Discipline Studies List Criteria

Background

Over the past many years, COCC's Associate of Arts - Oregon Transfer degree has used the concept of depth (sequences/A list courses) and breadth (B list courses) to meet the AAOT distribution requirement. Due to changes in the curriculum at our primary transfer institutions (University of Oregon and Oregon State University), as well as a desire to provide a more efficient route for students to complete the degree, COCC's Academic Affairs Committee voted to eliminate sequences during fall term 2004.

Students chose their depth and breadth courses from the "A and B List". With the shift away from sequences, this list is combined into one larger list, the distribution list. As such, the Distribution Task Force (members listed below) was formed, with the goal of creating criteria by which new courses would be added, or current courses removed, from this list.

Based on the work of the Joint Boards Articulation Committee, courses on COCC's discipline studies list must meet the following criteria:

The course must be accepted as meeting the general education requirements at least one Oregon public university, including any professional technical courses meeting the general education requirements.
The course must be at least 3 credits.
The course must be numbered 100 or above.
The course must meet the Outcomes and Criteria approved by the Joint Boards of Education.

Note:

Criteria one was limited to Oregon University System institutions only, as the AAOT is specifically geared towards these institutions and is not guaranteed to be accepted at any other institution. If a student is transferring to an out-of-state institution and/or is pursuing a highly specialized major, students and advisors are encouraged to work towards building an associate of science degree customized to better meet the student's needs.

You may find the links on the Transfer College Information page helpful.

Career and Technical Education Courses

Background

The Associate of Arts - Oregon Transfer degree allow students to use up to 12 Career and Technical Education credits towards the required elective credit requirement. Several years ago, COCC designated certain prefixes as Career and Technical Education courses (page 48 of the 2010-11 catalog). The difficulty in this designation is that several disciplines have both Career and Technical Education and transfer options. Therefore, transfer students are unable to get the level of depth needed within their major to adequately prepare them for upper division work (i.e., if they take all of the appropriate lower division courses, many of their credits are "extra" and do not apply towards AAOT electives).

To better allow students opportunities to maximize lower-division major courses, and to have the professional technical list more accurately reflect true professional technical courses, we recommend that this list only include those courses that do not meet the general education or major requirements at at least one Oregon public university. Note that in some cases, it may be appropriate to list a prefix, stating that any course with that prefix is considered professional technical (e.g., automotive).

Based on work by the Professional Technical Council, we recommend the following as the Professional Technical List:

AH 100 Intro to Health Occupations

AH 111 Medical Terminology I

AH 112 Medical Terminology II

AUT All courses

CCI All courses

DA All courses

DM All courses

DSL All courses

EMT All courses

FOR 130 Chainsaw Use / Maintenance

FOR 132 Directional Timber Falling

GEOG 211 Computer Cartography

GEOG 265 Geographic Information Systems

GEOG 282 Advanced ARC/INFO

GEOG 284 GIS Customization

GEOG 285 Data Conversion/Documentation

GEOG 286 Remote Sensing

GEOG 287 Analysis of Spatial Data

GEGO 289 Image Processing

HIT All courses

LMT All courses

MFG All courses

MA All courses

NUR All courses

OA All courses

Other Courses

Not every COCC class has to be on either the distribution or CTE course list. For example, not all WR or ART prefix classes are on the distribution list, nor are they a CTE class (e.g., WR 121 or ART 154). It's important to remember that a listing of distribution and CTE classes applies primarily to the AAOT degree and that it's the community colleges responsibility to uphold the transferability of that degree by appropriately defining courses as they apply to the various sections.

Other Degrees

Some of COCC's other degree options refer to the distribution list. For the purposes of those degrees, the distribution list created for the AAOT applies.