Key to the Listings of Courses and Programs - UMass Dartmouth (2024)

• Program Requirements
• Course Descriptions
• Courses for General Education

Program Requirements

A general statement for each college is followed by separate descriptions of each department in the college and its academic programs. General requirements that apply to all students in a college are provided in the section describing the college. Requirements specific to the degree programs follow in the sections devoted to each department.

Although the program requirements are presented in full detail, there are many aspects of program planning which will require each student to consult regularly with an academic advisor, and certain decisions require specific permission of the advisor.

Course Descriptions

Following the program descriptions and requirements is a listing of the courses from that department. To learn the selection of courses that is to be offered in any one semester or term, consult the course listings at www.umassd.edu/registrar.

This catalog uses a systematic format for course descriptions. Two examples follow, with explanatory notes:

1a
Department Designation and Course Number. Departments use a standard three-letter abbreviation to identify the department or field of the course; the courses shown are for Biology and Art History. The course number then identifies each course uniquely. The 100-level courses are introductory-level; 200, intermediate-level; 300 and 400, advanced and specialized-level; 500, 600 and 700, graduate level. It is generally assumed that students may take the more advanced-level courses only with an appropriate foundation in the field, even if specific prerequisites are not stated.
1b
Number of Credits. Each course carries the number of credits specified. The more credits, the greater the obligation the course carries for in-class and out-of-class work. In courses that use the lecture or lecture-discussion format, there is a one-to-one relationship between the number of credits and the number of in-class contact hours each week (based on a 50 minute period per hour and two additional hours of out of class work are expected. See note 3, below.
2
Course Title. Each course is given a unique, descriptive title that indicates its topic and content.
3
Class Type and Contact Hours. Some courses use formats that differ from the lecture or lecture-discussion type. For example, the Biology course here exemplifies a combination of lecture and laboratory experiences. As shown, the number of class contact hours per credit may exceed the number for a class that uses the lecture or lecture-discussion formats only. When there is no annotation, the course uses the lecture or lecture-discussion format. The Art History course exemplifies this. Some course listings have a blanket annotation that applies to an entire sequence of courses.
4
Prerequisites and Corequisites. Stated here are any specific courses (or other requirements) that must be completed satisfactorily as a condition for enrolling in the course. Prerequisites ensure adequate preparation and maintain an appropriate order in the student’s progression through the topics of study in the field. As stated above, even if specific prerequisites are not listed, generally students may take more advanced-level courses only with an appropriate foundation in the field. Co-requisites are shown for certain courses and indicate another course or other experience that the student must take concurrently with a given course.
5
Course Description. The course description indicates the nature and scope of the course. Often, information is also given about the type of work for the course, as is shown in the Biology example. Course descriptions may close with a special-purpose annotation, as is the case with the Art History course; that indicates a previously-used course number and informs the reader that this new course occupies a parallel role in the curriculum to that of the previous course and that their content is similar. Course descriptions do not indicate the status of a course to fulfill requirements of an academic program. For this information, catalog users should consult the program requirements listings.

For each course attempted, the course number, course title, and the number of credits are recorded on the student’s transcript, together with the grade received.

Courses for General Education

Effective Fall 2012, the University Studies curriculum replaced that of General Education for incoming freshman students and new transfer students with less than 24 credits. Continuing students and transfer students with more than 24 transferable credits should follow the General Studies curriculum, which is detailed in the 2011-2012 Undergraduate Catalog. A student can opt to follow the University Studies curriculum if an advisor deems it advantageous to the student in terms of faster progression to graduation.

Courses satisfying University Studies requirements are coded accordingly in departmental course listings in this catalog by Cluster (1-5)and Course (A-E). The complete list is available on COIN or on the University Studies website at www.umassd.edu/universitystudies/universitystudiescurriculum