Online delivery of Creative Coding I

Requested action

Approval to offer CRCP 1310 in an online delivery mode, scheduled as CRCP 1310-401 with the location field set to Online. The course number, title, credit hours, catalog description, prerequisites, and role in the B.A. and minor are unchanged. The in-person studio section continues to run.

This is a course modification, not a new course proposal. It is filed as one package with parallel requests for CRCP 3305 and CRCP 3315, the other two courses in the programming sequence; those two requests also revise their catalog descriptions, and see § 9 for why the three should be counted together.

Why the number does not change

SMU's course code already answers this question. The catalog number encodes level, credit hours, and sequence within the department. It carries no information about how a course is delivered.

Because modality is expressed at the section level, an equivalent course delivered online is by construction the same catalog number. Creating a second number would assert that this is a different course — which would then need its own outcomes, its own catalog entry, and its own place in the degree, and would let a student take both for credit.

Why the description does not change either

The companion requests for 3305 and 3315 revise their catalog descriptions because each names a programming language — Java and C++ respectively — and a language is an offering-level choice, not the substance of a course. The 1310 entry already gets this right: it names no language, and describes the course by its outcomes and territories.

Leaving it untouched keeps this request a pure delivery-mode change with the cleanest possible approval path. The online syllabus does reinterpret fundamentals of coding for a moment when AI tools write most syntax — computational thinking, reading and tracing, specification, and verification, with AI collaboration taught from the first week — but that reinterpretation is an instructional choice, fully consistent with the description as written, and belongs in the syllabus rather than the catalog.

Rationale

CRCP 1310 is the on-ramp to the major, the minor, and the program's largest source of non-major contact. It is also the course whose subject matter is least dependent on physical co-location.

• The work is already screen-native. Students write code at a machine and produce digital artifacts — algorithmic drawings, procedural images, animations, interactive sketches. Nothing at the 1310 level depends on shop access, fabrication equipment, or a physical installation space.
• The sequence has to be whole. An online section of 1310 without online sections of 3305 and 3315 strands the online student after one course. The three requests are filed together so that a student who enters the sequence online can complete it online.
• Access. A fixed studio block excludes transfer students, students carrying a conflicting major's required sequence, and students in other schools who want the course for the minor. An online section reaches them without displacing anyone from the studio section.
• Capacity. Demand for the gateway course is bounded by studio seats rather than by faculty capacity to teach it.
• Term flexibility. The course becomes viable in summer and intersession terms, where an in-person studio section is difficult to fill and staff. SMU Intersessions runs a summer online course development program that supports exactly this conversion.
• Pipeline. Widening the front door of the sequence is the most direct lever on enrollment in the B.A.

Equivalence of learning outcomes

This is the section reviewers will actually weigh. Every outcome is met in both modes, with the same assessments and the same rubrics. The online section runs as a flipped studio: asynchronous tutorials before class, one required 90-minute synchronous studio each week, and nine projects that begin as one-week sprints and lengthen through the term. Every project may be realized visually, sonically, or interactively.

Critique and the code walk

Critique is the one outcome where the online mode is not a straightforward substitution, and the proposal is stronger for saying so rather than waving at it. An art-school committee will go here first.

• Required weekly synchronous studio. The online section is not primarily asynchronous. Every week has a required 90-minute live session, stated at the point of enrollment so students can commit before registering, and most of that session is breakout studio work with the instructor rotating between rooms — the online equivalent of walking the lab.
• The code walk. Because AI tools are used from the second week, every project includes a live session in which the student explains any part of the submitted program on request. It is the course's primary integrity mechanism and a critique format in its own right, and it works identically over Zoom.
• Structured asynchronous critique. Between live sessions, work is posted to a shared gallery and peers respond under a defined protocol — describe, then interpret, then evaluate against the brief. Written critique is slower than a studio crit but it is legible, archived, and gradeable against the same participation rubric.
• Cohort visibility. All student work stays visible to the section for the full term, which is closer to a studio wall than a submission portal.

Worth stating plainly: the tradeoff is real. A Zoom breakout loses some of the room's spontaneity and gains a written record students can return to. At the 1310 level, where critique is being taught rather than assumed, that is a defensible exchange.

Identity verification and academic integrity

Distance education carries a student-identity verification requirement that in-person sections do not. Address it explicitly:

• All coursework is submitted through Canvas behind SMU single sign-on; no additional student cost is incurred for verification.
• Coding work is submitted as Git repositories with staged commits rather than a single final artifact, so authorship is visible in the development history — a stronger integrity signal than most disciplines can offer.
• The weekly synchronous studio, the code walks, and office hours provide recurring synchronous, on-camera contact between the instructor and each student.
• Designated reading and tracing exercises are completed without AI assistance and are marked as such; the course's Generative AI Policy requires disclosure of AI contributions in every project and makes the student the author of record for everything submitted.

Faculty qualification

SMU requires faculty teaching online to be certified to teach online, through Quality Matters training. Name the assigned instructor and their certification status — or the date they will complete it — in the proposal. An uncertified instructor of record is the most common reason a modality request stalls at the school level.

Accreditation footprint

One online section of one course does not make a program online, and it does not trigger the escalation path in SMU Policy 2.20 — that language governs initiating distance learning, hybrid programs and/or fully online programs, which runs through the Educational Programs Committee, the Provost, the Board of Trustees, and possibly SACSCOC, on roughly a year's lead time.

The exposure is cumulative rather than per-course, and it belongs to whoever owns the degree. This is why the three requests must be counted together rather than filed one section at a time:

• 25% of a program available online — SACSCOC notification. This package reaches it on its own, before counting any other online CRCP section.
• 50% — SACSCOC approval, which requires the year of lead time noted above.
• NASAD carries parallel distance-learning standards and substantive change reporting once a program is substantially available online.

Confirm before submitting

• File as one packageSubmit the 1310, 3305, and 3315 modifications together with a single online-hours tally, so the sequence is reviewed as a sequence.
• Which prefix is currentThe catalog carries both CRCP 1310 and ASIM 1310 under the title Creative Coding I across different catalog years. File under whichever is live in the current catalog, and say so explicitly if a prefix migration is still in progress.
• Common Curriculum designationIf CRCP 1310 carries a CC tag, check whether the Common Curriculum committee must re-affirm the designation for an online section, or whether the tag attaches to the course regardless of mode.
• Approved outcomes on fileWhether the in-person section has approved learning outcomes that differ from the proposed syllabus; adopt one set for both sections, per § 5.
• The correct Meadows formMeadows' own modification form and committee calendar, from the associate dean for academic affairs. Simmons publishes its process; Meadows' may differ in form and routing.
• Instructor certificationQM certification status for the assigned instructor of record, per § 8.
• Current online share of the B.A.The baseline against which the 9-hour package is counted, per § 9.
• Term and fundingWhether this targets a summer or intersession term, which opens the Intersessions online course development support and may carry its own scheduling conventions.
• Reference environment for the first offeringThe syllabus states that the reference language and environment are announced before registration. Have them chosen before the section is listed.