INDIANA UNIVERSITY SOUTH BEND
DISTINGUISHED TEACHING AWARD

(Teaching Committee, July, 1988; Academic Senate, September, 1992; Teaching Committee, December, 1992; IUSB Distinguished Teaching Award Committee, November, 1994)
 
 

Eligibility and Nomination

The Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs shall encourage Division Deans/Directors/Chairs to nominate excellent teachers for the Indiana University South Bend Distinguished Teaching Award. Nomination of faculty for this award shall be an agenda item for the Deans Council at the first meeting of each Spring Semester.

Any full-time Indiana University South Bend faculty member who has completed three full years (is in the fourth year or more of service) of teaching on this campus is eligible for nomination. A faculty member can be nominated by any administrator or other faculty member. Self nominations will not be considered. The nomination shall be in the form of a letter to the nominated faculty members Division Dean, Director or Chair, who will then determine whether the faculty member wishes to be nominated. Nominations are due in the office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs by April 2 of each year. If the faculty member wishes to accept the nomination, a list of suggested materials and a timetable for teaching portfolio completion will be provided from the office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. These materials will include a copy of the All-University Distinguished Teaching Award Guidelines, and a copy of notes on teaching portfolio preparation.

The nominee shall have primary responsibility for assembling the teaching portfolio with the exception of inclusion of solicited letters of reference. Solicited letters are to be requested by the nominee's division dean/director/chair. The Director of University Center for Excellence in Teaching (UCET) will serve as consultant to all nominees so as to ensure the strongest possible presentation of the teaching portfolio.

Once the portfolio is completed and solicited letters have been received, the letters and portfolio are sent to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for final assembly. Solicited letters are to remain confidential.
 
 

Selection Committee

The IUSB Distinguished Teaching Award Selection Committee shall be composed of five full-time faculty members. One of the members shall be the chairperson of the Academic Senate Teaching Committee. If the chairperson cannot serve, the Academic Senate Teaching Committee shall elect any one of its remaining members to serve in this capacity. One member will be a previous Distinguished Teaching Award winner, selected by the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. One member shall be selected by the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate. The Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs shall select the remaining two members of the Selection Committee.
 
 

Procedure

The following timetable is suggested for the award selection procedure (dates have been updated for this academic year):
  • Reminder to the Academic Cabinet (January meeting).
  • Nominations due to the Vice Chancellor for Academic affairs (April 2).
  • Creation of teaching portfolio: The Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and the Director of UCET shall be available for consultation as necessary (April 2 - August 8).
  • Completed teaching portfolio and one additional copy are provided to the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs for evaluation (August 11).
  • Teaching portfolio provided to Selection Committee (September 5).
  • Decision of Selection Committee (September 26).
  • Award winner(s) shall be announced at either the November or December Academic Senate Meeting.
  • Updating of teaching portfolio in conjunction with the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs in preparation for submission to IU All-University Teaching Award (September 26 - October 1).
  • Submission of teaching portfolio to IU Bloomington (Committee on Distinguished Teaching Awards) for consideration of nominee for the All-University Teaching Award (October 3).
In order to be considered for an All-University Teaching Award, one need not be a winner of an IUSB Distinguished Teaching Award. Letters from the Chancellor, Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, and appropriate Division Deans/Directors/Chairs should be a part of all teaching portfolios forwarded to IU Bloomington for an All-University Teaching Award.

Any faculty member who presents a teaching portfolio for consideration for the IUSB Distinguished Teaching Award and is not selected as a winner will automatically be considered again the following year. The teaching portfolio shall include additional documentation for the second year of consideration. After being considered for two successive years, the faculty member must be renominated to be considered again.
 
 

The Award

The award will be recognition by the IUSB faculty and administrators of distinguished teaching. The first public announcement of the award winner will be at the discretion of the Chancellor.

A monetary award of $1,000 will be permanently added to the winners compensation base.
 
