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A guide to completing a CIQ proposal for short courses, continuing professional development (CPD), and Executive Education.
How to access and use the CIQ
You’ll need to download and complete the CIQ (MS Word) and Costing and Pricing Tool (MS Excel) templates, which are located on the CIQ SharePoint site (UCL staff login required).
When you have filled in the templates, you’ll need to upload both via the CIQ SharePoint site to start the approvals process. There is information on how to do this below. This page also lists the questions in the CIQ, and advice on what to include in the sections requiring detailed answers.
How to complete the CIQ
Section 1: Basic information
1.1 Name and email address of academic contact for the course
1.2 Name and email address of administrative contact for the course
1.3 Proposed name for the course
1.4 Department
1.5 Name of department approver
This is the person in your department who’ll be asked to approve or reject the course. This should be the Head of Department. If approved, the system will automatically send the form to the faculty approver.
1.6 Email address of department approver
1.7 Faculty (or equivalent)
Section 2: Course information
2.1 Course outline (max 250 words)
You should include the academic content and an outline of the course structure.
2.2 Intended learning outcomes (max 250 words)
Your answer should include:
- What learners should be able to do after the course, and how this can be demonstrated
- A clear description of the teaching intentions
- Identification of skills, knowledge and competencies.
Further support on writing learning outcomes can be found in the Course design section of this toolkit.
2.3 What are the unique selling points of the course? (max 200 words)
Your answer should cover:
- Why this course is unique or different to similar courses
- Why people should take your course
- Who your intended audience is.
2.4 Does the course have assessment?
If the course has formative or summative assessment, or both, please describe how you plan to assess your learners here.
2.5 What is the learning delivery method?
For example, face-to-face, blended, or online.
2.6 What is the proposed number of contact hours of the course?
2.7 What is the estimated total number of learning hours for the course?
This is the contact hours, plus independent learning hours, the learner will need to study to successfully complete the course.
2.8 Is participation on the course limited in any way?
For example, to members of a particular profession, or to people with certain prior qualifications.
2.9 When do you first propose to run the course?
Please indicate if delivery is time-sensitive.
Section 3: Delivery information
3.1 Will the teaching and/or development be shared with other UCL departments/divisions?
If yes, you’ll need to upload a completed copy of the CIQ and Costing and Pricing Tool to be sent to the approvers in all the departments involved.
3.2 Will the teaching and/or development be shared with other institutions?
If yes, and you already have a legal agreement in place to manage your relationship in relation to short courses, you will need to upload a copy with this submission. If you do not yet have an agreement in place, you will need to contact Legal Services for information on drawing up a document, and upload a copy to the CIQ SharePoint site before the course can take place.
3.3 Will the course offer external accreditation?
If yes, please give details about the accrediting organisation, the level of the accreditation, and how far you have got in the process of arranging accreditation with the organisation.
3.4 Will any third-party organisation be intending to use the UCL name or logo artwork in delivery of this course, accreditation, publicity, or for any other reason?
If the answer is yes, permission will need to be gained from UCL. Please see the Communication and Marketing department’s logo requests page for information about how to seek permission to use the UCL name or logo artwork.
3.5 Is the content of the proposed short course based on original UCL research?
If yes, please give brief details.
3.6 Have you consulted with the Library regarding any third-party learning resources you wish to use?
Before the course can go ahead, you should contact the Teaching & Learning Support section of the UCL Library (library-tlss@ucl.ac.uk) to discuss your resource requirements.
3.7 Have you checked the copyright status of the material you intend to use?
You’ll need to use copyright-free resources. Find out more about working with copyright in your course.
Section 4: Costing and pricing information
You’ll need to download the Costing and Pricing Tool from the CIQ SharePoint site to fill in this section. The Tool will have to be uploaded with the completed CIQ template when you forward your course proposal for approval. The Tool needs to be submitted even if there is funding or a grant to pay for the course development or delivery.
4.1 What is the design (development) cost of your course?
The development cost of the course (without any cost of teaching) will be calculated in the Costing and Pricing Tool when you have entered the figures for all your costs. These should include all costs involved in developing the course including content, building the course in the VLE, marketing materials, and administrative, technical and other professional services support.
4.2 What fee do you propose to charge for the course?
The Costing and Pricing Tool should help you calculate this.
4.3 Are there any additional costs to learners?
For example, for books, materials or visits.
4.4 What are your proposed learner numbers per course and per year?
Please provide the per course minimum and maximum, and per year minimum and maximum numbers you are anticipating.
Section 5: Feedback and evaluation
5.1 Please describe what methods you will use to obtain student feedback for quality assurance.
For example, evaluation forms, questionnaires etc.
5.2 Provide details of any other quality assurance monitoring strategies you will use.
For example, methods of reviewing and actioning feedback.
Help and support
If you have technical problems with the CIQ, please contact the Online Learning team.
How to submit your completed CIQ for approval
When you have filled in your CIQ and Costing and Pricing Tool, return to the CIQ SharePoint site to upload the templates. The CIQ submission form is located by clicking the CIQ Submission Form button at the bottom left of the CIQ SharePoint site. The form asks for eight pieces of information:
1. Name of person responsible for the course
2. Proposed name of the course
3. Department name
4. Email of departmental approver
You need to provide a UCl staff email address for an approver, who should be the Head of Department. You cannot be the approver of your own course.If the Head of Department proposes a course they will need to identify another academic to appoint as approver.
If anything other than an email address is written here, the automated system will not work and the proposal will not progress.
5. Faculty name
- This is a drop-down list. The faculty approver will be sent your proposal if the CIQ is approved by the departmental approver. Faculty approvers are generally the faculty tutor.
- If your course cannot or should not be approved by a single faculty tutor from the faculties listed, please select “other”. The approval will be co-ordinated by the Online and Lifelong Education team.
6. CIQ
Upload the completed Word document here.
7. Costing spreadsheet
Upload the Costing and Pricing Tool template here. You cannot complete the course proposal process without including this document.
8. Additional files
This is an opportunity for you to upload any other files that you need your approvers to see. These might include a legal agreement with an external partner, or information about working with an accrediting body, for example.
What happens next
After you have submitted the course proposal, the nominated department approver is automatically notified via email.
The approver is provided with a link to your submission and the opportunity to approve/reject with comments. You will be notified of the result by email.
If the course is approved by the department approver, the faculty approver is automatically notified and will approve/reject with comments.
You will receive email notification of the faculty approver’s decision. If the course is approved, you can move on to designing and developing the course.
If the course is rejected, you can redraft the proposal and resubmit, following discussion with your departmental approver.
At any point during this process, you and the nominated approvers can refer to the CIQ SharePoint site and click “CIQProposalList” in the left-hand column to view the course summary and see what accompanying files have been submitted (as below).
