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Purpose
The Quality of Instruction Council
(QIC) provides up to ten summer stipends of up to $3,500 (taxable) to compensate full-time faculty engaged in intensive curricular endeavors other than teaching. Summer stipends are intended to foster pedagogical excellence in DePaul's degree-credit curriculum by supporting faculty members' summer work on curricular planning or pedagogical design, as well as intellectual development in new areas explicitly required by the curricular needs of a department or college. Creativity in course design, experimentation with new pedagogical approaches, and new uses of instructional technology are encouraged.
Because all faculty members are expected to develop new courses from time to time and to revise existing syllabi on a regular basis, the Council grants summer stipends only to faculty members engaged in projects demanding unusual effort. Applicants requesting support for developing a single course need to demonstrate why the activity goes beyond normal course development.
This program is intended to supplement, not replace, summer support options available through college offices and external fellowships. Applicants are also advised to meet with the Office of Sponsored Programs and Research for assistance in identifying external funding options.
Application Deadline
The application deadline is February 1. Late applications cannot be considered.
Eligibility
Full-time faculty of DePaul University are eligible to request a summer stipend, provided that they have no Council-supported leave during the academic year preceding or following the summer of the stipend. Summer stipends are restricted to faculty returning to the University in an active full-time capacity during the next academic year. Grant recipients, who have overspent their grants, will not be eligible until the overage is resolved.
The stipend is to support full-time engagement in the project over the course of the summer. Faculty members may not teach more than one course during the summer and receive a QIC summer stipend. Faculty members who receive both internal and federal summer support may not exceed legal limits on compensation. Faculty members are not eligible for summer stipends from QIC in two consecutive summers.
Online Course Development:
Full-time faculty have the option to apply for QIC support through the Competitive Instructional Program or through the Summer Stipend program. The Competitive Instructional Grant covers expenses associated with developing a new course for delivery. The Summer Stipends Program provides a faculty member “time” via salary support to develop an online course for delivery. However, unlike the traditional Summer Stipend request, faculty may also apply at the October 15 or March 15 grant deadlines. All stipends are paid during the summer.
This new initiative recognizes that online course development can be exceptionally time consuming due to the need to digitize content involving the creation of animations, simulations, and learning objects. Applicants should specify the nature of the work that exceeds normal course development using such metrics as the number of resources and number of hours that will be required. Applicants are also required to consult with IDD regarding quality standards for online courses (e.g., the Quality Matters Rubric) and address those standards in their course evaluation plan.
This program does not reimburse faculty for online courses already completed or for courses developed with support from DePaul Online Teaching Series (DOTS). It is appropriate to apply for moving traditional courses to the online environment when significant effort will be required to prepare the course. An endorsement letter from the department chair should document the importance of the course to curricular offerings and confirm that the department/college does not pay for course development or provide release time.
Budget
Summer Stipends provide only salary support, and so it is not necessary for applicants to submit a budget with the proposal. Partial stipends of less than $3,500 may be requested if the applicant has previous time commitments for the summer months and will not be able to work full-time on the project.
Review Criteria
Please see the General Guidelines for the review and evaluation criteria.
Requests for Summer Stipends are evaluated according to four primary criteria:
- likelihood that the project will improve teaching or strengthen curricular offerings and improve student learning in degree-credit programs at DePaul;
- breadth of applicability at DePaul;
- academic and intellectual quality of the project;
- propriateness of workplan to the project and in relation to other commitments, including summer teaching.
Applicants planning new courses should submit a letter of support from their chair or dean, as appropriate, indicating that the new course has been approved for inclusion in the curriculum or that such approval is anticipated. Applicants planning substantial revision of an existing course are not required to submit a letter of support.
All proposals are reviewed anonymously; applicants should remove all identifying references.
Final Report
Recipients of a summer stipend from the Council must submit a brief progress report (1-2 pages double-spaced) to the Council by October 1. The report should address the activities conducted during the summer and the achievement of the planned outcomes. Failure to submit a report will result in faculty being ineligible for future funding from the councils. A final report is required before a second request for funding the same or related project. The final report will be distributed to the council with the second funding request.
University Policies
Any published work resulting from activities supported by a summer stipend must include credit to DePaul University for support.
Outline of Proposal
All proposals must be in an editable text format. Only the CV may be submitted in PDF format.
A complete online application will include the following:
1. An abstract of the project, not more than 10 lines long. This should be a summary of your project.
2. List of recent, current, or pending grants or fellowships relating to your proposed summer project. Please indicate if you wish your Summer Stipend to be contingent upon some condition or some other form of support.
3. A clear, concise and complete description of the project you will undertake or course/curriculum you will develop. Highlight the significance of your work and indicate specifically how you expect it to improve the quality of instruction at DePaul. The narrative should not be longer than 5 double-spaced pages in no less than 11 point font and should include: a statement of objectives; a description of why the new course is needed in the context of the current curricular offerings;
- an explanation of how your project goes beyond normal course development responsibility;
- a statement of how these activities fit with your scholarship and teaching focus;
- a description of your assessment of the course or project (see AAHE's "Principles of Good Practice" for further guidance);
- a workplan with timeline, including other relevant time commitments (e.g., teaching, travel) and how you plan to complete the project given these commitments.
You may emphasize aspects of your experience that bear on this application, but do not include any obvious self-identifying references. This is a competitive program in which proposals are reviewed anonymously.
4. All applications should include a letter of support from the chair or dean.
5. A complete and current curriculum vitae. This will not be circulated to the Council but will be retained by the Chair for reference.
Submit an online application to the Chair of the Quality of Instruction Council by February 1. |
