UW in the High School Paperless Course Update Process

The UW in the High School (UWHS) program partners with academic departments and high schools in Washington state to offer high school students the opportunity to concurrently earn UW credit and high school credit while remaining in the high school classroom. Historically, every year the program routed information to each partner department chair and dean regarding every course which was planned to be offered for UW credit as a means of “approving” each offering. This approval process was done via paper and involved approximately seven pieces of paper per course. In a typical year, over 300 courses had approval information routed, which equated to more than 2,000 pieces of paper. 

In 2015, the program reviewed the entire approval process as well as other related program activities. Through this review, we determined that the goal of this process was being achieved through other program activities and procedures. As a result, we changed program policy to remove the course approval requirement. In its place, we have developed an updated process to ensure that our academic partners are informed about program activities each year.  We are calling this new process a “course update”, and it relies solely on email communication - no paper will be involved. In addition to reduction in paper use, this change also makes more efficient use of staff time.