The Course Catalog includes details of all courses approved for offering by Oklahoma State University. Not all courses are offered each semester or session. Students should consult the current class schedule to determine specific offerings for a selected term.

Courses are listed alphabetically by course subject.

A course catalog listing is comprised of the following elements:

Course Subject. The course subject code is comprised of no more than four letters representing the home department or course subject area.

Course Number. All courses are identified by numbers composed of four digits. The first digit indicates the class year in which the subject is ordinarily taken, although enrollment is not exclusive to student classification (1 – freshman, 2 – sophomore, 3 – junior, 4 – senior, 5 and 6 – graduate, 7 – professional veterinary medicine). Some courses are approved for multiple levels of credit. Course numbers beginning with 0 indicate developmental courses that do not carry University credit. The last digit of the course number indicates the number of semester credit hours. Course numbers ending with 0 indicate a variable credit course.

Course Title. The title of the course.

General Education Requirement Codes. The capital letters in parentheses in some course titles designate courses fulfilling various undergraduate general education requirements. (See University Academic Regulation 3.4.) General education credit is also identified in the course attributes. The code letters designate the general education category for which the course may be used:

A - Analytical and Quantitative Thought
D - Diversity
H - Humanities
I - International Dimension
L - Scientific Investigation (Laboratory Science)
N - Natural Sciences
S - Social and Behavioral Sciences

Prerequisite(s). Prerequisite courses, exam scores, or other requirements prior to enrollment are listed in detail (See Academic Regulation 5.6.).

Description. The content of the course and its major emphasis are described.

Credit hours. The number of semester credit hours associated with the course. Courses with course numbers ending in zero are offered for variable credit. Typical variable credit entries are 1-6 credits, maximum 6, and 1-3 credits, maximum 12. The first part of the entry indicates the permissible credit per enrollment, followed by a statement of the cumulative maximum credit which may be earned in the course through repeated enrollment. A semester credit hour is equivalent to (a) sixteen 50-minute class sessions (including examinations) conducted under the guidance of a qualified instructor plus 32 hours of preparation time, or (b) sixteen 3-hour laboratory sessions, or (c) sixteen 2-hour laboratory sessions plus 16 hours of preparation time. These same equivalencies apply to outreach courses, short courses and other learning formats for which academic credit is awarded (University Academic Regulation 4.8).

Contact hours. The actual amount of time per week a student will spend in class (based on a 16-week semester).

Levels. The level indicates whether the course can be offered at the Undergraduate, Graduate, or Professional level. Some courses are approved to be offered at more than one level.

Schedule types. The type of instruction: Lecture/Theory; Lab; Discussion; Independent Study.

Department/School. The department or school offering the course.

General Education and Other Course Attributes. Course attributes reflect attributes that all sections of the course carry toward meeting specific degree requirements. For example, all general education credit designations are listed as course attributes.

Equivalent Courses. Some courses are academically identical or equivalent to other courses that are offered in different departments. Equivalent courses should include “same as…” statements in their course descriptions. Equivalent courses are denoted on the official transcript in accordance with the undergraduate repeat policy (See Academic Regulation 6.13). Credit for only one of the courses will count in the earned hours section of the transcript.

Mutually Exclusive Courses. Courses that are not identical/equivalent but contain similar or significantly overlapping content include “no credit for…” or “may not be used with…” statements in their course descriptions. Mutually exclusive (or overlapping) courses are not listed as repeats, but students may not apply credit for both courses toward a degree. For example, if the description for Course X indicates “No credit for students with credit in Course Y” or “May not be used for degree credit with Course Y,” this means that a student may not use both courses to meet requirements for a single degree program. The student may use either Course X or Course Y, regardless of the order in which the courses were completed, but both courses may not be used to fulfill requirements for a single degree program. Thus, once a course is applied to a degree program, the mutually exclusive course may not be used to fulfill requirements for that program, including major hours, elective hours, total hours, etc.