New course outline guidelines
Published: December 2023 | Updated: November 24, 2025
At its December 2023 meeting, Senate approved revisions to the Course Outline requirements for the undergraduate and graduate academic calendars, effective May 1, 2024.
The approved revisions are intended to:
- Provide instructors with detailed information on what should be included in a course outline,
- Provide students with consistency in course outlines across academic units,
- Provide students with certainty with respect to expectations and learning outcomes, and
- Reduce workload for instructors.
What is a course outline and when is it required?
Course outlines are required for all courses except pro-forma courses (e.g., independent studies, directed research, etc.), Masters Thesis, Doctoral Candidacy and Doctoral Dissertations.
Course outlines communicate to students what they can expect in the course and provide helpful resources to support students’ learning and wellbeing. At the beginning of each course, instructors are responsible for providing their students with a written course outline that includes adequate information.
It is important for course outlines to provide consistent information across academic units and for unit leaders to be able to review and ensure all outlines for courses offered by the academic unit include the necessary information about the course and available resources.
Academic units may adopt discipline- or unit-specific course outline templates that include the baseline information and resources, and other relevant information as appropriate.
In addition to course information, teaching modalities, learning outcomes and assessment methods, course outlines should include Territory acknowledgement. As well, instructors are encouraged to adopt inclusive and universal design for learning principles in developing courses where appropriate. Details are available in the undergraduate and graduate academic calendars.
Implementation of the course outline regulation
New Course Outlines Management Tool
The university has developed a new Course Outlines Management Tool to support a consistent student experience and assist instructors with course planning. Integrated with Brightspace, the tool automatically populates fields from department templates and Banner, allowing instructors to focus on customizing key elements such as course materials and assessments. This promotes consistency in format while reducing administrative effort.
This initiative is a collaboration between Learning Teaching and Innovation (LTI) and University Systems.
Expanded rollout
Following a successful rollout for the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science for Fall 2025, the expanded rollout is bringing the Course Outlines Management Tool to additional faculties and departments in Spring 2026. Participating units are receiving onboarding support and training.
The next opportunity to join will be for Summer 2026 or Fall 2026.
How to join the expanded rollout
Participation in the expanded rollout is coordinated at the department level. Departments interested in joining future rollout phases should have their department lead or designate contact LTI at ltsisupport@uvic.ca to discuss timelines and onboarding.
Originally published February 27, 2024