STONY BROOK ONLINE LEARNING DEVELOPMENT (S-BOLD) INITIATIVE
2015-16 Stony Brook Online Learning Development (S-BOLD) Initiative
Program Description
The President and Provost of Stony Brook University, in support of the continuing evolution of educational excellence for our students and the world, have established the Stony Brook Online Learning Development Initiative (S-BOLD), funded initially for four years at a level of $250,000 per year. The goals of the initiative are to:
- leverage online channels and technology to enhance and support SBU’s educational mission;
- improve the quality, flexibility and accessibility of SBU education to better serve the needs of residential, commuter and nontraditional students;
- become a leader in pedagogical innovation to enhance teaching and learning outcomes
- enhance SBU’s brand and global reach.
The initiative seeks new and innovative proposals to develop both online and blended-learning courses and/or tools that offer special opportunities for learners at Stony Brook University and beyond. We envision online education as a tool to improve student learning experience and to enable faculty to transform the one-to-many lecturing mode to more innovative and interactive endeavors with students. The call of this round’s competition focuses on two categories: large courses and those with interactive/hands-on/collaborative/experiential learning (see Section on Categories for more details). Proposers are encouraged to be creative in how to use online resources to free-up lecture time for the use of interactive/hands-on/collaborative/experiential learning in large courses.
A successful proposal must have significant curricular impact and advance understanding of effective practices for online learning. In 2015-2016, the initiative will continue to give preference to proposals that address time-to-graduation and graduation rates which will be in place by fall 2016, spring 2017, or summer 2017. Foundational courses that lead to degree completion and efforts that increase timely success in such courses are particularly sought.
To increase impact across different sectors and academic units, the initiative will give preference to courses that have not previously received funding from S-BOLD in the 2014-15 round.
Review Criteria
Impact: How will the proposed project affect Stony Brook students? How will they benefit? How many students will benefit? How will it affect graduation rates?
Institutional Context: How do the goals for the proposal support the goals of S-BOLD and of Stony Brook University? Is there institutional support beyond S-BOLD for the proposal? How will this proposal, if successful, be sustained in terms of policy, curriculum, and finances? How would it be scalable with enrollment over time?
Feasibility: What is the timeline for fulfilling this proposal? What are the resources, including technical requirements, that are necessary to fulfill this proposal? Are these resources currently available or, if not, plausibly able to be acquired within the proposed timeline?
Assessment / Quality: Are the outcomes of this proposal measurable? For a course, are there clear and measurable outcomes designed into the course? What assessments will be used to measure and improve the quality of the course in achieving those outcomes? For a tool or resource, is there a clear way to measure its contribution to the student-oriented goals of S-BOLD? In what learning contexts (for example, in which specific courses) can this tool or resource be used to meet S-BOLD’s goals?
Categories: Proposals are accepted in one or both of the following categories:
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Large courses with projected enrollment of at least 200 students.
As there is currently little faculty-student interaction in large lecture courses, online lectures can be used to replace traditional brick-and-mortar classroom lectures with projected cumulative total of at least 200 students. Funding from S-BOLD can be used for the creation of these online lectures. These courses can be existing courses (see advisory list appended at the end of this proposal) or new courses providing foundations for various majors or fulfilling the Stony Brook Curriculum (SBC) that are scalable and can potentially benefit a large number (200 or more) of students. Faculty are encouraged to propose creative online alternatives to free-up lecture time for more interactive learning – such as meeting with students in small groups with help from graduate or undergraduate teaching assistants.
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Online/Blended courses and resources for Hands-on/Collaborative/Experiential Learning.
We seek innovative solutions to launch online/blended courses that consist of significant online collaboration and hands-on components. Courses in this category usually have a significant online collaboration component, virtual learning spaces, or involve interactive, inquiry-based online and/or virtual laboratory/hands-on simulations and exercises. We also seek proposals that develop innovative online resources (tools, activities, etc.) that support experiential learning. Ideally, these resources can be used to support a large number of students or will be available to multiple courses, thus creating substantial impact.
