Curriculum FAQs

Navigate to Curriculum Management > Proposals.

The Proposal Dashboard includes several views:

• Vote Required — Proposals currently at a workflow step where you have voting authority and a decision is needed.
• Assigned to Me — Proposals associated with a workflow step you participate in, including proposals you may have already reviewed or voted on.
• Created by Me — Proposals you created.
• All Requests — All proposals available in the system.
• Archived Requests — Proposals that have been archived and removed from the other dashboard views.

A proposal will not appear under Vote Required until it reaches your step in the approval workflow.

From the Proposal Dashboard, you can filter by document type or use advanced filters.

Common filters include:

• Status
• Department
• College/School
• Workflow
• Current Workflow Step
• Form
• Proposal Author
• Career

Selecting a workflow also allows you to filter by the proposal's Current Workflow Step.

Select the proposal from the Proposal Dashboard.

The left side of the proposal provides information about the proposal, dependencies, and changes, including an AI-generated summary.

The right side contains the Proposal Toolbox, where you can review activity, add comments, and take workflow actions when you have the appropriate permissions.

Voting permissions depend on your role and the workflow step.

At department and college approval steps, only designated users—Department Heads, Deans, and approved Designees—have permission to formally act on a proposal in CourseDog.

Depending on the workflow, authorized approvers may be able to:

• Approve
• Reject
• Suspend
• Route Back

Other faculty and committee members can continue to review proposals and participate in the established curriculum review process even when they do not have voting authority within CourseDog.

1. Open the proposal from the Vote Required section.
2. Review the proposal and its changes.
3. In the Decision tab of the Proposal Toolbox, select the appropriate action.
4. Enter the required comment.
5. Select Submit Decision.

Available actions depend on the workflow and your permissions.

No. This is an important change from how users may think about committee voting.

CourseDog is configured so that one vote moves the proposal forward at these workflow steps. If multiple users have voting privileges, the action of the first person who submits the required decision will move the proposal.

Committee members should continue to review and vote according to the committee's normal procedures. However, once the committee has reached its decision, only one authorized representative should enter the official decision in CourseDog.

Other committee members may review, comment, and, where permitted, edit the proposal, but they should not independently submit a CourseDog vote.

The committee's decision should be documented in CourseDog through a comment.

The comment should include information such as:

• Committee or faculty body that reviewed the proposal
• Meeting date
• Voting outcome
• Number approved, denied, or abstaining, when appropriate
• Other relevant information that should become part of the proposal record

The authorized approver or designee should then enter the official CourseDog decision when the proposal is ready to move forward.

Approve records the approval decision for the current workflow step.

Because one CourseDog vote can complete the workflow step, the authorized representative should not select Approve until all required review at that step has been completed.

Reject returns the proposal to the previous workflow step.

Use Reject when the proposal should move back to the immediately preceding step rather than continue through the workflow.

Suspend pauses the proposal at its current workflow step.

While a proposal is suspended:

• The system ignores the deadline associated with the request.
• The proposal is not flagged as overdue.
• Other participants at the step can see that the proposal is suspended but cannot act on it.
• The person who suspended the proposal can return later and take action on it.
• The proposal author receives an email notification and can review comments in the Activity area.

Important: A suspended proposal is no longer considered "in-flight." This means another request involving the same curriculum could potentially be submitted while the original request is suspended.

The original deadline is not recalculated or reset.

If the original deadline passed while the proposal was suspended:

• A new deadline is not automatically created.
• The workflow timeline is not reset.
• Automatic deadline actions are not triggered simply because the original deadline has passed.

Route Back allows an authorized user to send a proposal to a specific earlier workflow step.

When routing a proposal back, you will select:

1. The workflow step the proposal should return to.
2. What should happen after that step completes its work.

There are two return options:

Go back through the entire workflow
The proposal proceeds through the workflow again from the selected earlier step.

Return to current step
After the selected earlier step completes its work, the proposal returns directly to the workflow step from which it was routed back.

A comment should be entered explaining why the proposal is being routed back.