 

Award Frequency

The Selection Committee shall consider nominations on an annual basis. The Committee may grant up to four awards annually, provided that there are identified resources available. The Committee shall be informed by the administration of identified resources available for the award each year prior to the Committees meeting to select the distinguished teaching award winner(s).

The Selection Committee shall have the right and the obligation not to grant a teaching award for the year if no candidate is an excellent teacher. This award should only go to exceptional teachers, and not be viewed as an award that good, but not excellent, teachers could plan on receiving. On the other hand, the Selection Committee should also have the right to select more than one award winner for the year if more than one nominee is truly excellent.

The decisions of the Selection Committee are final and not subject to appeal.
 
 

Outline For Portfolio Preparation

It is the Committee's position that sufficient information documenting teaching and excellence is critical to a positive decision in favor of the nominee. The submission of a portfolio that provides inadequate documentation will likely result in excellence not being recognized. For this reason, the Committee offers the following guidelines for portfolio inclusion. This section provides information regarding both required and recommended supporting documentation that should be submitted as part of a nominee's teaching portfolio. The following is a list of required and suggested supporting documentation:
  1. Table of contents.
  2. Resume of individual being nominated.
  3. Courses taught at Indiana University--listed by semester and enrollment.
  4. Self-analysis--describe any efforts undertaken to analyze teaching, with specific reference to self- improvement and student accomplishment in its broadest sense. It is recommended that the nominee include a statement about his/her teaching philosophy.
  5. Student evaluations of teaching--both numeric and written comments should be provided for a minimum of the last three to five preceding years. A random sample of student evaluations across the teaching career should be provided for all prior years. Include only summaries when student evaluation forms have been utilized. Do not include the actual student evaluation forms completed by students. Also include all unsolicited student evaluations as well.
  6. Peer evaluations--both local and external--solicited and unsolicited.
  7. Examples of course syllabi, assignments, tests, quizzes and hand outs.
  8. Administrative evaluations--indicate areas specific to teaching.
  9. Publications related to teaching--when possible include copies of publications.
  10. Systematic course or program development--include materials or descriptions of effort and evaluation data if available.
  11. Research related to teaching--list publications and submit abstracts if possible.
  12. Academic student counseling--describe any unusual activities, such as working with students in special needs areas.
Items 1-6 above are required material and shall be included for all portfolio submissions. Items 7-12 are highly recommended by the Committee for inclusion in the portfolio. The Committee recommends that the material be submitted in the order indicated above. All material submitted must be placed in a single three-ring binder. An Additional binder may be submitted with supporting evidence, but the case should be made in the main binder. The second binder is for additional supporting documentation only.

Each binder shall contain appropriate transitional narrative to aid the Committee in an understanding of the importance of the material provided in each section. For example, the section on student evaluations shall provide an opening statement regarding the procedure used to administer, collect and return the evaluations to the faculty member. All other sections of the teaching portfolio shall also include appropriate transitional narrative.
 
 

Suggested Resources Available to Aid Teaching Portfolio Development

Because an IUSB Distinguished Teaching Award selection may be a candidate for an All-University Teaching Award, it is recommended that each nominee follow the suggestions and guidelines as presented by the All-University Distinguished Teaching Awards Committee. A copy of these suggestions and guidelines can be obtained from the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

For those who wish to be considered for an All-University Teaching Award, one copy of the teaching portfolio shall be sent to IU Bloomington and one copy shall be kept in the office of the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.

As additional resource aids, it is highly recommended that the nominee consult the following materials:

  1. Copies of the teaching portfolios of past IUSB Distinguished Teaching Award winners on file in the office of the Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs; and
  2. The article entitled "Seven Dimensions for Documenting Teaching" published on April 30, 1992 by Floyd Urbach, Ph.D.

Last updated: 04/18/2008 by EZ
URL: http://www.iusb.edu/~acadaff/teaching.html
Comments: acadaff@iusb.edu
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