University Letter

UND's faculty and staff newsletter

Summer Instructional Development Project grant applications due March 1

The Office of Instructional Development and the Faculty Instructional Development Committee (FIDC) award Summer Instructional Development Projects (SIDP) to faculty working on innovative instructional projects. The projects are intended to support instructional development that has the potential to improve the quality of student learning and academic success at UND and goes beyond normal course development. In 2016-17 with the support of the Academic Deans, the FIDC seeks to encourage broader engagement in the process of curricular improvement by offering Summer Instructional Development Project Clusters to groups of at least three faculty members who form a cohort group to work on multiple course developments.

These groups of faculty can align in one (or more) of the following ways:

1) A cohort from a single discipline or academic unit could work together to embed common themes across that discipline’s curriculum (e.g.diversity, quantitative reasoning, sustainability, leadership, integrity) or to improve the alignment between multiple courses (e.g.an intro course, a required 200 level course, and a capstone).A cohort of faculty within the same college might seek alignment among courses that serve multiple majors and which may be taught individually or collaboratively by faculty from multiple departments.An interdisciplinary group of faculty might design courses that cross programs.

2) A cohort of faculty might seek to improve certain common types of classes or common outcomes that they want to embed in courses that already exist in the curriculum (e.g,scaffolding student writing or data analytic skills across courses, embedding specific assignments or experiences in courses that give academic structure to internships or study abroad).

3) A cohort of faculty might collaboratively seek to apply a specific pedagogical approach (e.g experiential learning, inquiry-based learning, game-based learning, undergraduate research) or use effective pedagogical approaches with comparable teaching resources (e.g. collaborative online international learning, active learning classrooms, distance technologies, Open Educational Resources).

Full program information is available on the OID webpage.

NOTE: Deans have collegewide learning outcomes they are seeking to advance through this funding. Please contact your dean’s office regarding their priorities.

Groups are also encouraged to consider applying to the FIDC for travel funds to support their pedagogical development around this project.