UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Beginning in July, Penn State faculty and staff will be able to propose new undergraduate and graduate courses and programs using a new, modernized online system. CIM (pronounced “kim”), which stands for Curriculum Information Management, will replace the existing Curriculum Review & Consultation System (CRCS) at the beginning of the fall semester.
“We are enthused to make CIM available to members of Penn State’s academic community,” said Alan Rieck, associate vice president and associate dean for Undergraduate Education, who is co-chairing the implementation of CIM. “CIM will feature more user-friendly interfaces, more streamlined processes and greater transparency for all individuals involved in the curriculum approval process.”
Penn State faculty and staff will be able to use CIM to enter proposals to create, edit or drop courses, majors, minors and certificate programs. The curriculum review and approval process, which often involves multiple departments and stakeholders, will proceed entirely within CIM, and the status of the approval process at any given time will be clearly visible to all. The new system will enable users to enter prospectuses for new academic programs and receive feedback from stakeholders before creating a full proposal. CIM will accommodate graduate, medical and law, as well as undergraduate, courses and programs.
CIM is a product of CourseLeaf, the same vendor responsible for creating the University Bulletins. The system will integrate with both the University Bulletins and LionPATH.
Resources for using CIM, including live training sessions, will be offered to members of the Penn State community beginning in July and continuing throughout the summer. From a new central website that will be launched in July, users will be able to access a wealth of training resources, such as user guides, videos and FAQs, and these will remain available indefinitely. This website will also list University contact people to whom users can direct specific questions.
CIM will replace the existing CRCS system according to the following timeline:
- July 2021 — Faculty and staff can begin to enter proposals in CIM but can continue to use CRCS if they choose.
- August 23, 2021 — Faculty and staff will be required to use CIM to submit new proposals, but proposals that have already been entered in CRCS can continue to move through the approval process within CRCS for the remainder of the academic year.
- May 2022 — CRCS will be taken offline and will be fully replaced by CIM.
Penn State’s curriculum approval process is overseen by the University Faculty Senate, and policies governing the approval process can be found at senate.psu.edu.
More information about CIM will be available on Penn State News as the July soft launch approaches.