Changes in ACC Academic Course Numbers for Fall 1999

Several years ago, a consortium of faculty and administrators from various colleges in Texas devised a system of common course numbers for academic courses to make it clearer which courses would transfer to which schools. Over the last few years, colleges have been encouraged to consider dropping their internal numbering scheme and converting to common course numbers. Among those that have done that carefully, MATH 1314 is the same course at all the colleges, for instance. A list of the courses at the various colleges in this system is available.

In the last several years, ACC has listed the common course numbers (where they exist) in the catalog at the end of the course descriptions. For the fall of 1999, we will turn this around, and use the common course numbers as the main identifying numbers (where they exist), with the old ACC numbers listed at the end of the course descriptions. For these courses both numbers will be listed in the schedule as well, with the common course number as the main number. Courses for which no common course numbers exist will continue to be identified by their old ACC numbers for another year.

  1. How can I tell whether a particular course at ACC has been renumbered?

    2. Part of the common course numbering system involves standardizing the departmental identifiers. They all have four letters. ACC has used three-letter identifiers in the past. Thus, for college-level courses, CHM 1614 is an old-style number and CHEM 1405 is a new number. For the year 1999-2000, both types of abbreviations will be used and, within a department, the courses will be sorted numerically without regard for whether it is an old or new number.

     

  2. What will happen about courses that do not have common course numbers? Will these courses transfer?

    3. Some courses do not yet have common course numbers just because ACC and other schools offer them as four-hour courses, but the common course numbers are three-hour numbers. In these cases, we are asking for four-hour numbers to be created. Whether such numbers are created or not, it is quite clear that these courses will continue transferring as they always have.

    Other courses do not have common course numbers because they are special needs courses just offered by a few schools. Where ACC has courses like this, it is almost always because one of the local four-year colleges has an equivalent course and ours transfers to that school. We anticipate that there will be no change in the transfer patterns here.

  3. Do developmental courses have common course numbers?

    4. No. Since the purpose of common course numbers is to facilitate transfer to four-year colleges, and developmental courses do not apply to degrees, the Texas Common Course Numbers do not cover developmental courses. Many colleges are renumbering these in the "style" of common course numbers, using a 0 in the first digit to indicate a developmental course. ACC has done that in developmental mathematics. ACC is also using four-letter department abbreviations for all the developmental areas, whether the numbers are in the style of common course numbers or not. At this time, numbers for courses in these developmental departments are not in the style of common courses numbers, even though four-letter department abbreviations are used: DESL (English as a Second Language), DEVR (Reading), DEVW (Writing), and DSSK (Study Skills).

  4. What is the pattern of common course numbers? How can I tell how many credits the course earns and what level it is?

    5. Each course number has four digits.

    First digit: Indicates level. 1 means freshman level and 2 means sophomore level. Although they aren't common course numbers, many colleges are using 0 to indicate developmental courses.

    Second digit: Indicates number of credit hours. Thus 1325 and 2314 are both three hour courses.

    Third and fourth digits: Distinguishes between the different courses. If the third digit is a 7, this indicates a "special needs" course. These numbers are assigned by the individual school. Thus BIOL 1375 at ACC is not the same course as BIOL 1375 at another college.

  5. When will ACC finish renumbering all the courses?

    6. We hope to finish the process in time for the 2000-2001 catalog to only have new-style numbers. However, our main objective is to maximize the number of our courses approved for common course numbers, because that will ease transferability. When it looks as if more time would make it more likely to have a course approved (because we need to collect additional supporting documents, etc. from other colleges) we will take that extra time. Please be patient with the process and know that we are working in the best interests of our students, even if it results in some awkwardness in the numbering system in the meantime.

  6. Are all the courses with four-letter abbreviations academic courses that transfer to most four-year colleges and universities?

No. Please check on the transferability of individual courses; don't just assume that they will transfer. Use the state's list or other information about transferability provided by ACC and the other schools. For example, in the workforce areas some courses do not transfer to most four-year schools. Along with the Common Course Numbers for transfer courses, the state has a WECM program, which is systematizing the workforce courses and numbering them in standardized ways. There, also, the first digit indicates the level, the second digit indicates the hours of credit, and the third and fourth digits distinguish between the courses.

 

Last updated June 18, 1999. Questions, comments, suggestions?