CALL FOR NOMINATIONS FOR INDIVIDUAL FACULTY AND STAFF

On behalf of the Board of Regents, the USG Office of Academic Affairs invites nominations for the Regents’ Teaching Excellence Awards for Online Teaching. This award recognizes individual faculty and staff for a strong commitment to engaged, online teaching and student success.

Criteria

The award committee will look for persuasive evidence that nominees:

• Are strongly committed to quality online teaching and learning as evidenced by teaching, service and scholarly activities designed to advance the quality of online teaching and learning.
• Use effective and innovative online teaching practices that result in student engagement, student satisfaction, and effectiveness in achieving desired learning outcomes.
• Demonstrate an extraordinary commitment to fostering the academic success of online students through the development of rapport with individual learners in and beyond the virtual classroom.
• Examine methods of assessment of student learning to inform teaching practices and reshape online courses based on an on-going and data-driven process.
• Utilize interactive strategies to promote collaboration among students.
• Exhibit a high level of instruction by using standards set by the USG such as Quality Matters.

Eligibility and Nomination Procedures

To be eligible for the Online Teaching Award, current full-time members of the teaching faculty and teaching academic staff must teach a minimum of 12 credit hours total of fully online instruction at one of the USG institutions across the previous three consecutive semesters. (That is, not 12 credit hours in each of the three previous semesters, but a total of 12 credit hours in the three previous semesters.) For this award, “online” is defined as “95% or more of the course must be delivered fully online.” Each institution is invited to submit one nomination for an individual award. Campus nomination procedures should be determined by each institution, but each nomination must be approved by the institution’s chief academic officer.

Required Documentation

Nomination portfolios should not exceed 15 pages,, including any supporting materials (1” margins, minimum 12-point font for each section below). To ensure a focused presentation, nominees should select the most compelling and relevant evidence.

Each portfolio submission must include the following components:

• A Table of Contents for the portfolio. (Note: The TOC does not count toward the 15-page limit.)
• A nomination letter from the institution’s chief academic officer. (Note: The nomination letter does not count toward the 15-page limit.)
• A condensed curriculum vitae (2-3 pages, 1” margins, minimum 12-point font) that includes a brief description of each of online course the nominee has taught at their institution in the past three years, including the semesters taught and number of sections.
• A reflective statement that summarizes the nominee’s teaching and learning philosophy, strategies, and objectives. (1 - 2 pages)
• A brief summary of 2 - 3 innovative teaching artifacts or practices used in the online environment to promote student success.
• A well-organized set of documents that provide evidence of the nominee’s online teaching and leadership excellence such as:
• data showing success of the nominee’s students
• selected components of course syllabi
• handouts
• innovative methods of assessing student learning and achievement
• summaries of recent student evaluations (can include qualitative comments from students)
• peer evaluations
• student mentoring and advising
• peer mentoring
• service and scholarship relevant to promoting online education
• A letter of support from department chair/program administrator describing the nominee’s teaching and why they are especially effective in advancing student learning.

Award Committee

A special committee composed of faculty and administrators from across the USG who are experienced in teaching and learning practices will review the nomination portfolios and recommend finalists for each award.

Note: All documents must be combined into a SINGLE pdf file and uploaded through the Regents Portfolio Submission System. Portfolios that exceed 15 pages or do not meet formatting requirements will not be accepted.