Course Management Policy

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Course Management Policy

AC–CLIS-POL-009
Course Management Policy
DepartmentAcademic/Centre for Learning Innovation & Simulation
Approval DateJuly 16, 2025
Effective DateSeptember 2, 2025

Organizational Scope

The policy applies to all staff, faculty, and students in all programs offered at The Michener Institute of Education at UHN (“Michener”).

Purpose

The purpose of the Course Management Policy is to establish a comprehensive framework for the design, delivery, and management of courses at Michener for students and faculty.  The framework promotes quality, consistency and accountability in academic practices, ensuring a high-quality educational experience for both students and faculty.

Policy

The course outline is a contract between Michener and its students, providing critical course information about course objectives, requirements and expectations. Faculty are responsible for fulfilling the commitments made in the course outline and ensuring the course is delivered as stated.  Students are equally responsible for meeting the competencies and standards identified in the course outline.  The course also serves as a permanent record of the curriculum undertaken by each cohort, ensuring accountability and consistency in Michener’s academic practices.

Policy Elements

  • Course Outlines
    • Content and Accessibility
      • All course outlines must adhere to the standardized format and include, at a minimum, the required elements outlined in Appendix A. Additional details (i.e. rubrics) will be provided within the course LMS at the start of the course.
      • Course outlines may be supplemented by more detailed information provided periodically throughout a course (e.g. learning plans and materials).
    • Student Access
      • Students must be provided electronic access to approved course outlines via Michener’s intranet no later than 30 days prior to the start of the class.
      • Course outlines must remain consistent and accessible to students throughout the delivery of the course unless formally revised under the conditions outlined in section 5.0. Any changes must be documented and updated in the archive (e.g. SharePoint) for transparency and future reference.
        • Faculty must ensure that updates follow the institutional approval process and are communicated promptly to all relevant stakeholders.
    • Faculty Responsibilities
      • Faculty members are responsible for creating and maintaining accurate and comprehensive course outlines that align with the planned curricula, programmatic mapping of course competencies and institutional policies.
      • The outline must be prepared in an editable (e.g. Word) format and uploaded to a centralized program archive (e.g. SharePoint).
      • All course outlines will be reviewed for approval by the Academic Chair before publishing. The program Administrative Assistant (AA) will coordinate the approval, signing, and publishing of the PDF version to Michener’s intranet.
      • The course outline will be locked from editing once published; if approved changes need to be made, the AA can assist with this process.
    • Institutional Management and Access
      • The storage and organization of course outlines, learning plans, teaching notes, presentations, videos, and all learning resources used within the course must be updated regularly and organized within the program’s SharePoint folder.
      • These documents must be maintained in the designated folder as indicated by the program AA to ensure consistent and centralized access for faculty, staff and academic leadership.
      • The digital course content must be in an editable format (e.g. Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc.) for the ease of future revisions.

  • Courses with Multiple Lab Group Sections

In courses with multiple sections (i.e., multiple lectures, labs, tutorials, or clinical groups), consistent standards must be upheld across all sections to ensure equity, fairness and integrity of the learning experience.

    • Standardization of Delivery:
      • Learning outcomes, competencies, and assessment weighting must remain consistent across all course sections, regardless of delivery format or instructor.
      • Standardized rubrics and assessment tools support consistency in evaluating student performance.
    • Consistency of Content and Assessment Delivery:
      • Instructors teaching different sections of the same course need to communicate regularly to ensure alignment in content delivery, the conduct of assessments and practical evaluations, and the grading of students using rubrics or marking schemes.
      • If discrepancies in content delivery or assessments are identified, the course lead can adjust accordingly to ensure equity and fairness for all students.
      • The course lead should consult with the Academic Chair to resolve significant concerns or challenges that impact course alignment, fairness or program quality.

