The Office of Academic Affairs, the Center for Teaching Excellence, the Munday Library, and the Office of Instructional Technology of St. Edward’s University invite proposals for the 2019-2020 Innovation Fellowship to advance the vision of Strategic Plan 2022:
“At St. Edward’s University, every student will explore transformational pathways to knowledge, experience, understanding and achievement.”
These fellowships will support full-time faculty who need time, resources, and support to design or revise classes.to be taught in Fall 2019, Spring 2020, or Summer 2020. Fellows will receive a $1200 stipend, participate in the Summer 2019 Innovation Institute, which will be held May 20-29, 2019, and join a community of faculty fellows focused on pedagogical innovation.
You may apply for this opportunity, even if you have already applied for and received a Presidential Excellence Award for the summer of 2019.
We encourage applications that focus on a variety of pedagogical innovations and experimentation with the goal of providing a rich experience for all students. A particular focus for this iteration of Innovation Fellows is within the following area:
Online General Education Course Offerings: Creating flexible options to help students complete their degrees in a timely manner by offering general education online, especially in the summer.
Additionally, we are pleased to welcome applications that focus in the following areas:
High-Impact Practices: Incorporating high-impact practices for all students that promote broad learning, critical knowledge and skills, and opportunities to connect learning to real-world problems
Integrative Learning: Developing projects to help students make a variety of connections across classroom, co-curricular, and community opportunities
Research-Based Curricular Innovation: Applying other strategies for improving student learning and success that utilize new or evidence-based teaching and learning practices and require significant course redesign.
If you have any questions about the Innovation Fellowship or would like to discuss possible projects, please contact:
Jennifer Jefferson, Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence, jennej@stedwards.edu
Rebecca Frost Davis, Director of Instructional and Emerging Technology, rebeccad@stedwards.edu
Deadline for Submission: April 9, 2018
Submit to the box folder below the proposal process and guidelines.
Eligible candidates include all full-time faculty members. As part of the application process, all members must provide a short letter of support from their department chair, endorsed by the dean, saying that the chair supports the faculty member’s application to develop or revise a course that addresses school and university needs.
The proposal should not be longer than three (3) pages excluding the cover sheet, letter of support from your chair (with dean’s endorsement), bibliography, and appendices. You should address the areas below in clear language, avoiding jargon that will not be well understood outside your field.
Each proposal should include the following information:
1. Identification Information
Faculty Name, Department, School, Rank
Contact information: Email & phone
Course number and title
Semester and year course will be offered
Confirmation of face-to-face participation at the Innovation Institute, on days between May 20-31
2. Abstract
In 250 words or less describe the course development project, its significance, and its potential for application broadly. We use this information to share with the broader community about the range of projects that Fellows are working on.
3. Proposal Narrative
The narrative of your proposal should address the following categories. The questions below each category suggest the type of information sought–please do not feel like you have to discretely address each sub-question.
a. Description of project
Which course will you be developing or redesigning? What is the nature of your development process? (ie, What will you be changing about this course if you have taught it in the past or what significant pedagogical innovation will you be pursuing?) Please share any relevant bibliography or models for this pedagogical approach, as well as any existing course syllabus in an appendix. (Eligible courses should be taught in Fall 2019, Spring 2020, or Summer 2020)
b. Goals, objectives, and scope of pedagogical experiment.
What do you want to accomplish during the Innovation Fellowship? What are the tasks and outcomes involved in this course redesign? Describe the goal(s) and objectives that the proposed pedagogical experiment will accomplish. Please be specific about how this project will benefit your work at St. Edward’s and how it contributes to the mission and strategic goals of the University.
c. Contribution to the Academic Growth
Be sure to highlight how this course will fit into university curriculum, how it meets school and department needs, and how it meets the needs of students in your major.
d. Feasibility for your pedagogical experiment.
How will the innovation fellowship help you meet your goals? What role does this fellowship play in helping you develop your course?
e. Potential impact on learning.
How will you develop your course material to aid your students in receiving a well-rounded educational experience? How will you determine that your course has met the Student Learning Outcomes(SLOs) f? Make sure to address how you are planning to accomplish the goal(s) or objectives specified in part 1 of your proposal. Your final fellowship report should include analysis of this assessment and recommendations for the future.
f. Potential dissemination plan.
What are your plans for disseminating information related to your pedagogical experiment? All Innovation Fellows will be asked to share their experiences with their course development with the St. Edward’s community through activities sponsored by the Center for Teaching Excellence: Teaching Symposium, workshops devoted to course development, or blog posts that can aid their colleagues. Would you pursue presentations and/or publications beyond the St. Edward’s campus? Fellows are strongly encouraged to disseminate through disciplinary associations, publication, and other opportunities external to St. Edward’s University. If applicable, Innovation Fellows should apply for a presidential excellence award to develop scholarship of teaching and learning based on their experiment in the summer following their fellowship. Innovation Fellows should also plan to apply to the Institutional Review Board (IRB) in advance so that they may use surveys and other assessment data from this experiment in future presentations and publications.
4. Letter of support from your department chair with dean’s endorsement.
The letter of support from the department chair with a dean’s endorsement should indicate the following:
Departmental and school support for this course, proposal, and for the Innovation Fellowship candidate.
Confirmation that the course in question will be offered by the Innovation Fellow candidate in the 2019-2020 academic year
A committee composed of the following will review proposals and make recommendations for the selection of fellows:
Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence
Director of Instructional and Emerging Technology
The review committee follows an established review practice:
Copies of the proposals are circulated to all members of the committee for review.
Committee members read each proposal and rank them, adhering closely to the proposal criteria.
The committee then meets and holds an in-depth discussion of the top-ranked projects, leading to a final consensus decision based on both the scoring and the discussion.
Each proposal will be evaluated on the strength of the following areas:
Description of pedagogical experiment
Goals of the experiment and connection to the Holy Cross mission and strategic goals of the university
Potential contribution to general education renewal
Feasibility of the proposed experiment
Potential impact on student learning
Potential dissemination of course development process