Eligibility:

Individual MSU faculty and staff, or teams of faculty and staff, are eligible to submit innovations in credit-bearing MSU courses they have developed and offered at least once between summer 2012 and spring 2013 to this competition.

Three first place awards will be given – one for best fully online course, one for best blended course and one for best technology-enabled innovation in a face-to-face, flipped, blended, OR online course. (Note that there can only be one entry per course. Applicants must choose one of these three award competition categories for their entry.) Up to four honorable mentions may also be awarded from any combination of the three categories.

Nominations:

Award recipients will be selected based upon nominations from the campus community. Self nomination is preferred though not required, because completing a nomination requires detailed knowledge of and access to the developed materials. Nominations will be peer-reviewed by a committee of faculty and staff, which shall give due regard to the University’s commitment to diversity and accessibility as well as to the University’s commitment to outstanding instruction and elegant, effective design and integration of technology.

The 2013 entry form identifies required sections for a course submission or innovation submission and clarifies general criteria judges will consider in selecting the winners. On the form, applicants should be sure to select the category in which they wish to compete (fully online course, blended course, or specific technology innovation).

Prizes:

Thanks to AT&T, the first place winning individual or teams for best courses and the first place winning individual or team for best technology-enabled innovation will receive an award of available credit to spend from a University account in ways that contribute to their professional development or further their use of technology in instruction.

Up to four additional courses or innovations may be selected to receive honorable mention awards. Honorable mention is not associated with prize money, but winners are recognized and honored on the awards web site.

Choosing which competition to enter:

The “best fully online course” and “best blended course” competitions consider the overall student experience in the course. (Note that Flipped Classrooms would typically be considered blended courses, as would other variations on partly face-to-face and partly online courses.) The “best technology-enabled innovation” competition considers a specific innovation or innovations in a face to face, blended, flipped, or online course.

Deadlines:

Applicants should submit an electronic entry form for their course or innovation by 5pm Friday, February 8, 2013. Entries may not exceed 12 pages. Electronic entry materials should be submitted via email to Carrie Heeter (heeter@msu.edu).

Immediately after the deadline, those who submitted an entry will be contacted, inviting them to work with Learning Design and Technology to produce a 5 minute digital video highlighting and narrating key aspects of the course or innovation in action. The recording and narration process should take 1 or at most 2 hours. Videos will be completed by early-March.

Page limits and digital video time limits will be strictly enforced, to maintain a level playing field for all applicants.