Extended Education
REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS

Developing New SSU Online Courses for Summer 2008

The School of Extended Education is providing financial and development support to encourage the building of SSU online (WebCT) courses/programs to be delivered to non-campus based (distance education) students.  The goal of this project is to put in place the infrastructure and resources to assist faculty and departments with creating high quality SSU online courses to be extended to students who cannot traditionally participate in campus courses.

Extended Education will work in collaboration with the SSU Teaching and Technology Center, IT, the web team, Media Services, schools/departments, and other stakeholders to insure online classes are designed and developed according to best practices and the same high academic standards as SSU’s face-to-face courses.

Good luck with your proposal,

Mark Merickel, Dean
School of Extended Education

The School of Extended Education is offering financial support to departments and faculty to develop new online (distance education) credit courses to be offered through Special Sessions. Courses must begin and end within the Summer Semester, June 2 to August 15.

Proposals are to be submitted by faculty after approval by the Department Chair and School Dean.

Proposals due date: Friday, March 21, 2008.  Click here for Proposal Form.

All instructors and departments are provided with support services for the design, development and delivery of the new online courses.

Funding: Extended Education will allocate funding to the department in a range from $1000 to $3500 per course. These funds are to support faculty participating in providing course content and working with the Extended Education Project Development Team on course design and development. Extended Education will cover basic course development and production (instructional design and best practices, including accessibility and copyright; management; media development; WebCT course development, faculty training, and on-going support). Faculty have 60 days from receipt of proposals to develop a course for submission to Extended Education. Amount of funding will be determined by the complexity of course design and the resulting demands upon the faculty member. Most courses will be funded in the $2500 to $3500 range.

This online course development funding is in addition to revenue shared with the school/department generated by enrollments.

Requirements:

• Course must be designed and delivered through the SSU WebCT course management system. Multimedia components (e.g., CD, DVD, and streaming video) may be included in course design, as necessary to meet specified learning objectives/outcomes.

• Instructor/content experts must work with the Extended Education course development team to design the course according to best practices in online education and SSU curriculum and accreditation standards.
  
• Course(s) will convert readily to online delivery without excessive development cost.
  
• Course has potential to generate at least 50 Student Credit Units (SCUs) per year.
  
• Department accepts responsibility for the curriculum and quality of instruction.
  
• Instructor/content expert will follow guidelines for best practices in online course instruction.
  
• Instructor/content expert must demonstrate basic skills in computer use, preferably experience with WebCT.
  
• Department must give approval for on-going offerings of this course (minimum
  of one semester per year) and will assign competent instructors to this course.
  Work with the School of Extended Education to assign these instructors.

Process: Submit a proposal of no more than 2 pages, in addition to the online special
sessions and supporting information forms, to: barbara.brooks@sonoma.edu
All forms are available online at www.sonoma.edu/exed/applyenroll/

The narrative account and forms must include:

1. Course description: designator, credits, name, and catalog description.
2. Instructor/department developer and their contact information.
3. Indication of department approval for course development and ongoing offerings (per “Requirements” above), if the proposal is not submitted by the department chair. This approval can be by separate email to barbara.brooks@sonoma.edu.
4. Program or certificate to which this course would apply and the role/importance of this course to the program; and/or description of audience or express need for this course.
5. Proposed actions, including personnel, preliminary ideas for course design, (semester to be taught), learning materials and online resources upon which the course will be based. Describe media requirements. Please attach a course syllabus and a CV.
6. Amounts of funds requested up to $3500 to the department to support course development. These funds will not need to cover basic course design or production expenses, WebCT, normal copyright permissions, instructor training, or uploading of course content. Please include information on expected expenses outside of these areas by completing the attached budget checklist.
7. Proposed evaluation of course and instruction and outcomes.

Review of Proposals:

After this initial Summer 2008 process, proposals will be reviewed monthly by the SSU School of Extended Education intake team in consultation with program leaders, department chairs, and deans, and must fit at least one of the following categories, in addition to meeting the requirements specified above:

1. Course will meet critical program needs; provide new options, etc.
2. Course had potential for high enrollment to a defined audience.

Click here for Proposal Form.

Announcement of Award -- Decisions will be announced in mid-May for Summer 2008 awards.

Upon acceptance, an MOU will be drawn up with the department for course production, use of course and materials, credit, distribution of supporting funds, and course delivery. Please address questions and applications to barbara.brooks@sonoma.edu or call
664-2691.

Award Distribution – Should your proposal be accepted, 50 percent of the award will be made available to your department upon signature and approval of the MOU. The remaining 50 percent balance will be distributed upon the successful completion and approval of course design and development. Funding can be in the form of direct pay (in accordance with overload policy), replacement time of your faculty workload (requires Department Chair and Dean approval), professional development and/or operational needs of your department. If you have any questions about award distribution, please work directly with Robert Rosen, Manager of Business Services, robert.rosen@sonoma.edu.

Required Instructor Qualifications to Submit a Proposal – To qualify for an online development grant you must be an SSU probationary, tenured, or temporary faculty with a three-year contract.