Grant Competition for NEW Courses 2024-2025 | Common Curriculum for Leadership and Global Citizenship

The new Common Curriculum (CC) for Leadership and Global Citizenship is launching in Fall 2025, and the time has come to develop new courses for the CC Topics of Inquiry (TOIs). (For details of the approval, please see the University Senate CCC+ page).

There will be two separate grant competitions this year, one for revising existing courses that will transition to TOIs, and one for proposing brand new courses that will carry a TOI. This CFP is for NEW* courses. You may submit more than one grant if you want to develop more than one course.

*A “new” course is defined as one that is not currently listed in the catalog or not currently approved to be listed in the upcoming catalog. Under this definition, courses previously offered as “Special Topics” are considered “new” and are eligible for the New Course Grant.

All courses will be considered on their own merits, but we also highly encourage proposals for courses that:

Serve large numbers of students,
Are offered at multiple campuses, and/or
Fulfill the new TOI-1 Creativity: Design, Expression, Innovation area

Another area of interest is courses that might be considered for a Theme. The selection committee is interested in seeing proposals that seek to create one or more courses with the specific goal of using them in a Theme.

Proposals will be judged on the following main criteria:

Alignment of the course’s Student Learning Objectives to both the Common Curriculum Program Learning Objectives and the TOI-specific Learning Objectives
Plan for assessment of Student Learning Objectives
Innovative or creative pedagogical elements
Appropriateness for the Common Curriculum (i.e. courses at the introductory levels are especially encouraged.)

Proposal Submission

Each proposal should include:

Thorough but concise answers to the questions in the proposal form (see supplied form on the right for technical guidelines and requirements). Please use your judgement for length and formatting.
An emailed statement of support (see template) from the department or unit head of each dept/unit involved (i.e. a course that is cross-listed with another department should have two statements of support, etc.).

Who Can Submit

Full-time tenure and non-tenure track faculty with the permission of their department head can submit proposals. Proposals from adjunct faculty or graduate students are generally not accepted, but an exception might be made under special circumstances and with written approval of the department head prior to the grant deadline.

Due Date

Proposals are due by 11:59pm on November 22, 2024.

Award Amount

Based on past ‘lessons learned,’ we are handling funding differently this year. Please note:

ALL awards are for $6000, no more, no less. Any proposal funded will receive that amount.
In the past, the award amount has been inclusive of fringe. That is, the amount listed included fringe so the base stipend was less than the award amount. This year, the $6000 is the base stipend, and fringe will be added on top of that.
Funding will automatically be applied toward summer salary for anyone receiving an award, so there is no longer a budget form for this grant.
Proposals with multiple awardees can divide the funding amongst them however they wish, or the funding can also be applied to salary for student labor. The faculty member’s home department is responsible for processing HR paperwork for student labor.
Faculty have the option to transfer their award to their faculty research account instead of it being used toward summer salary. Please note that – per HR – the award is not transferred to the account until the end of the grant period.
If faculty wish to use their award to buy supplies, they may do so, but the supplies will need to either be purchased with summer salary or through research account funds.

Submission

An electronic copy of the proposal should be sent to commoncurr@uconn.edu with the Subject Line “New Course Proposal - Provost’s Common Curriculum Grant.” Emails of support can be sent separately, but please be advised that proposals will not be considered for funding until the emails of support are received.

Evaluation Committee

Proposals will be reviewed by a committee of faculty and representatives from CCC+ subcommittees, the Instructional Design and Development Group in the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, and colleagues with expertise in related areas.

Requirements for Awarded Proposals

Faculty who receive funding for their proposal will still need to submit a Curriculum Action Request (CAR) form and full syllabus for the course approval process. CARs must be submitted in the system by September 1, 2025.

Awardees are also required to attend an in-person Course Design and Development Retreat on May 14, 2025, and will be encouraged to avail themselves of other Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning resources in instructional design.

Timeline

Submission Deadline – November 22, 2024
Awards announced – By the end of January 2025
Mandatory Course Design Retreat – May 14, 2025
Summer salary paid out to awardees – Summer 2025
Course Action Request forms submitted in the system – By September 1, 2025
Course fully approved by University Senate before February 5, 2026
Course taught for the first time – AY 26-27

Contact

Email Karen McDermott at karen.mcdermott@uconn.edu or commoncurr@uconn.edu with any technical questions. For pedagogical questions, contact Pamela Bedore at pamela.bedore@uconn.edu.

Call for Proposals