  • Student Assessment
    • Assessment Standards
      • Assessments must align with course learning objectives and competencies.
      • A minimum of two distinct assessment strategies are recommended per course (e.g. practical evaluation and multiple-choice testing).
      • The number of assessments within a course should be consistent with the nature of the competencies assessed within the course (i.e., two (2) or more).
      • The assessment expectations and associated rubrics are to be posted in the LMS at the start of the course.
    • Grading and Pass Requirements
      • Final grades for each course are expressed as either a pass/fail grade or a numerical (percentage) value, which is then translated into a letter grade as per the Grading Policy on the students’ transcript.
      • The standard pass grade for courses is a minimum grade of 60% (C-). Variations must be approved by the Academic Chair and explicitly stated in the course outline.
        • Example of grading variation: Students must get a minimum 60% grade and pass a specific assessment to pass a course.
      • No single assessment should constitute more than 40% of the total course grade.
    • Communication of Grades
      • All grades and feedback for formative or summative assessments must be communicated exclusively through the LMS. This centralized approach ensures a secure and consistent record of each student’s performance while maintaining the confidentiality of student information.
      • Disseminating grades via email or any other non-LMS platform is not permitted, as it does not comply with institutional grade management and confidentiality standards.
      • Assessment results (excluding final exams) shall be communicated to students within ten (10) business days of the assessment due date.
      • Posting of final assessments (exams and/or practical evaluations) may be posted at the end of the exam period.
      • Official grades will be posted to the Michener Self-Service portal once approved by the Promotion Review Committee (PRC) as per the Grading Policy.
    • Grading Timelines
      • Students must receive graded feedback on at least one formative assessment before the course withdrawal deadline #2.
      • Graded assessments must be returned within ten business days to ensure timely feedback. This turnaround time for marking should be considered in the assessment scheme and method chosen for the course by the course lead.
      • The level of feedback depends on the assessment type and should be as comprehensive as possible to support the learner’s reflection and development. Feedback for …
        • a multiple-choice assessment should be a graded/numerical score
        • a practical evaluation should be both written comments and a graded score
        • a written submission should be both written comments and a graded score
      • If similar assessments are scheduled within less than 10 days of the previous one (i.e. a practical evaluation or weekly quiz), it is recommended that students receive their graded feedback before their next assessment.
    • Student Requests for the Review of Assessment
      • Students may request to review an assessment within ten business days of receiving the results in the LMS gradebook.
      • Requests must be emailed to the course lead using their Michener e-mail account.
      • All in-course assessments (excluding final exams) can be reviewed fully. For final exams, only a performance breakdown of course content areas will be provided to maintain the integrity of future final exams.

  • Changes to Published Course Outline
    • Changes to Assessments, Class Schedules or Learning Environment
      • Assessment timing, weighting and/or modality changes are permitted only under extenuating circumstances. The Academic Chair must approve the change(s) and have the consensus of the students to support the change.
      • Changes to the class schedule (e.g. class time) and/or learning environment (e.g. moving online activities to in-person) require Academic Chair approval.
      • Affected students must be notified promptly and with as much advance notice as possible. The change is communicated via an announcement in course LMS, which will be emailed to all enrolled students.
      • The course outline must document these changes to reflect the course delivery accurately.
    • Students Impacted by Changes
      • Within five (5) business days of the change, any student who feels negatively impacted by the change may express, in writing, their concern to the course lead.
      • The course lead and Academic Chair will meet with the student to determine a student-centered resolution that maintains fairness and course learning expectations. The decision will be communicated to the student afterwards by e-mail.

  • Course Revisions and Quality Assurance
    • Categories of Course Revisions
      • New courses: Introduce entirely new content to the organization.
      • Major revisions: Affect 50% or more of course outcomes or 50% or more of the content or change in the delivery method.
      • Minor revisions: Impact 20-49% of outcomes, content and/or delivery

Note: updates involving less than 20% of the course outcomes, content and/or delivery are not considered a revision.  This accounts for the normal annual hours of preparation attributed to faculty for reviewing and updating materials to ensure current practices and high quality in course delivery.

    • Approval and Oversite of Revisions
      • New courses and major revisions must be approved by the Academic Chair and the Academic Approval Council (AAC).
      • Minor revisions must be approved by the Academic Chair and reviewed by the Centre for the Enrichment of Teaching & Learning (CETL), but do not require AAC approval.
    • Competency Mapping
      • All course changes must be re-mapped to the relevant professional competency profile to ensure alignment and eliminate gaps or overlaps.
      • Course competencies must not be changed during the course delivery.
      • As new competency profiles come into effect, it is the responsibility of the Academic Chair to identify the need to re-map and/or verify that the courses

Associated Documentation

Academic Approval Council (AAC) Terms of Reference

Academic Service Standards

Course Outline Procedure

Grading Policy

Promotion Review Committee (PRC) Terms of Reference

Sample Course Outline (Appendix A)