NCAT: Redesign Scholars Position Description

NCAT suspended operations on 12/31/2018. This is a curated version of the NCAT website to enable continued use of NCAT resources by the higher education community. Please direct any questions to the University of Central Florida Center for Distributed Learning, which is the custodian of NCAT resources. The collected writings of NCAT founder Dr. Carol A. Twigg as well as archived NCAT materials will be available in UCF Libraries Special Collections & University Archives with materials accessible online through STARS.

Redesign Scholars Program

Position Description

Under the umbrella of the Redesign Alliance, the National Center for Academic Transformation (NCAT) intends to create a Redesign Scholars Program to link those new to course redesign with more experienced colleagues to whom they can turn for advice and support. Sixteen Redesign Scholars will form a core resource to help support 60 institutional teams as they embark on course redesigns as part of a three-year FIPSE-funded program, Colleagues Committed to Redesign (C²R). Redesign Scholars will be selected in each of four academic areas: 1) humanities; 2) mathematics, statistics and computer science; 3) natural sciences; and, 4) social sciences.

Responsibilities

Participate in a January 23, 2007 orientation meeting.

An orientation meeting with NCAT staff will be held on January 23, 2007 in Baltimore , MD. The agenda will be to orient the Redesign Scholars to C²R; to bring them up to speed regarding NCAT’s past work, plans for the Redesign Alliance and plans to work with new institutions; to establish a detailed work plan and timeline for each disciplinary cluster over the life of the project; and, to clarify the role of the Scholars. All travel expenses will be supported by the FIPSE grant.

Participate in two additional meetings of the Redesign Scholars.

Subsequent meetings to assess how well the Redesign Scholars Program is working will be held in conjunction with the Redesign Alliance annual conference. All travel expenses to the annual conference and the Scholars meeting will be supported by the FIPSE grant.

Review applications

NCAT will invite campuses to apply to participate in C²R through a competitive application process. Sixty new adopting institutions will be selected over the three-year project period. Applicants will be required to submit written responses to a set of readiness criteria . NCAT staff and the Redesign Scholars will review the readiness responses and rank-order them according to the institutions’ level of readiness and commitment to participating in the project.

Participate in three disciplinary-based institutes.

NCAT will establish four-person teams from the 60 institutions and bring them together with NCAT staff and Redesign Scholars at a series of disciplinary institutes. The institutes will introduce the teams to the NCAT methodology, share strategies and techniques for successful course redesign, and help them develop plans for course redesigns on their home campuses. Twelve disciplinary institutes (humanities; mathematics, statistics and computer science; natural sciences; and, social sciences) will be held over the life of the project. We anticipate holding four institutes simultaneously each year. Scholars’ travel expenses will be supported by the FIPSE grant.

Serve as a resource to institutional teams to help them apply what was learned at the institutes on campus.

Each institute team will return to its campus and, working with their campus-based course redesign leadership team, begin work on the plans developed at the institute. Throughout the year following the institute, the NCAT staff and the Redesign Scholars will be available to each campus via telephone and email for ongoing consultation.

Participate in campus site visits and consultations.

Following each institute, each adopting campus will have resources made possible by the FIPSE grant to invite one or more of the Redesign Scholars to their campus for follow-up consultations. Each campus will be able to spend up to $1000 toward honoraria ($500 per scholar per visit) and up to $1000 in travel support for such visits. Campuses may bring Scholars to campus at additional times at their own expense. The site visit will focus on issues of curriculum and pedagogy, administrative matters, assessment and evaluation efforts, and implementation progress. After the visit, the consulting Scholar will write to the leadership team, reflecting on the visit, offering insights and clarifying issues.

Participate in the Alliance annual conference each year and coordinate sessions as appropriate.

During each year of the project, NCAT will host a national dissemination conference on course redesign, The Redesign Alliance Annual Conference. Travel for the Redesign Scholars will be supported by the FIPSE grant. The first conference will be held March 18 – 20, 2007 in Orlando , FL.