Award Information
Awards will be made at three levels in order to encourage small (up to $10,000), medium ($10,000-25,000), and large ($25,000-50,000) projects. There is no fixed ratio of the different levels and categories of awards.
Timeline:
| Letters of Intent: | Due Monday, Nov 16, 2015 |
| Announcement of Letters of Intent Review: | Friday, Dec 18, 2015 |
| Full Proposal Due: | Friday, March 4, 2016, 5:00pm |
| Award Announcement: | Mid April, 2016 |
Proposal Preparation and Review Process
LETTER OF INTENT (Due Monday, November 16, 2015)
The online LOI will require (1) the name and title of the proposer and (2) a brief description of the project including (a) the course number and/or, for a tool, courses it will improve, (b) the likely impact on student success such as graduation rate and time to graduation and a plan for measuring those effects, (c) a preliminary accounting of the resources needed, and (d) a draft timeline including completion date (250 word maximum). The timeline should specify delivery in fall 2016, spring 2017, or summer 2017. In order to prepare an LOI, proposers are advised to consult with TLT and administrators who can help develop the proposal and/or specify and price resources that may be needed or available to fulfill the proposal. The LOI must be accompanied by a Letter of Endorsement (LOE) from the proposer’s Chair or Program Director and an LOE from the proposer’s Dean. Each of these letters must explain the utility and desirability of the proposed project for the evaluator’s unit and support the proposer’s pursuing the project in the proposed timeline. The LOI and LOEs should be submitted electronically to s-bold@stonybrook.edu
REVIEW OF LOIs AND INVITATIONS TO FULL PROPOSAL ROUND
LOIs will be reviewed by a panel of faculty, staff, and students on the categories of Impact, Institutional Contexts and Assessment/Quality. The feasibility criteria will be evaluated by staff members at TLT.
Proposers will receive questions and comments from the review panels to assist them in the preparation of full proposals at the completion of the LOI reviews. TLT will also conduct workshops to help proposers in the development of full proposals in December 2015 and January 2016. More information on the dates and times of workshops will be forthcoming.
FULL PROPOSAL (Friday, March 4, 2016, at 5:00pm)
The proposals should include: (1) A brief narrative (250 words maximum) of the project; this description may vary from that in the LOI to take account of any suggestions made by the review panel in response to the LOI. (2) A brief description (100 words maximum) of the impact of the project on student success, including graduation rate and time to graduation. (3) A detailed project timeline. (4) A detailed, annotated budget. It is highly recommended that proposers consult with TLT staff in setting up the budget. (5) An assessment plan. It is highly recommended that proposers consult with Assessment staff in setting up an assessment plan. Full proposals should also be submitted electronically via an e-mail to s-bold@stonybrook.edu
REVIEW OF FULL PROPOSALS
All full proposals submitted in response to this initiative will be reviewed by a panel of administrators and faculty with input from TLT on the feasibility criteria. The panel will forward its recommendations to the President and Provost who make the final selection.
Awards will be announced in mid-April 2016.
Supporting Documents
- Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
- S-BOLD Letter of Intent (LOI) Template (PDF) (Word)
- S-BOLD License Agreement (PDF) (Word)
- S-BOLD Terms of Award Letter (PDF) (Word)
- S-BOLD Full Proposal Template (PDF) (Word)
- S-BOLD Full Proposal Guidelines (PDF)
- S-BOLD Technology Checklist (PDF) (Word)
- TLT Service Rate (Google Docs)
Advisory List of Candidate Courses
A list of possible candidate courses for S-BOLD 2015-16 was identified based on enrollments during AY 2014-15, space considerations, High Demand/Controlled Access Courses (HD/CA), major requirements for high enrollment majors, and student success rates. This list is not exhaustive in scope as they were identified based on enrollment history and student success rates. Other courses not listed may still meet the criteria for impact. Faculty members are invited to contact the Associate Provost for Online Education, Wendy Tang, at wendy.tang@stonybrook.edu and 631 632-7012 to discuss their ideas prior to submission of LOIs.
2014-15 Awards
The announcement of 2014-15 awards can be found here.