For Program Directors and Coordinators

Through the IRC Course Development Contract (CDC) process, program directors can propose a new fully-online course for their program, which (if approved) would give an instructor a development contract to create the course. Additionally, if a fully-online course needs significant changes or updates, a program director can propose a “revision” contract to revise the course.

Once a development proposal has been submitted by the program director, it is reviewed for future terms considering slots for development by the review team.


Instructors developing or revising their fully-online courses will have access to a wealth of support. The IRC team will:

  • Collaborate with the instructors and program director to create or revise AAP online courses
  • Develop the needed multimedia instructional resources
  • Investigate desirable instructional technologies
  • provide needed training and professional development
  • Prepare and develop the Blackboard course sites
  • Send regular status reports to Program Directors

Program Directors should complete and submit the  IRC Application Form for New Development and Revision Requests. To access this form, you will need to be connected to the VPN or be on campus.

For additional information, please forward questions to  AAPIRC@jhu.edu.

CDC FAQs For Faculty Developers

You will receive a welcome email that explains the next steps in the process. These next steps include signing your development/revision contract, attending an orientation session, and attending the project kick-off meeting. Everything you need to know will be provided in the welcome email. 

The one-hour, online orientation session provides an overview of the course development/revision process including the timeline for completing the project. In addition to this one-hour session, you will also be enrolled in our AAP Teaching and Learning Community in Blackboard. 

The AAP Teaching and Learning Community offers faculty additional information and resources to support their course development or revision process such as information about teaching strategies, student-centered learning, online technology training, and much more. The community also offers the opportunity to collaborate with other faculty developing and revising courses. 

Developing a high-impact learning experiences for AAP students can take between 120-240 hours.

IRC Liaison Partnership

The IRC, working collaboratively with program directors, faculty, and support services, aims to create high-impact learning experiences that develop AAP students’ potential as innovators, leaders, and visionaries in the arts and sciences.


To support our efforts, we are launching the IRC and Program Director partner initiative. This initiative will support our continued collaborative partnership with AAP programs by assigning an IRC instructional designer (ID) liaison. The assigned ID will work collaboratively with you to identify the instructional design, multimedia, and training needs of your program coordinator(s), assistant program director(s), and faculty. As a result of this collaboration, the assigned ID will develop a greater understanding of the diverse needs and requirements of your program, which will allow the IRC to provide personalized services and to better address the professional and educational needs of your students.


The assigned IRC ID liaison will be responsible for:

  • Communicating IRC processes
  • Coordinating approved course development and revision projects
  • Providing instructional design and technology recommendations
  • Acting as a concierge by identifying persons, resources, and partners to address the cours development, course revision, and course readiness of assigned program(s)

CDC Process FAQs

You will receive an acknowledgement email to let you know when to expect a decision. It typically takes two weeks for these from the request deadline to receive the decision. 

  • New course development decisions are primarily based on your curriculum plan, the needs of the students in your program, and existing courses across programs. 
  • Revision decisions are primarily based on when the course was developed or last revised, course enrollment, and our instructional designers’ availability. 
  • For new course developments, the instructor will receive an email from the IRC welcoming them to the development process and what to expect. See FAQs for Faculty Developers. 
  • For course revisions, an instructional designer will reach out to you to set up a meeting to discuss the revisions needed and develop a Statement of Work (SOW). Once this SOW is completed, the faculty develop will receive a contract for the work. Once the contract is signed, the instructional designer assigned to the project will reach out to set-up Kick-Off meeting to begin the project. 

If your request isn’t approved, your application will have to be resubmitted for consideration in future development cycles, but the documentation that you completed can be reused with minimal edits to make for a quick subsequent submission.

Program Directors will receive monthly emails from the instructional designer to keep you apprised of the status of the project. 

Yes, you will attend the initial project kick-off meeting, the midterm review meeting, and the final course walk-through