Center for Innovative
Teaching and Learning

Summer Instructional Development Fellowships

Call for Proposals

2013-14 Summer Instructional Development Fellowships (SIDF) – Special Focus: Development of Innovative Online and Hybrid Education

The Summer Instructional Development Fellowship (SIDF) program supports faculty members’ efforts to enhance student learning by encouraging innovative approaches to instruction and the development of measurable learning outcomes. The intent of the SIDF is to provide faculty members with compensation during the summer months so they can focus their full attention and energy on the proposed project.

For 2013-14, SIDF is focused on the development of innovative approaches to online and hybrid[1] education. These innovations may involve a variety of approaches to promoting high levels of student engagement in online/hybrid courses, most often including the creative blending of instructional technologies and learner-centered pedagogies. While this fellowship program will result in online course development, its more specific goal is the development of highly engaging, learner-centered online pedagogies that can serve as exemplars for the wider Indiana University community.

Examples of fundable projects include:

• Application of team-based or problem-based learning approaches to online or hybrid courses
• Use of social media to crowdsource data collection for class research projects
• Incorporation of eTexts, with collaborative annotation playing a key role in the course
• Use of wikis or other collaborative tools to foster student ownership of study guides and Q&A
• Implementation of mobile technologies that support a hybrid instructional approach
• Close integration of multimedia content and engaging learning activities
• Structured use of student performance data to provide additional content and practice

Extra attention will be given to proposals that are seeking to answer a specific challenge in disciplinary online learning and/or hold significant promise for advancing online learning in other courses at Indiana University.

The Award

The award for a Summer Instructional Development Fellowship is $8,000 per project proposal. If more than one faculty member is involved in the proposed project, they will share the fellowship award. Three-fourths ($6,000) of the fellowship award will be disbursed during the summer months when it is anticipated the bulk of the project work will occur.  The remainder of the award ($2,000) will be disbursed after the course or project is completed and the faculty member submits a report outlining the outcomes of the work.

Eligibility and Requirements

The Summer Instructional Development Fellowship is open to all full-time faculty members (tenure track and non-tenure track) on the Indiana University Bloomington campus. Recipients are expected to devote the equivalent of eight weeks full-time to their project and will not engage in teaching or administrative activities during that period. 

Fellowship recipients will take part in a Community of Practice (COP) intended to promote collaboration and shared exploration of innovative online teaching approaches. This COP will take on a hybrid format, with two face-to-face meetings and online discussions of individual and group progress. Recipients are also encouraged (but not required) to participate in CITL's Institute on Designing Online Courses (IDOC) during the summer. 

At the end of the Fall 2013 semester, recipients are required to submit a brief summary report that outlines the activities and outcomes associated with the funded project. 

In addition, SIDF recipients may be asked to participate in a CITL sponsored event(s) in order to disseminate the results of the project work to campus-wide audience.

Application Guidelines

All application materials, including recommendation letters, must be received by 5:00 p.m. on April 22^nd, 2013 to be considered. Send all materials via email to citl@indiana.edu.

A complete application consists of:

• Project proposal limited to 1,500 words. The proposal should be written in clear, effective prose, keeping in mind that the review committee most likely will be composed of individuals who are not specialists in the applicant’s field. The proposal should include a project timeline and a plan to assess the project’s impact on student learning.
• Current curriculum vitae
• Statement of the instructor’s qualifications for completing this project, including prior work with the technologies and pedagogies being applied
• Evidence of quality of teaching (i.e., a summary of student evaluations, assessment of learning outcomes, peer reviews, a brief teaching statement). Limited to five pages or less. Emphasis should be placed on online and hybrid courses as appropriate.
• Department (and/or School) support statement indicating the need for this course and the unit's willingness to offer the course being developed.

Evaluation of the Proposal

A committee consisting of faculty members and CITL consultant will review applications shortly after the submission deadline and fellowship recipients will be notified after they complete their deliberations, at the latest by May 3^rd. Members of the review committee will rate each proposal on the basis of the following criteria:

• creativity of the approach
• emphasis on student engagement and active learning
• feasibility (competence of investigator, likelihood of accomplishment, use of appropriate technologies and pedagogies)
• potential benefit of the project for the discipline and/or university
• incorporation and application of clear student learning outcomes
• departmental support (how project relates to departmental goals and other initiatives)
• clarity, detail, and coherence of projected description

Project proposals and supporting documentation should be sent via email to: citl@indiana.edu.

CITL consultants are available to discuss ideas or plans for this or any grant application you may be submitting.  Contact us to set up an appointment.