Course outlines
Course outlines provide detailed and timely information to assist students in their selection of courses.
From Semester Two 2025, staff will use the new Curriculum Management System (CMS) to edit their course outlines for 2026.* Read this announcement on the Staff Intranet for an update on the CMS project.
* As ‘Digital Course Outlines’ referred to the old DCO editor, we are now simply calling them ‘course outlines’.
Curriculum Management System (CMS)
The CMS replaces the Digital Course Outlines (DCOs) editor. It is the single source of truth for programmes, course records (including course outlines), and class information.
The CMS:
- Is an internal-facing system for staff
- Provides a curriculum catalogue capability, mapping courses to curricula
- Enables reporting functionality for various stakeholders, including programme directors, faculty administrators, and course directors
- Supports approval workflows for changes to course outlines and for new and existing programmes
Annual course outlines review process
Online Curriculum Catalogue (OCC)
From 2026, the OCC will be the default public-facing site for our course and degree programmes. This system works in parallel with the CMS, automatically pulling information through. This is what students will access to view course outlines.
Getting started with the CMS
- Staff can access the system through the Staff Intranet (Teaching and research menu): Access the Curriculum Management System.
- The annual review process for checking and publishing course outlines is described on the Staff Intranet, along with quick reference guides for all of the activities to be performed in the system. View the CMS user guides.
Roles and permissions
An overview of CMS roles and permissions
Editor
The course director will be the default editor to populate the online form for each course outline and can add other staff to assist. Some of the form will be pre-populated, while other fields will require input. When the editors of a course outline are ready, they submit it for approval.
Approver
The relevant academic lead for each faculty will approve the information for each course and can request revisions as required.
Publisher
A central team will publish the courses outlines and can track the faculty’s progress in preparing the course outlines via the dashboard.
Group Services
Group Services can view progress of the faculty or department using the dashboard. Group Services staff can also add editors and update course director and programme details for course outlines.
There is also a report function available to Group Services to generate a report summary of all courses.
FAQs
When are we asked to review course outlines?
Here is the typical timeframe for the annual review. Reminders will be sent to you close to the time.
By end of October: Course directors to review content and submit to reviewers/approvers.
First week in November: Reviewers/approvers to accept for publishing or return with comments.
Second to third week in November: Any final approvals to be submitted for publishing.
Should I edit sections in the Course record or just focus on the Course Outline?
During the annual review of course outlines, course directors should mainly focus on the Course Outline record:
Section 2 – Student-Facing Content for Website
If you make any changes, specify what you changed in
Section 1 – Summary of Changes
However, it is prudent to also check the following fields in the Course record:
Section 4 – Teaching – Workloads, Course Learning Outcomes, Assessment and Risk Indicators
Section 5 – Delivery Mode, Campus, and Semesters Offered
If you make any changes, specify what you changed in:
Section 1 – Summary of Changes and Contact Points
Course directors are asked not to change any of the other sections in the Course record during the annual course outlines review.
Detailed instructions, including how to filter and view the list of Courses and Course Outlines within the CMS, is provided in the CMS user guides.
What about changing the course prescription, points, pre-requisites, etc.?
Some course information (e.g., course title, course prescription, points, delivery mode, pre-requisites etc.) should not be altered since they are published to the calendar. If you notice incorrect information pertaining to these fields, please follow the amendment process described by the Academic Programmes Office.
Is the Syllabus page in Canvas automatically updated with any changes to the course outline?
Currently, no. Until full integration between CMS and Canvas is provisioned in 2026, course facilitators are asked to provide a link on their course syllabus page to the course outline information on the Online Curriculum Catalogue. Alternatively, download any updated course outline information—a PDF will be generated by the CMS—and upload it to their course syllabus.
Support
Extra one-to-one support is available during the transition process from DCO editor to CMS. Book a session for on demand CMS support.
Alternatively, email the project team with your questions. They are available to help until the end of 2025.
Page updated 09/09/2025 (added ‘course prescription etc.’ FAQ)