Cross-Listed Courses

Rice's course catalog includes a large number of courses that are cross-listed. Cross-listed courses include courses from one department/school to another department/school, as well as courses within a department/school that are Undergraduate Level/Graduate Level.

Cross-Listing Definitions and Types

Cross-Listed Courses

An example of cross-listed courses is ANTH 200 and LING 200.

  • Curricular Requirements: Must have the exact same curricula and course requirements. They cannot be taught at different student levels (undergraduate, graduate, etc.) or course levels (100, 200, 300, 400, etc.).
  • Shared Attributes: Must share a course title, credit hours, description, student level, meeting time and days, instructor, classroom, registration restrictions, pre-requisites, recommendations, grade mode, repeatability, and distribution credit.
  • Student Restrictions: If a student takes more than one course that is part of the same cross-listing in the same semester, that student cannot receive credit for more than one of the courses.
  • Course Schedule Implications: If one course in a cross-listing is offered, all courses in the cross-listing must be offered.
  • Course Enrollments: The maximum enrollment for cross-listed course sections may be different, but maximum enrollment for any cross-listed course section cannot exceed the maximum for the group of cross-listed sections. For example, the maximum enrollment for a group of cross-listed course sections is 30. Therefore, one of the courses may have a maximum enrollment of 20, and the other may have a maximum enrollment of 10. Each section can also have a maximum of 30 each.
  • Course Roster Implications: Course rosters for cross-listed course sections are combined into one roster.

Equivalent Courses

An example of equivalent courses is HIST 215 and HIST 315.

  • Curricular Requirements: Do not have the exact same curricula and course requirements. They may be taught at different course levels (100, 200, 300, 400, etc.).
  • Shared Attributes: May share a course title, credit hours, description, student level, meeting time and days, instructor, classroom, registration restrictions, recommendations, grade mode, repeatability, and distribution credit.
  • Student Restrictions: If a student takes more than one course that is part of an equivalency in the same semester, that student cannot receive credit for more than one of the courses.
  • Course Schedule Implications: If one course in an equivalency is offered, not all courses in an equivalency need to be offered.
  • Course Enrollments: The maximum enrollments for equivalent course sections are not connected if offered separately, so they can be different. If offered at the same time with the same instructor, they must follow the same procedure as cross-listed courses.
  • Course Roster Implications: Course rosters for equivalent courses are not combined unless they are combined as cross-listed course sections on the course schedule (offered at the same time with the same instructor).

Graduate/Undergraduate (GR/UG) Equivalent Courses

An example of GR/UG equivalent courses is ANTH 500 and ANTH 300.

  • Curricular Requirements: Do not have the exact same curricula and course requirements. They are taught at different student levels (i.e., undergraduate, graduate).
  • Shared Attributes: May share a meeting time and days, instructor, classroom.
  • Student Restrictions: If a student takes more than one course that is part of a GR/UG equivalency in the same semester, that student cannot receive credit for more than one of the courses.
  • Course Schedule Implications: If one course in a GR/UG equivalency is offered, not all courses in a GR/UG equivalency need to be offered.
  • Course Enrollments: The maximum enrollments for GR/UG equivalent course sections are not connected if offered separately, so they can be different. If offered at the same time with the same instructor, they must follow the same procedure as a Cross-Listed courses.
  • Course Roster Implications: Course rosters for GR/UG equivalent courses are not combined, unless they are combined as a cross-listed course sections on the course schedule (offered at the same time with the same instructor).

When to Cross-List

Cross-listing has had a long history at Rice, and it is appropriate in some situations, and not necessary or appropriate in others. Many of the reasons for which departments cross-listed courses in the past are no longer. There are three main reasons courses were cross-listed are no longer applicable:

  1. Cross-listing allowed departments to quickly see if a student had met the requirements for a major on the old, paper “Major Certification” forms. Rice's electronic degree audit system, Degree Works, now does this automatically, slotting the appropriate courses to meet major requirements. Courses not automatically approved to meet major requirements can be seen by the advisor and substituted to meet that requirement, if appropriate.
  2. Departments believed that the only way for their instructors to receive teaching credit for the course was to have it offered with their departmental subject code. Several years ago, calculated instructor teaching loads shifted to the home department of the instructor as opposed to the subject code of the course.
  3. Some departments wanted to cross-list to expose the course to more students as a type of marketing attempt. However, with updates and enhancements to the Course Schedule site, and the ESTHER registration module, students have been able to successfully find courses outside of their major, regardless of the subject code.

Before automatically deciding to cross-list, the department should consider the pedagogical need to cross-list and be able to supply a rationale to defend the decision to cross-list. Before proposing a cross-list, the following should be considered:

  • What does the department, academic program, course gain by cross-listing? Can what is gained be achieved through other means (e.g., educating the community, marketing)?
  • Will the instructor or instructors change regularly? If the course is taught by multiple instructors, and from multiple departments, what will happen if one of the instructors ceases to teach the course, or leaves Rice?
  • If the academic program is an interdisciplinary program, having required courses from multiple departments and with varied subject codes, is preferable. If all required courses had the same subject code, the interdisciplinary aspect of the program is less visible.
  • Cross-listing courses, and assigning or reserving subject and course numbers add complexity, etc. Once a cross-list course combination is created, it cannot be easily undone, broken, or changed.

Cross-List Courses Master Lists

A comprehensive list of all cross-listed course sections during a given semester is available here.