Guidelines
Nomination Process
The campus community will be informed about the award and nomination process via an article in the Campus Chronicle, a campuswide email, or the Torch.
Individual faculty members or academic units may be nominated. Nominations may be made by any member of the University community (students, faculty, staff, or administrators) by notifying the dean of the appropriate college by January 24, 2025. Note: Self-nominations are encouraged. Nominators should submit a one-page nomination letter, maximum 300 words, citing the area of particular excellence (course development, pedagogy, or mentoring/advising) and concisely arguing for the faculty member’s or academic unit’s selection.
Documentation Requirements
- The dean of each college contacts the nominees and requests that they submit a one-page (front only), pedagogically-oriented CV, a recommendation letter, a narrative supporting their finalist status, and attachments of up to six pages (one-sided) of supporting evidence. In the case of academic unit finalists, no CV is necessary.
- The pedagogically-oriented CV should include articles published, presentations given, workshops attended, etc. that are related to teaching and learning. This is not necessary in the case an academic unit is a finalist.
- The recommendation letter can be written by anyone who is familiar with the nominee’s teaching. This could be a colleague, department chair, or dean. The recommendation letter is distinct from the nomination letter, and the nominee can choose the author of the recommendation letter.
- The narrative, maximum 1,000 words, should address one or more of the following areas of achievement. The nominee may focus on one area or may include examples of achievement in multiple aspects of teaching and learning without preference for either approach. The nominee could include aspects of one or more of these relevant questions:
- Course Development – What is your image of an excellent course and how is it reflected in your teaching? How is your image of course development supported by the literature on teaching and learning?
- Pedagogy – What is your image of excellent teaching and how is it reflected in your teaching? How is your image of excellent teaching supported by the literature on teaching and learning?
- Mentoring/Advising – What is your image of an excellent mentor or advisor? How is your image of mentoring/advising supported by the literature on teaching and learning?
- The narrative should indicate what makes the nominee unique and should describe how the work is supported by the scholarship of teaching and learning. The narrative should also provide concrete evidence to support the nominee’s case. The narrative could include evidence from, for example: syllabi, course assignments, course assessments, student correspondence, student evaluations, and literature on teaching and learning. The narrative should also address the criteria on the relevant rubric (PDF) and any relevant University-wide student learning objectives. Nominees should describe the formative process used to improve his or her teaching.
- The attachments (no more than six pages, one-sided) should include supporting evidence such as syllabi, course assignments, course assessments, student correspondence, student evaluations, etc. When including syllabi or student evaluations, be selective and only include those parts that are relevant to the application. The nominee may submit one video no more than five minutes in length in a format easily viewed by the committee. Please note: If more than six pages are submitted, only the first six pages will be read by the committee, and there should be connections between what is written in the narrative and what is included in the attachments. The nominee should describe how the evidence in the attachments supports the statements in the narrative.
Screening Process:
The dean of each college chooses, after consultation with the relevant screening committee, a finalist or finalists (in the case of Arts and Sciences). One finalist will be submitted from the colleges of Business, Christ College, Engineering, and Nursing and Health Professions. The College of Arts and Sciences may submit up to six finalists.
Each screening committee will be composed of three full-time faculty members and two student members. The faculty-student committee selection process is not defined by the Committee to Enhance Learning and Teaching. Colleges with small faculty numbers may elect to request faculty who serve an adjunct role within that unit to serve as members of the screening committee.
The names and nomination packet of the finalist or finalists are forwarded to the Office of the Provost by the deadline. The nomination letter (which is usually not seen by the nominee) and the recommendation letter (written by a person chosen by the nominee) must both be included in the nomination packet along with the other required documentation listed above. The Committee to Enhance Learning and Teaching will select the award recipient from the list of finalists.
Each college screening committee may choose to have the finalist(s) not selected to receive the award for teaching excellence, automatically resubmitted as a finalist during the next two successive years. After that time, however, the committee must reconsider this candidate(s) along with other new nominations.