What is the Top 30 Course Initiative?
The Top 30 Course Initiative is a project aimed at making the highest-enrolled courses at the University accessible to students. Since these courses have the highest enrollment across the Commonwealth, making them accessible will have the biggest impact on our collective accessibility and reduce barriers to learning for the greatest number of students. For more information on the origin of the Top 30 Course Initiative, visit the DoJ Ruling Overview page.
The following is a list of Top 30 courses at the University:
- CAS 100
- CHEM 110
- ENGL 15
- STAT 200
- ECON 102
- PHYS 211
- MATH 140
- MATH 21
- PSYCH 100
- BIOL 110
- ECON 104
- MATH 141
- ACCTG 211
- MATH 22
- PHYS 212
- CHEM 111
- PSU 8
- ENGL 202
- MATH 110
- MGMT 301
- CHEM112
- NUTR 251
- FIN 301
- MKTG 301
- BIOL 161
- SCM 301
- EDSGN 100
- CHEM 113
- SOC 1
- SPAN 2
- SPAN 3
- ASTRO 1
- EGEE 101
How does the Initiative work?
The Top 30 Course Initiative will work with instructors that teach the courses listed above to make their courses accessible. When your course has been selected, you will receive an email inviting you to a kickoff meeting with instructors who teach the same course at other campuses. The hope with bringing all instructors together is that we can all share the burden of making our courses more accessible, but maintain our own individual stamp on our course.
Each cohort of the initiative is spread out over 2 semesters.
Here is the general overall structure:
Semester 1
- Complete the Accessible Skills Challenge, Level 1
- Identify the components of your course (Canvas space, textbook, third party technologies, videos, documents, specialty content, etc.)
- Schedule an accessibility review with an instructional designer (optional, but recommended; can occur in the second semester). There are two options: cross-campus or meet with your local instructional designer
- Submit course textbooks and technology to a crowdsourced Excel spreadsheet
- Complete at least one change each week
Semester 2
- Complete the Accessible Skills Challenge, Level 2
- Weekly email communication regarding textbooks, technology, and suggested project milestones
- Complete at least one change each week
All Semesters
- Attend accessibility co-working sessions, as needed. Dedicated course sessions are available, if there is enough interest.
- Submit course materials to Accessibility Document Review to request an audit
- Dedicated Teams space for your course
Which courses have been selected so far?
Cohort 1
The first cohort began in April 2025 with faculty and instructional designers working on their courses in Summer and Fall 2025. The courses selected in this cohort are CAS 100 and PSU 8.
Cohort 2
The second cohort begin in September 2025 with faculty and instructional designers working on their courses in Fall 2025 and Spring 2026. The courses selected in this cohort are ACCTG 211, BIOL 110, and ENGL15.
Cohort 3
We are tentatively planning to work with CHEM 110 and PSYCH 100 faculty beginning in Spring 2026 and continuing into Summer 2026,