a MyUI course description in addition to a Catalog description. Advisors depend on these descriptions to help guide students in making an appropriate academic plan. Courses without these two descriptions often suffer from under enrollment.

Catalog Description

The Catalog gives a very general description of the course content, regardless of the semester that the course is offered.

The Catalog description is thus generic, giving an overview of the course relevant for any semester that the course is offered.  In keeping with this general purpose, the Catalog description is always written as a string of fragments connected by semicolons. This description never includes the mode of offering (such as online or face-to-face) nor does it include assignments or readings or other activities. Descriptions for the Catalog that are not submitted in the required style are rewritten by the Registrar. To update a Catalog description, the course must be routed through the MAUI Course Approval workflow system by the department or program. The Catalog description of a course is approved or not approved by CLAS using workflow. All course revisions must be completed by CLAS deadlines.

MyUI Course Description

The MyUI course description conveys the details of the course that will be offered during the current semester and includes topics, major assignments, format of the course, and mode of offering and does not need approval by CLAS. This is handled instead at the departmental or program level. Changes to the MyUI course description are implemented in the Offerings Planner with these submitted directly to the Registrar. 

A good MyUI course description helps students to understand the content and goals of a course while helping them to become more aware of the course's importance and relevancy.

The best MyUI course descriptions answer questions about the course that any student might ask.

  • What is the topic of the course?
  • What is the course format and participation expectations (i.e., lecture, discussion, lab, other)?
  • What will the student learn (learning outcomes)? 
  • Why should the student enroll in this particular course?
  • What is the schedule/timeline for major assessments and key assignment dates?
  • How will students will be evaluated (breakdown of what will be included in the course grade)?
  • Are there any special activities such as field trips that must fit with the student's schedule?