The course outline of record plays a critical educational role on campus. It is the primary vehicle for course planning. When a course is revised or updated, it is the course outline that records the changes. As such, it forms the basis for a contract among the student, instructor, and institution identifying the expectations which will serve as the basis of the student's grade and giving the fundamental required components of the course which the student is guaranteed to receive from the instructor and institution. More than just specifying the required components of the course, the outline of record states the content and level of rigor for which students—across all sections of the course—will be held accountable. Courses are designed to provide a coherent body of knowledge to prepare students in a particular subject. The prerequisites students need to advance successfully through a series of such courses are based on information in the outline of record.

Maintaining academic standards means providing consistent, quality instruction in the classroom. As our courses are taught by various instructors, both full- and part-time, it is by reviewing the course outline that they may clearly identify the standards and content of the course they are to teach. In addition, the course outline plays a critical role in the on-going process of program review by which a college seeks to keep its curriculum relevant and to allocate its resources sufficiently to maintain its programs. When new programs are designed, it is through the selection of courses and construction of new course outlines that the program design is evaluated for its ability to meet the newly-identified needs of students.

The course outline of record should not be confused with the syllabus. While a course outline is a contract between the college and the student containing the requirements and components of the course, a syllabus describes how the individual instructor will carry out the terms of that contract through specific assignments. Syllabi give specific dates, grading standards, and other rules of the conduct of a course required by the individual instructor. A course outline gives the basic components of the course required to be taught by all instructors. A syllabus allows the individual instructor to include methods and topics which may go beyond the course outline. It gives the instructor the opportunity to bring out his or her particular talents and strengths.

Another role of the course outline is to demonstrate that all of the required components are present in the course to the required degree of rigor as specified in Title 5 and the Curriculum Standards Handbook. It is the responsibility of the college curriculum committee to review course outlines submitted by discipline faculty to assure that they meet these standards. Such course approval is the central task of the curriculum committee. When initially offered as part of a program, the course outline is submitted to both the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC) and the Chancellor's Office in the program approval process. When questions arise as to the appropriateness of a college's course or program offerings, the Chancellor's Office or CPEC may request copies of the pertinent course outlines for review. If these reviews and approvals are not satisfactory, the colleges may not offer the programs and/or courses. In addition, the Chancellor's Office may also use the quality of the course outline of record to determine that colleges are meeting the conditions for delegation of curriculum approval authority. (See section 2.4 of the Curriculum Standards Handbook excerpted in the appendix.)

Title 5 regulations in the area of matriculation allow the establishment and enforcement of prerequisites, but only when students would be highly unlikely to succeed without them. In some cases those prerequisite skills must be documented in the course outline of record. The process that the college uses is included in its annual Matriculation Plan and is part of the documentation provided for site visits by the Chancellor's Office.

Outlines of record are also submitted annually for approval as meeting California State University General Education (CSU/GE) breadth requirements and for inclusion in the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC). Each college also establishes Transfer Articulation Agreements with surrounding four-year colleges and universities. Again, the course outline serves as the basis for evaluation of the transferability of these courses and to substantiate their equivalence to those courses offered at the four-year schools.

Each college maintains its accreditation through reviews conducted by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC). In the self-study done in preparation for such reviews—and during the site visits which accompany them—course outlines of record serve as documentation of the college's high academic standards and quality certificate and degree programs. In the current move toward increased accountability many other outside agencies have begun to look at the course outline of record—its quality and rigor—as a means of evaluating institutional effectiveness. For example, course outlines are cited by the California Postsecondary Education Commission (CPEC), in its effort to reduce fraud and abuse in the use of federal financial aid as the State Postsecondary Review Entity (SPRE). CPEC's SPRE standard 1, Information for Students, requires that "to document the accuracy of these materials, the institution should have available current course syllabi/outlines...."