Introduction to Award

The Office of Distance and Extended Learning in the Division of Academic Affairs is pleased to announce the annual Award for Excellence in Online Teaching.

The award recipient will receive $2500, and up to two additional awardees will receive $1250 at a recognition reception. All recipients will be asked to present their work to the campus community.

The awardees may be asked to assume a leadership role in promoting online instruction at Texas State and serve on the award selection committee.

Purpose of Award

The award will recognize and reward superior online teaching, provide models of excellence for fellow faculty, and encourage all faculty to continue to improve and advance their online teaching pedagogy. 

Nomination Process

• View the Rubric for Excellence in Online Teaching. You will address this rubric when completing the nomination form and documentation, and the award selection committee will use it to judge the entries.
• To nominate yourself for the award, you will complete a nomination form for one online course you are teaching in spring, summer, or fall 2012. (Note: The online submission system, which will be accessed via Texas State's ePortfolio system, will open on June 1, 2012 so that faculty may build and upload nomination documents over time.)
• Submit the nomination form along with the following documentation starting June 1, 2012. Refer to the timeline below. For information about each of these requirements, refer to the Documentation Guidelines.
  • Statement of philosophy for teaching online
  • Online course materials via a TRACS project site
  • Recorded presentation describing how the course meets award criteria
  • Student feedback on course effectiveness
  • Documentation of interaction among students, materials, and instructor
  • Evidence that students have met course objectives

Nomination forms that do not include the documentation outlined above will not be considered. It is strongly recommended, therefore, that nominees solicit feedback from the Office of Distance and Extended Learning in preparing their materials.

Submission Directions

Nomination Form
You will log into Texas State's ePortfolio system to complete your nomination form and attach the supporting documentation (i.e., statement of philosophy, recorded presentation, summary of student feedback data, documentation of interaction, and evidence that students have met course objectives).

By June 1, 2012, we will have the login URL and information about how to access the nomination form. We will announce via an email to all faculty when this information is available.

TRACS Project Site
Import your TRACS course site to a project site. Select Add Participants in Site Info and enter evaluator as the username. Assign evaluator the instructor role.

Timeline

• Accept nomination form and documentation: June 1, 2012—February 15, 2013
• Judge entries: February 15, 2013—April, 2013
• Announce award recipients: May 2013

Eligibility Criteria

To be eligible to receive an award, faculty members must

• Teach a minimum of half time and/or have a continuing appointment
• Teach course(s) that are 50% or more online

Award Criteria

The award will be based exclusively on work conducted while serving a teaching appointment at Texas State University. The criteria for the award include

• Quality of the online course
• Quality of delivering online instruction
• Sustained commitment to ongoing professional development in online teaching

How Your Submission Will Be Evaluated

• Rubric: 80%
• Philosophy statement: 10%
• Evidence that course objectives are met: 10%

Award Selection Committee

The Distance and Extended Learning Steering Committee will appoint a selection committee. The committee will be comprised of the following:

• Two faculty with demonstrated online teaching experience (may be filled using previous award recipients)
• Two ITS instructional designers
• One representative of the Office of Distance and Extended Learning
• Academic administrator