Transforming Curriculum Management at Grand Rapids Community College

“Catalog and Curriculum came together and made the work of our entire curriculum process so much easier. You go from spending months doing something to now a few weeks.”

Deb DeWent | Director of Curriculum Management at Grand Rapids Community College

The Challenge

Grand Rapids Community College (GRCC) serves learners across West Michigan at many points in their educational journeys. Its students pursue both for-credit and non-credit offerings, both full-time and part-time. About half transfer to four-year institutions, while others use their time at GRCC to build skills and credentials for the workforce. “We’re able to meet a lot of students based on their needs and where they’re at,” said Deb DeWent, Director of Curriculum Management at GRCC.

That breadth makes managing GRCC’s academic offerings a complex undertaking. The academic catalog is one of the college’s most important sources of course and program information. For years, it was difficult to keep that information current.

“We were doing the catalog as a paper product,” DeWent said. “It took so much time to start the editing process and validate everything. As soon as it went to print, we’d find an error. We were spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a print document that was no longer accurate.”

A printed catalog left little room for change. When an error affected an accredited program, correcting the record meant printing new copies to send to the accrediting agency.

GRCC's provost gave DeWent a clear mandate: find a better way to manage the catalog and bring it online. That search led GRCC to Modern Campus.

“When we went through the bid process, it was the one product that I knew was a fit for GRCC. It has turned out to be a very good fit.”

Deb DeWent

The Solution

With Modern Campus Connected Curriculum, GRCC has moved from a static catalog to an operation that’s easier to manage, simpler to update, and more responsive to change. Rather than managing the catalog as a standalone publication, GRCC now manages changes through a connected process, from initial proposal through publication.

Faculty initiate changes directly in the system, giving them an active role while proposals move through GRCC’s established review and approval processes. DeWent maintains oversight of that work, with a record of changes and decisions preserved along the way.

“If I have a department who says, ‘Deb, this is wrong,’ we can make the change,” DeWent said. “I’ve made it easier to make those edits, and they appreciate that.” That gives GRCC more flexibility to respond when updates are needed while maintaining its established processes.

Together, those changes have made curriculum management more responsive without compromising institutional oversight.

The Results

Catalog production moved from months to weeks

GRCC has dramatically shortened the time required to produce its academic catalog. What once consumed months of DeWent’s time is now a far more efficient part of the college’s broader curriculum operation. “You go from spending months doing something to now a few weeks,” DeWent said.

That shorter production cycle gives GRCC greater flexibility to keep academic information current, replacing a lengthy publication process with one that can better accommodate ongoing change.>

GRCC has a clearer record of how curriculum evolves

GRCC’s streamlined curriculum process makes the history behind academic change easier to trace. Curriculum decisions no longer disappear into paperwork. When questions arise later, DeWent can look back at a course or program change and understand how it reached its current state.

“I can go back and figure out what was changed and when, as well as who made the change and why,” DeWent said. “It’s been really important to have that documentation that we didn’t have when it was paper and pencil.”

Faculty can move curriculum change forward with less friction

Connected Curriculum gives GRCC faculty a more streamlined way to initiate and move course changes forward. By making that work easier for the people responsible for proposing and revising curriculum, GRCC can support faculty participation without adding unnecessary administrative burden.

DeWent sees the difference clearly during the college’s five-year course revisions.

“They say, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so nerve-wracking,’” DeWent said. “Then they launch it and they’re done in about 20 minutes and say, ‘Oh my gosh, this is so easy.’ For me, it’s an ‘aha’ moment. We’ve taken something that they kind of dread and made it very easy.”

What’s next

GRCC’s progress has also created opportunities to take the work further to better support learners where they are.

“I’ve always been one to push some of the limits,” DeWent said. “I ask, ‘What can I do with this? Where can I take this?’”

That willingness to keep exploring has become part of GRCC’s relationship with Modern Campus. Today, GRCC is continuing to build on that foundation, including a phased rollout of Modern Campus Career Pathways designed to better connect academic programs with career information. GRCC has also expanded its Modern Campus footprint to include Modern Campus Lifelong Learning, supporting its continuing education operations.

For DeWent, there’s still more to build.

“I’m looking forward to continuing to push the products forward. How can I take what we’re doing here and push it to the next step? How can I continue to push Modern Campus to keep finding the solutions that we need?”

Deb DeWent