Course Improvement Grants

Overview

The Course Improvement Grant is a professional development opportunity for faculty who are seeking to build upon their existing knowledge and skills while improving one of their online courses. The program model is collaborative and includes a cohort (group) of faculty peers and DELTA advisors working together to design a course that meets the nationally-recognized standards of the Quality Matters organization.

Who Should Participate?

Instructors of record currently teaching an online or blended course. Each participating faculty member will choose one specific course to work on.

Choose this grant if: 

• You currently teach an online or blended course
• You demonstrate strong knowledge of online course design and pedagogy
• You are ready to apply the Quality Matters Higher Education rubric to make improvements to an online course.
• You are seeking Quality Matters certification for an online/blended course

Award

$8,000 and DELTA staff assistance as part of a cohort of colleagues

What Courses are eligible?

Instructors of record currently teaching an online or blended course. Each participating faculty member will choose one specific course to work on.  

*Courses that are not eligible: Please note that face-to-face, remote learning, and web-enhanced courses in which 100% of the instruction occurs in regularly scheduled synchronous sessions (either in person at a campus location with the instructor on a regular basis or in a real-time setting mediated by technology) are NOT eligible for a Course Improvement Grant.

Length and Delivery

The Course Improvement Grant consists of a professional development course that runs from September to April and is delivered in a blended (hybrid) format. The total time commitment expected for the program is at least 60 hours.

Services Provided

• Support for applying research-based course design strategies to an existing online, for-credit course at NC State
• Guidance with improving an existing course based on nationally recognized standards of high-quality courses
• Assistance with official submission for a Quality Matters course review

Grant Expectations 

• Participating in and successfully completing the “Applying the Quality Matters Rubric” workshop
• Engaging throughout the grant cycle which is September through April
• Completing the online asynchronous assignments
• Participating in regularly scheduled cohort and advising meetings via Zoom
• Contributing to internal peer review
• Delivering the redesigned course at least three times
• Submitting the course for an official Quality Matters review
• Spending funds within the current fiscal year and in accordance with all deadlines established by the university and the respective college and department. Awards are state-appropriated funds and are subject to all applicable university, college, and departmental rules. Applicants should contact their unit’s budget officer for specifics on spending. Please see the DELTA Grant Funds section on our FAQs page for more information.

Competitive Priorities

Priority consideration is given to applications that:

• Show evidence of best practices in their course-level learning objectives (we recommend taking approximately 30-45 minutes to complete the self-paced module, Identifying Learning Objectives for Your Course, to produce the best possible set of learning objectives.)
• Seek to improve student success as defined by the NC State Strategic Plan
• Align with the strategic goals of the college or division that the PI represents
• Benefit more than one course or faculty member
• Demonstrate support from the department and/or college
• Include a clear plan for ongoing assessment of student learning
• Impact multiple, and preferably all, sections of a course.
• Indicate a flexible schedule to attend the scheduled cohort synchronous Zoom meetings
• Indicate completion of one or more Teaching Online Pathways

Getting Ready to Apply