The official Course Outline of Record (COR) defines the content, objectives, methods of instruction and evaluation, sample textbooks and instructional materials for the course, and more. It establishes the number of units for the course plus the number of hours of instruction and will list any prerequisite(s) or corequisite(s) required for the course. In order to ensure that a qualified instructor is teaching the course, each course must be assigned one or more disciplines from the Disciplines List, and the course maximum per class section should also be recorded on the COR or an addendum to the COR (although local bargaining processes may dictate slightly different procedures). If the course can be taught in a shortened time frame, such as a 3-, 4-, 6- or 8-week session, then the appropriate shortened term lengths may be noted on the COR.
The COR provides the roadmap for any instructor assigned to teach the course which makes it the key document for articulating courses and assuring university partners that students have been evaluated on the identified content of the course. This document is the single most important piece of information for establishing prerequisites or corequisites via content review. Faculty will want to review CORs with great care and critical analysis before asking the curriculum committee to approve a new or modified course. The ASCCC paper, The Course Outline of Record: A Curriculum Reference Guide Revisited, published in 2017, provides basic information about what must be included in the COR along with tips for writing an effective outline. Most importantly, all teachers teaching the course must adhere, at a minimum, to the COR, regardless of location or modality of instruction.