Call for Online Course Proposals for Spring or Summer 2021
In order to prepare our instructional capacity and quality for the continuation of remote instruction beyond the winter, the campus seeks proposals from faculty to develop, on a voluntary basis, online courses to be offered in Spring or Summer 2021.
Priority will be given to course proposal submissions that address degree completion, have high enrollment, or are for types of courses (e.g., labs, studios) that have presented greater challenges in being offered remotely.
Faculty whose proposals are approved will be provided the following:
SPRING COURSE OFFERINGS
Course design and development will take place during Winter Quarter.
Senate faculty — Awardees can select one of the following two options:
1/2 course release (+);
1/2 GSR (25% time GSR for one quarter) to support the awardee’s research in recognition of their potentially lower research productivity while they are developing the course; this 1/2 GSR could be taken in any quarter from winter 2021 through summer 2021, as is most appropriate for the faculty member’s research.
Lecturers — $4,000 to be paid as a taxable lump sum payment (++).
SUMMER COURSE OFFERINGS
Summer Session 1 (5-week or 10-week courses) — Course design and development will take place during Spring Quarter.
Senate faculty — Awardees can select one of the following two options:
1/2 course release (+);
1/2 GSR (25% time GSR for one quarter) to support the awardee’s research in recognition of their potentially lower research productivity while they are developing the course; this 1/2 GSR could be taken in any quarter from winter 2021 through summer 2021, as is most appropriate for the faculty member’s research.
Lecturers — $4,000 to be paid as a taxable lump sum payment (++).
Summer Session 2 (5 week courses) — Course design and development will take place during Summer (June-July).
Senate faculty — Awardees can select one of the following two options:
$4,000 to be paid as summer salary (+++);
1/2 GSR (25% time GSR for one quarter) to support the awardee’s research in recognition of their potentially lower research productivity while they are developing the course; this 1/2 GSR could be taken in any quarter from winter 2021 through summer 2021, as is most appropriate for the faculty member’s research.
Lecturers — $4,000 to be paid as a taxable lump sum summer payment (+++).
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A committee will review all course proposals, and awardees will be expected to submit a request for online course approval to the Senate Committee on Courses of Instruction (CCI). Courses funded through this award are required to be available to students in an asynchronous mode, although they should include options for synchronous engagement via office hours, occasional meetings or discussion sections, Google Doc collaborations, study groups, and other interaction. Faculty whose proposals are awarded agree to share any materials developed through this program upon request from another UCSC instructor who is appointed to teach the same course or one that covers similar material, through the end of 2023. Faculty retain intellectual property rights of their developed course materials.
Courses will be developed in cohorts led by an instructional designer, supporting staff, and a faculty fellow. Each cohort will work together for six weeks. The first three weeks will be focused on course design, framed by a UCSC course on designing and developing online courses. The cohort will meet twice weekly in what we expect will be a meaningful learning community. The second three-week period will be used for course production. Equipment will be made available to awardees for recording lecture videos at home, or they will have limited access to filming in studios on campus. The course design and development periods follow:
Spring Offerings — Jan 19 – Feb 26
Summer Offerings: Session One (5-week and 10-week courses) — Mar 29 – May 7
Summer Offerings: session Two — Jun 7 – Jul 16 (optional: due to the tight timeline for Session Two offerings, faculty can voluntarily attend an earlier cohort or work individually with Online Education on course design and development)
We hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to participate voluntarily in a structured process that will result in creating courses that further engage our students and support learning outcomes.
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Proposal Guidelines
In no more than two pages, provide responses to the following prompts:
Describe your course, including pertinent information such as its sequence in the curriculum, frequency of offerings, enrollment, typical assessments (e.g., papers, exams, quizzes, projects), and any challenges with offering it remotely.
Explain how an online version of your course would positively impact degree completion, have high enrollment, or would help transition a challenging type of course to an online format.
Discuss how an online version of your course may present an opportunity to improve student learning outcomes.
If you are planning to offer the course in Summer Session Two, because of the extraordinarily tight schedule, please provide evidence of your previous experience with developing online courses.
Proposals are due by 10am on Thursday, January 7, 2021. You are encouraged to consult with your department or program chair prior to submitting proposals. Submit proposals to vpaa@ucsc.edu, copying your department or program chair, or college provost.
For awarded proposals, chairs will be required to confirm that courses will be offered.
Questions? — contact Michael Tassio, Director for Online Education, at mtassio@ucsc.edu.
(+) Transferred to the awardee’s department at half of the standard campus rate for a full course release; this may be most useful to awardees in departments with fractional accounting of instructional workload.
(++) Total compensation for the academic year is subject to a limit of 100% effort.
(+++) Total compensation for the summer is subject to a limit of 100% effort.