Use Reject when the proposal should return to the immediately previous workflow step.

Use Route Back when the proposal needs to return to a specific earlier workflow step or when you need to control how it returns through the workflow afterward.

Force Approve is not an approved standard approver action.

Force approving a proposal bypasses all remaining workflow steps and completely approves the request.

If a situation appears to require Force Approve, contact the Registrar's Office for assistance.

Comments can be added in two ways.

With a decision:
Enter the comment when selecting Approve, Reject, Suspend, or Route Back in the Decision tab.

Without taking a decision:
Open the Activity tab in the Proposal Toolbox, scroll to the bottom of the activity list, enter your comment in the Enter value field, and press Enter to save it.

Users associated with the workflow step receive an email notification when a comment is added.

Comments and other actions also become part of the proposal's Activity record.

Open the proposal and select the Activity tab in the Proposal Toolbox.

The Activity tab provides a history of proposal activity, including submitted information, comments, and approval actions.

Yes, if the approver has the appropriate permissions.

Open the proposal and select Edit Proposal above the Proposal Toolbox. Make the necessary changes and select Save Changes.

Select:

Do Not Reset Workflow (Recommended)

Then select Save.

Do not select Reset unless there is a specific reason the proposal needs to restart the approval workflow.

CourseDog structures department and college approvals differently from prior systems.

Processes that may previously have appeared as separate workflow steps are consolidated into a single formal workflow step at each level:

• Department Approval
• College Approval

This structure allows the formal CourseDog workflow to move efficiently while committees and faculty bodies continue to conduct their established review and voting processes.

The Department Approval step is dynamic and displays the applicable department name, such as:

• Economics Approval
• Animal Sciences and Industry Approval

Authorized voting participants include the:

• Department Head
• Designated representative

The College Approval step identifies the applicable college, such as:

• Arts and Sciences College Approval
• Agriculture College Approval

Authorized voting participants include the:

• Dean
• Designated representative

No.

Committees that no longer have a separate voting step within CourseDog should continue to meet, review, and vote on curriculum matters according to established college, department, and university processes.

The change is primarily in how those decisions are represented in CourseDog, not whether the review occurs.

A designated representative should add a comment documenting the outcome of each required review.

For example, following a department curriculum committee meeting, a comment can be entered documenting that committee's vote. If department faculty approval is also required, a second comment can document the faculty vote.

Once all required review for the Department Approval step is complete, the authorized user should enter the official CourseDog decision so the proposal can continue through the workflow.

The same approach applies at the College Approval step.

Yes. Faculty members have baseline access to view curriculum proposals and agendas in CourseDog, allowing them to continue reviewing relevant curriculum even when they are not designated as CourseDog approvers.

CourseDog provides bulk workflow actions for users with the appropriate permissions.

However, bulk actions can only be used when:

• The proposals are at the same workflow and workflow step.
• The workflow step has not already been approved.
• A comment is not required at that workflow step.

Because comments are required at many K-State approval steps, bulk approval may not be available in many circumstances.

From the Proposal Dashboard:

1. Select Filter.
2. Filter by Workflow and Current Workflow Step.
3. Select the checkboxes next to the proposals you want to act on, or use the checkbox in the column heading to select all displayed proposals.
4. Select the appropriate option from the Actions menu.

Available bulk actions depend on your permissions and the workflow configuration.

Review first; vote last. Do not enter the official CourseDog decision until all required review at your workflow step is complete.

Only one authorized person should vote in CourseDog. Committee members may review and participate in the committee's normal voting process, but one designated person should record the final CourseDog decision.

Document committee decisions. Use comments to preserve meeting dates, vote outcomes, and other relevant information in the proposal record.

Use Route Back intentionally. Decide whether the proposal should repeat the workflow or return directly to your step after the requested changes are addressed.

Do not reset the workflow after routine edits. Select Do Not Reset Workflow (Recommended).

Do not use Force Approve. Contact the Registrar's Office if circumstances appear to require bypassing the normal workflow.