Mini-Project Grants

Each year, the Office of Instructional Development and the Faculty Instructional Development Committee (FIDC) fund a number of Summer Mini-Project Grants designed to support faculty working on significant teaching/assessment projects that go beyond normal course preparation and can be completed in 1-2 weeks of full-time effort during the summer. Projects may relate to individual classes or to department/program needs. For example:

• designing a major class project
• assembling web-based resources for a class or program
• analyzing data collected in conjunction with the department's assessment plan

Grants will range from $1000-$2000, depending on the size of the project, and are paid as salary stipends. Applicants are expected to meet university guidelines regarding payment for faculty overload.

Note: Because of funding restrictions, work on Mini-Projects must be done before the end of the fiscal year, June 30.

Eligibility

All faculty are eligible to apply for a mini-grant (GTAs and visiting professors are not eligible). Faculty must commit to spending 1-2 weeks of full-time summer work on their projects. Applicants who have held mini-project grants in the past may apply again, but priority will be given to those who have not had recent support. Note: If you have a Final Report overdue, you are ineligible for additional OID funding until the report is submitted.

Criteria

Projects will be evaluated according to the following four criteria:

1. Addresses a Significant Need or Opportunity
   What is the need or opportunity? How significant is it? Is this a unique opportunity in that the situation or person is right to accomplish the work now?
2. Proposed Work Requires a Time Investment Beyond Routine Planning
   How much time appears necessary for this work? Is the work above and beyond "routine" course/curriculum planning? Is this the sort of project that's best tackled with an uninterrupted period of one to two weeks full-time work?
3. Promises Significant Impact on Student Learning
   How would this project be beneficial to student learning? Is the benefit likely significant? In what sense can this project be considered "course/curriculum development" or assessment? Is this a project that should be shared beyond your academic unit?
4. Includes a Plan for Assessing Results
   How do you intend to evaluate the outcome of the project? How will you know the proposed project has met the need or opportunity identified in the earlier section? How are you going to assess student learning that occurs as a result of your project? How persuasive will the data be?

 Proposal Format

Proposals should be clear, complete & well organized with the following three sections (in this order):

I. A Cover Sheet.

II. A Project Description that addresses the following four criteria listed above. Please use these headings to organize this section.

1. Significant Need or Opportunity
   Clearly describe the need or opportunity addressed by the proposed Mini-Grant Project. Provide all relevant background information. For projects focused on courses this should include information such as course name, how often offered, how many students, whether the course is already part of the regular curriculum or status vis-à-vis curriculum committees, etc. For projects focused on assessment this should include information such as nature of the data gathered, how much data is in hand, and how much still needs to be gathered, the importance of the assessment data to your department or program, etc. The Committee needs these details to put your proposal in context.
2. Investment of Time
   Detail your work plan. Clearly describe what you will do with your time during these 1-2 weeks of summer. What activities will you engage in? What products will you produce? If class related, how does this go beyond normal course preparation?
3. Significant Impact on Student Learning
   Clearly describe how the proposed Mini-Project will impact student learning at UND or departmental/program assessment.
4. Assessment
   How will you assess the impact of the proposed work? How will you know the proposed Mini-Project has met the need or opportunity identified in the earlier section?

III. A Supporting Letter from your Chair, showing a clear understanding of the project and the way it will contribute to the instructional goals of the department. (If you are the department chair, ask for a letter of support from your dean.) THE CHAIR'S SUPPORTING LETTER MUST COME DIRECTLY FROM THE CHAIR UNDER SEPERATE COVER. Chair's letter can be sent electronically to und.oid@email.und.edu  

COVER SHEET

* denotes required fields

Leave this field empty

*Name:		*Employee ID:
*Faculty Rank
*Department:		*Stop:
*Phone:		*Email:
Amount Requested:	$
Course Number:		Course Name:
Project Title:
Project Summary:
DOCUMENTS
Select the file you wish to upload. Once it has finished uploading, submit the form. If the form is not submitted, we will not receive the file. The Cover Sheet fields must be filled out in order to associate the file with your proposal.
Document

Application and Review Procedure

Submit the application and encompassing documents online.

One copy is sufficient. Proposals for Summer 2013 Mini-Project professorships are due by noon on April 2, 2013. Awardees are selected by the Faculty Instructional Development Committee.

Final Reports

Mini-Project Grants recipients are asked to file a brief (one paragraph) Preliminary Report on their activity upon completion of their 1-2 weeks of summer work. More comprehensive Final Reports are due by May 1st or after their project is completed. In some cases, that deadline can be extended further to allow for a more complete report.

Final Report Guidelines