V.18 Directed and Independent Study

In recent years, several questions have come up regarding the use of directed study course numbers (usually X98 and X99). The guidelines that follow are intended to help departments in their use of these important instructional opportunities.

Who May Teach Directed Study

It is up to individual academic departments to determine who may oversee directed study courses within their Timetable subject listings. Some departments allow only faculty to supervise independent study; others may also allow long-term and short-term instructional academic staff to take on this role. In general, directed study is taken on as a volunteer activity or as part of the overall teaching load; there is no expectation of increased remuneration for such activity.

Once the department has determined to allow a particular individual to supervise a directed study experience, the department should ensure that the individual has a valid instructor ID and that the student registers for the course using that instructor's ID. Doing so not only ensures that the student record accurately reflects with whom she or he studied, but also that the university has an accurate record of instructional activity and instructors at work within the department and college. It is the department's responsibility to maintain accurate lists of who is allowed to teach directed study; at a minimum, departments should remove inactive short term instructors from the lists of instructors teaching each semester.

In the event that an instructor overseeing an independent study is not a member of (or payrolled through) the department in which the student hopes to register, his or her ID may simply be entered into the list of instructors via usual Timetable procedures (i.e., adding a section using that instructor's ID, through which the student would register). New instructors must be entered into the Integrated Appointment Data System (IADS) before their names can be added to the course in the ISIS database. Departments should work with department and college-level human resource staff to initiate the process of adding instructors into IADS. If the individual is not on the payroll, this may mean establishing a formal relationship with that person as a volunteer (see Section III.11, Policy on Use of Volunteers) or via a short-term zero-dollar or honorary appointment.

Use of Directed Study Course Numbers for Group Instruction

Per L&S policy, students are allowed to pursue, and count for degree credit, directed study experiences regardless of the college in which they are offered: this policy reflects the belief that experiences in which a student is engaged in one-on-one interactions with a member of the faculty are inherently of value to liberal education. The substitution of a group instruction experience is contrary to the spirit of directed study.

This perspective is expressed in the L&S Student Academic Affairs Policy Book:

Every professor determines the content of his or her directed study courses. Nonetheless, there is no suggestion in the course descriptions that indicates that it would ever be appropriate for a professor to allow a student to register for directed study when the student was actually taking a course. The University's intention generally is that registration and the transcript should accurately reflect what actually occurred.

When a directed study course is used, it must be taught as directed study. These course numbers are not intended to provide a mechanism for teaching variable topics in a group instruction format. If there is a need for a topics course, such a course can and should be proposed and approved via the usual course proposal process.

August 2007