Contents
Catalog Links

2023-2024 Catalog

Course Descriptions

To help select courses consistent with their academic plans, students should become thoroughly familiar with the explanation of course descriptions.

UNDERSTANDING COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

Berkshire Community College courses are offered by the College’s various academic departments. In addition to a course description, each listing provides some or all of the information shown in the following example of FAS-171, Pre- Renaissance Art History.

In the example, FAS-171 fulfills BCC’s General Education Humanities and Fine Arts (HU) as well as the MassTransfer humanities and fine arts requirement (hu).

The course also has one embedded core competency: Critical Thinking (CC-CT).

  1. Course Designation (FAS): Identifies the department and/or category of the course.
  2. Course Number (171): Courses numbered in the 100s are primarily designed for students in their first year of college. Courses in the 200s are mainly designed for students in their second year.
  3. Course Title (Pre-Renaissance Art History)
  4. Course Credits (3): The number of college credits assigned to the course. Most courses carry 3 credits. Courses with a required laboratory usually carry 4 credits.
  5. Course Availability (Fall): If a course is not offered every semester, its availability is noted here. Common examples include courses that are offered only during a certain semester (i.e., Fall, Spring) or “as needed.”
  6. Course Codes (SS/ss, CC-SK, CC-HU): Courses that fulfill Berkshire Community College’s general education and/or MassTransfer requirements include the two letter codes as shown.
  • Upper case letters identify courses that fulfill BCC general education requirements.
  • Upper case letters  followed by TR identify courses fulfilling MassTransfer
  • Courses that have embedded core competencies are identified with a four letter core competency code.
   BCC General Education MassTransfer Core Competency
Communication   CO    
 English Composition/Writing  EC  ECTR  
 Environmental Studies  ES    
 Health/Fitness  HF    
 History  HI    
 Humanities and Fine Arts  HU  HUTR  
 Natural or Physical Laboratory Science    LSTR  
 Natural or Physical Non-Laboratory Science    NSTR  
 Mathematics  MA  MATR  
 Natural or Physical Science  SC    
 Behavioral and Social Science  SS  SSTR  
 Critical Thinking     CC-CT 
 Oral Communication     CC-OC
 Quantitative Reasoning and Logical Thinking     CC-QR
 Written Communication     CC-WC

Year Cycle Code: 

ID Description
A All Years
E Even Years
N As Needed
O Odd Years

Semester Cycle Code:

ID Description
AN As Needed
AT All Terms
FA Fall
FS Fall and Spring
IN Intersession
SF Summer and Fall
SP Spring
SS Spring and Summer
SU Summer

PREREQUISITES & OTHER INFORMATION

Some or all of the following information appears at the end of affected course descriptions:

  • Special grading situations (i.e., Pass/No Pass grading). For example, see RSP-107; and
  • Modular courses, which do not meet for an entire semester, indicate their duration (i.e., a five-week course). For example, see HSP-108.
  • Various prerequisites as shown below.

Skills Prerequisite

A skills prerequisite is a skill level that must be attained before enrolling in the course that lists the skills prerequisite. This may be accomplished by (1) successfully completing the listed course, or (2) demonstrating competency on BCC’s Accuplacer assessment at a level higher than the skill level listed. In the example on the opposite page, FAS-171 lists ENG-020 and ENG-060 as a skills prerequisite. Therefore, a student must either successfully complete ENG-020 and ENG-060 before enrolling in AHS-121, or demonstrate the required English competency on the Accuplacer assessment.

Prerequisite

A prerequisite course must be successfully completed before enrolling in the course that lists the prerequisite. For example, BUS-206 lists a prerequisite of BUS-107 or higher. Therefore, a student must successfully complete BUS-107 or higher before taking BUS-206.

Corequisite

A corequisite course must be taken at the same time as the course that lists the corequisite. For example, ECE-124 lists a corequisite of ECE-123. Therefore, a student should be enrolled in both ECE-123 and ECE-124 during the same semester.

Recommendation

Recommended courses are suggestions made by the faculty. For example, AHS-150 lists high school or college biology as a recommendation. Therefore, although not mandatory, it is in the best interest of the student to have completed a high school or college biology course before enrolling in AHS-150.