Introduction and Purpose of CIF

With a college district that spans over 5 colleges and 6 centers, the Course Inventory Form (CIF) process is required to allow Lone Star College System Continuing Education course developers to:

1. Present a new course to the CE Council for approval and addition to the Continuing Education Inventory.

2. Encourage consistency and collaboration across Lone Star College System colleges regarding the quality and structure of course offerings.

3. Ensure compliance with Lone Star College System Board agreed pricing and policies, as well as THECB reporting requirements.

4. Provide a means of record keeping for course reference, auditing and state reporting.

5. Circulate archived courses and revision courses help keep the existing inventory current.

Prior to the development of the new CIF software application, all requests for new courses and revisions were processed by e-mailing a Course Development Form (CDF). This was a Microsoft Word document that was circulated to peer occupational groups for agreement.

The agreed upon version of the document was subsequently forwarded to the CE Council members for their approval. Comments to this course were made via numerous e-mail replies.

In recognition of the limitations of this process, the development team agreed that the new system would allow for:

1. A standardized process using a smart form that would reduce data entry errors and enable better reporting

2. The use of course information as a reference for future use including comments, learning outcomes and other information.

3. Easier revision of courses based upon more complete storage and retrieval capabilities built into the system.

4. The workflow process to be automated, including e-mail reminders to ensure efficiency and eliminate bottle-necks.

5. The system would allow easily for approver substitution at the colleges in case of approver absence.

6. Tracking of course status and compliance with district and state requirements.