Faculty Development Grants

The College maintains a commitment to support faculty members in their pursuit of excellence in professional activities, teaching effectiveness, and college activities. Otis offers three kinds of grants: Faculty Development Grants, Software Upgrade Grants, and Curricular Innovation Grants, as described below.

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Faculty Development Grants

Small grants are available to full-time and adjunct faculty to support activities, such as:

professional activities such as research, funding for supplies and material, or participation in conferences and workshops

teaching effectiveness related to student learning styles, dealing with problem students, and educating the whole student

college activities such as building departmental teamwork, collegiality, and communications

Faculty Development grants are funded by the College. External Funding Opportunities are also available to the larger Otis community, including grants, fellowships, and residencies for individual artists, designers, scholars, and writers.

Faculty Development Grant FAQs
Description of Faculty Development Grant Program
What to Include in the Grantee Report
Full List of Grantees and Reports on their Projects: 2004-present
Faculty Development Grant Application Form [PDF]: Next deadline:  March 1, 2012

Application Instructions:

1. Fill out and save the form [PDF].
2. Email a copy to jburton at otis.edu.
3. Print a copy and have your Chair sign it.
4. Submit the signed hardcopy to: Jason Burton, Product Design Office, AHMN Room 508

All users: If you have any trouble with the application form above, please use this version of the application form optimized for Adobe Acrobat Reader 6.

Mac users: If you open the application in Preview, you may get an error message. Use Adobe Acrobat Reader to fill out the form.

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Software Upgrade Grants

Grants are available to full-time, adjunct, and part-time faculty from the Provost's Office for software upgrades that enhance teaching.

All faculty members who have taught at Otis for a minimum of two years are eligible for software upgrade grants, which will be administered as reimbursements.  Please note that the grants suport software upgrades (or comparable academic version purchases) only and that the Provost's Office reserves the right to approve, deny, and/or cap awards.

Software upgrade grants can help support many faculty needs, including (but not limited to):

• Maintaining current Microsoft Office programs to assist in presentation and document prepartion, or receiveing and commenting on student papers.
• Staying current in academic versions of Adobe Creative Suite programs (Photoshop, Illustrator, In Design, etc.) that serve both in professional activity and teaching.
• Preparing for classes dependent on exotic or uncommon software programs that change or upgrade frequently and charge high fees for upgrade purchases.
• Any other software updrades that will allow faculty members to teach a class, view and/or grade student work, or teach to the most current version of a program.

Requests for 2011-12 will be accepted on a rolling basis until March 1, 2012.  Purchases should be completed using Otis' Preferred Software Storefronts (see Academic Computing if software is not available through these sources):

CDWG/Otis

APPLE/Otis

To make a request, eligible faculty members should complete the Software Upgrade Request form and forward the relevant Department Chair's written approval to provost@otis.edu.

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Curricular Innovation Grants (for Blended Learning)

Curricular innovation grants are available from the Provost’s Office to support faculty participation in a pilot “blended learning” initiative.

Blended courses are those in which approximately 30-50% of the material is delivered online, and the remainder of the course is delivered face-to-face. The initiative is for selected faculty members to participate in an online pedagogy seminar in Spring 2012 and to teach a blended learning course in Fall 2012. Selected faculty members will receive a curricular innovation grant of $1,500 ($1,000 for developing the course and $500 for participation in the pedagogy seminar).

Eligibility

All full-time, adjunct, and part-time faculty who have taught for a minimum of 2 years at Otis and have Chair approval for the offering of blended courses are eligible. Both Studio and LAS faculty are encouraged to apply.

Grant Requirements

1. Participation in an online seminar about online pedagogy called "Bricks & Clicks" which is being developed at Otis and is running from February–March 2012 (to coordinate with the construction of due dates for the Fall schedule). The time commitment for this course will be approximately 21 hours including required homework, some of which is about developing online modules. You will be expected to keep up with all course readings and postings, as well as interact with fellow “students” and reflect upon your experiential learning in an e-portfolio.

2. Develop additional modules as needed for a blended course that you will you share with fellow participants and your departments.

3. Get your Chair’s approval to offer a blended course for Fall 2012 and have an email sent to the Provost saying they support your proposal and are willing to run a blended class.

4. Turn in a written report that can be easily posted onto the Faculty Development website and post the modules that you develop as examples on the Bricks & Clicks resource site. (Alternatively, you can open your teaching portfolio to other faculty.)

To Apply

The deadline for proposals is Friday, January 13, 2012. Interested faculty should complete the Blended Learning Grants form and forward the relevant Department Chair’s written approval to provost@otis.edu.