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Request for Proposals
Chicago State University - University of Illinois at Springfield
Online Teaching Partnership

Over the past four years, the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE) through a Higher Education Cooperation Act (HECA) grant has funded a continuing collaboration between UIS and CSU. UIS, through the Office of Technology-Enhanced Learning (OTEL), has assisted CSU in developing its online presence that has promoted an increase in the numbers of students able to navigate the web to seek information related to most all disciplines as they pursue and complete credit bearing courses. UIS provided training and development workshops both in Chicago and in Springfield for CSU faculty and staff members on topics including online learning tools, techniques, technologies and best practices in the use of specialized software to enhance Web instruction. This year Northeastern Illinois University through the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) joins the Online Teaching Partnership in providing additional expertise and skill in promoting collaborative opportunities to the faculty and students of all three unique universities.

The success of the first year of collaborations between the CSU Office of Distance Learning (ODL) and OTEL has led to continuation of the project to encourage faculty members at the three institutions to collaborate in the use of these technologies, learn effective practices from one another, and enable their students to share a common learning environment in which diverse perspectives and experiences could be exchanged. Most recently, the IBHE has announced refunding of that proposal (albeit at a reduced level) for online mentoring and collaboration between UIS, CSU and NEIU faculty members. The HECA grant proposal states:

‘In addition to the workshops for online learning tools, CSU, UIS and NEIU propose to form an "Online Teaching Partnership." This partnership will identify those faculty members who not only wish to mentor faculty members who desire assistance in developing an online course, but who wish to collaborate at a distance in the instruction of a diverse student body with topics that may cross disciplines and environments (urban vs. rural).

The model for this mentoring and/or collaboration will be the joining of selected classes for all or part of the term in shared online environments – such as Blackboard and Elluminate.  Students will enroll in classes at their respective institutions; faculty members will be responsible for the grading, advising and assessment of their own students’ work. The shared online environment will enable scalable levels of team-teaching to be determined by the faculty members involved, including modeling and mentoring of effective practices by the experienced faculty member. The shared class environment will provide the opportunity for students from each institution to communicate, collaborate and work together through projects, discussions and other assignments.

A limited number of stipends are available to support faculty members participating in this initiative. Proposals will be reviewed and awarded in the order in which they are received.

Goals for this project are threefold:

1. To encourage faculty members with experience and expertise in using Blackboard and other electronic tools to facilitate learning to mentor less-experienced faculty members teaching analogous classes at the other institution. It is hoped that this will lead to continuing and expanded collaborations between faculty members at all three universities.
2. To encourage greater diversity in synchronous and asynchronous class discussions at the two institutions through shared Blackboards, joined Elluminate sessions, and the use of other technologies and techniques to enable students at the three institutions to interact and share diverse perspectives with one another as part of their class exercises and activities.
3. To propose, implement and evaluate a series of instructional models for online instruction where learning is measured to determine most effective practices to improve student outcomes. Studies of most effective practices may be reported at local and national meetings and published in peer-reviewed journals.

CSU/UIS Online Teaching Partnership for mentoring/collaboration of online Courses. Direct payment stipends from CSU’s HECA award in an amount up to $1,000 will be granted to selected faculty members with proposals for collaborations in classes in which all (or nearly all) class meetings and materials will be held jointly through Blackboard and/or Elluminate. 

• Mentors and mentees for online class collaborations will receive stipends in the same monetary amounts from the grant.
  

Campus-based classes Collaborating at a Distance using Blackboard and Elluminate.  In these cases, it is anticipated that the classes will meet via synchronous Elluminate and/or via asynchronous Blackboard-facilitated discussions, group projects, or presentations at least several times during the semester (either as a single module or two, or scattered through the term). 

• Direct payment stipends in the amount of $500 will be granted to selected faculty members with proposals for collaborations of classes at different universities in which only several class sessions (rather than the entire class) will be held through Blackboard and/or Elluminate.
   

Preliminary Steps to Respond to the RFP

This initiative requires the teaming up of faculty members from two or three institutions. Responses must come from two or three faculty members, each at a different university (UIS, CSU and NEIU). The faculty team members must:

1. Identify faculty member(s) at one or more institutions with whom the proposed mentoring partnership will be made. A website has been constructed to facilitate this pairing. http://online.uis.edu/partners/csu/index.htm. At this site you will be able to post information about yourself, and the class(es) that you teach. You may select your collaborative interest(s) or focus(es).
2. Identify the class(es) that is (are) scheduled to be offered at your institution in which the mentoring and/or collaboration would take place.
3. The faculty member team (2 or 3) will determine the extent (number of sessions, topics etc.) to which this class will be shared. For example, will this be an entire, semester-long sharing of a single Blackboard Course shell for the delivery of all class materials with some Elluminate sessions to enable synchronous interactions? In that case, the proposal will be eligible for up to $1,000 stipends for each of the faculty members. Or, will it be a sharing of a portion of the semester, perhaps a module or two? In that case the proposal will be eligible for $500 stipends for each of the faculty members.
4. Although it is anticipated that, as with most effective mentoring experiences all parties will benefit, the faculty members must identify which (more experienced) faculty member will serve in the lead mentor role in the collaboration.

Responding to the RFP

Responses to the RFP will be in the form of a one or two page proposal sent by faculty member team to Ray Schroeder of UIS OTEL (rschr1@uis.edu) and Julian Scheinbuks (jscheinb@csu.edu) of CSU ODL and Anthony Pina (a-pina@neiu.edu). The proposals will identify:

1. The role of each faculty member (mentor / mentee).
2. The classes to be shared.
3. The extent of sharing anticipated; i.e. number of weeks, percentage of classes.
4. The number of projects.
5. Identify any special elements of class collaborations.
6. Proposed interactions that may be relevant.

Each faculty member selected will submit a final report containing a summary of outcomes and reflections at the end of the collaboration period. The submission of a final report is required prior to payment of a stipend.

The proposals will be reviewed by a committee consisting of three representatives from each institution. Proposals will be reviewed in the order in which they are received.

Selection Criteria

1. Extent of experience of the identified mentor in use of Blackboard and other online tools to be employed
2. Expression of interest in establishing partnerships (especially mentoring) in the use of Blackboard and other online tools
3. Extent of collaboration proposed including the potential for meaningful engagement and interaction of students from the participating institutions
4. Clarity in vision in preparation of the proposal – arrangements for sharing responsibilities, identification of particular areas of mentoring emphasis, etc.
5. A description of how web-based student learning experiences will be measured and assessed.