2020-2021 Provost’s General Education Course Enhancement Grant Competition
Teach what excites you! Connect your discipline and expertise with General Education!
The General Education Course Enhancement Grant Competition is designed to promote the ongoing enhancement of UConn’s General Education curriculum through the development of new courses or the revision of existing courses.
Priorities of this year’s competition In an effort to improve course availability in the curriculum, we encourage proposals addressing priorities listed below. Please note, however, that proposals for any General Education course development will be considered and will be favorably viewed if they are deemed to enhance General Education offerings. Submissions are especially sought for:
1) Courses that focus on the critical exploration of racism and colonialism; that promote antiracist and decolonial pedagogies; and that encourage students to take active roles in initiatives related to equity and social justice
2) Courses that integrate lessons learned from the switch to online learning due to the pandemic (including best practices in online education, flipped classrooms, etc.)
3) Environmental Literacy (EL) courses
4) Courses that emphasize Life-Transformative Education practices (https://lte.uconn.edu/about/), integrative learning or incorporate high-impact practices
5) Courses that critically examine the role of governments, scientists, research, pharma corporations, and/or the roles and responsibilities of citizens in protecting the public health
Approvals All proposals require department head or program director approval. Note that receiving a Provost’s General Education Course Enhancement Grant does not guarantee approval of the course by GEOC or other curriculum committees; all General Education course action requests must still be submitted and approved by one or more departments, schools or colleges, GEOC, the Senate Curricula and Courses Committee, and the University Senate.
Awards Awards are for one year and may vary from $1,000 to $7,500 per proposal. The award may be applied to a buyout of semester salary, summer salary, course-related expenses, or to a faculty member’s ledger 2 research account. This amount is inclusive of fringe benefits and a budget form is required to justify proposed expenses. If additional funding is needed, awardees may reapply to the competition for the same course within two academic years of their first award, i.e. a proposer who is awarded in AY 2020-21 can reapply in AY 2021-22 or AY 2022-23.
Proposal Deadline December 4, 2020.
Who May Apply Regular tenured, tenure-track, and non-tenure-track full-time faculty from any University of Connecticut campus may apply. This program is open to faculty in all disciplines. An application may be submitted by one or more individuals, but must have the written commitment of support, including teaching assistantships if required, of a sponsoring program or department. The department(s) must agree to offer the course every year or every other year for at least five years at one or more of the UConn campuses.
Evaluation Criteria The proposal may focus on significantly enhancing the content or pedagogy of an existing course or developing a new course. It should very clearly explain how the course meets UConn’s broad goals of general education as well as the specific criteria for the given content area(s) (Arts & Humanities; Social Sciences; Science & Technology; Diversity & Multiculturalism), competencies (W, Q), and/or literacies (EL) as described in UConn’s General Education Guidelines.
Proposals will be judged on the following main criteria:
- clarity of the project’s objectives
- relevance of the objectives for the General Education curriculum, both the overall purpose of the curriculum as well as the criteria specific to the content area, competency, or literacy
- enhancement of the General Education curriculum
- innovative or creative elements
- potential for serving as model for significant change in General Education
- plan for evaluation of student learning
- appropriateness of budget.
While a syllabus for new courses is not required, any specifics regarding course design are helpful in considering the fit of the project to criteria. Other criteria that will be viewed favorably in judging proposals are availability on regional campuses, open to non-majors, large classes, and those that are directed at the priority areas. Lists of winners and examples of successful proposals from previous competitions can be found here.
Proposal Format and Submission Please follow the required proposal format, which can be found here. Each proposal should include:
1) a maximum three-page* (at least 12 point font, 1 inch margins) description of the project, including:
- a clear statement of the project’s relation to General Education requirements (broad and specific)
- course objectives (including student learning outcomes)
- a plan for the assessment of student learning, potentially including a preliminary syllabus, reading list, and/or list of topics covered, etc.
(*Note: the Proposal Template is 2 pages, so a total of 5 pages if the questions are left in)
2) a budget form that gives a reasonably detailed explanation of how funds will be used, including whether there is an additional source of support for course development; and
3) a statement of support from the appropriate program director(s) or department head(s) [an email is fine].
An electronic copy of the proposal should be sent to geoc@uconn.edu with the Subject Line “Provost’s General Education Course Enhancement Grant.”
Evaluation Committee Proposals will be reviewed by a committee of faculty and representatives from GEOC subcommittees, the Instructional Design and Development Group in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and a pool of previous competition winners.
Requirements for Awarded Proposals Faculty who receive funding for their proposal will be required to attend the awards reception for current winners, submit a Curriculum Action Request (CAR) form and full syllabus for the course approval process, attend a GEOC meeting to report on course progress, and submit a final report by the specified deadline. Awardees will also be encouraged to avail themselves of Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning resources in instructional design.
Timetable
Submission Deadline – December 4, 2020
Awards announced – January 2021
Funding for any supply requests paid out to awardees – By April/May 2021
Summer salary paid out to awardees who requested it – May/June 2021
Course Action Request forms submitted to GEOC – By March 2022
Progress report due – Spring or Fall 2022
Course taught for the first time – April 2022
Final report due – Fall 2023
Contact For further information, contact Manuela Wagner (Chair, General Education Oversight Committee) at manuela.wagner@uconn.edu.
For more information, contact: Manuela Wagner at manuela.wagner@uconn.edu