About the Consortium

CIC was awarded a grant from Strada Education Network to form a consortium of member institutions that will strive to improve student learning, degree completion, and career placement through a renewed focus on instructional excellence and career guidance. Specifically, each institution that is accepted into the Consortium will have the opportunity to include faculty members in a special program developed by the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE), an online course in “Effective Teaching Practices” that leads to a certificate in effective instruction.

CIC selected ACUE as its partner because ACUE’s program is high quality, and ACUE has a strong record of building on existing campus initiatives. ACUE’s course prepares faculty members to implement evidence-based teaching approaches in five areas of practice:

Designing an Effective Course and Class;
Establishing a Productive Learning Environment;
Using Active Learning Techniques;
Promoting Higher Order Thinking; and
Assessing to Inform Instruction and Promote Learning.

These areas of practice are organized into 25 learning modules with recommended teaching practices that are useful in both face-to-face and online instruction. In addition, at CIC’s request, ACUE’s program will include two additional learning modules:

Embedding Career Guidance, in which faculty members will learn how to provide frequent, course-embedded information about the specific careers for which the discipline prepares students; and

Preparing Students with 21st-Century Career-Ready Skills, in which faculty members will be aided in the design of course content and assignments to ensure that students develop—and are assessed on their development of—“career-ready” skills.

View more information about ACUE and its programming.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Participation

CIC will select, through competitive application, 20–25 institutions to participate in the Consortium, through which a total of 500 CIC faculty members will be prepared. Each institution is expected to commit to have a minimum of 20–25 faculty members complete the ACUE course during the 2018–2019 academic year. Large institutions may propose to credential more faculty members than the required minimum, and CIC may consider joint proposals from small institutions that wish to participate but cannot meet this minimum.

CIC, with Strada’s support, will cover the cost of enrolling and credentialing up to 500 faculty members through ACUE’s course. Program “seats” will be allocated based on each institution’s proposed program size. ACUE’s services also include technical support before, during, and following the program. CIC also will provide stipends for participating faculty members and for course facilitators assigned by the institution and supported by ACUE.

CIC seeks to attract a cohort of institutions to the Consortium that is diverse geographically, demographically, and in institutional type. Priority will be given to institutions that seek to serve first-generation and low-income students through the program.

In addition to assessing learning outcomes and other measures indicated below, each institution will provide baseline and impact data on student persistence, completion, internship placement, and graduate school or job placement following graduation, as well as anonymous follow-up data for students taught by faculty members who take the ACUE course.

Eligibility

CIC Institutional Members are eligible to apply for acceptance to the Consortium.

Course Experience Webinar Recording

Informational Webinar Slideshow

Applications are due Friday, April 6, 2018.

Please provide:

A. A letter from the president that commits the institution to:

Implementation of the ACUE course for at least 20 faculty members;
Completion of the measurement and evaluation requirements, through the direct involvement of the office of institutional research; and
Covering any costs of implementation not provided by CIC as indicated above and specified below.

B. An application narrative of no more than six pages (2,100 words) that addresses the following questions:

What is the institution’s rationale for joining the Consortium, including the expected outcomes? (maximum 500 words)

Questions to consider:
- How will participation advance the college’s goals and strategic plan, particularly with regard to support of faculty members in their work on student learning, persistence, degree completion, and career guidance?
- How will the institution ensure that the program will have an impact on first-generation, low-income, and underrepresented students?
- How will participation in the Consortium complement and expand existing initiatives on campus to strengthen instructional quality; improve retention and completion; and guide students toward the transition from college to careers?
Which faculty members and how many does the institution intend to credential in effective teaching and career guidance practices through the ACUE course? (maximum 250 words)

Questions to consider:
- How many full-time tenured or tenure-track, full-time non-tenure-track, and part-time or adjunct faculty members are employed by your institution? How many of each do you seek to credential and why?
- What particular strategic focus, in terms of courses, programs, or faculty profiles, will you pursue, if any, and why?
- Which faculty members are likely to be the most enthusiastic about participation?
- How many faculty members in total should complete the program to have a reasonable expectation that the expected outcomes, cited in response to question 1, will be achieved?
- How will the institution ensure diversity of faculty participation including academic discipline representation, race, tenure, and sex?
A number of key outcomes are measured with data collected within ACUE’s course in real-time as faculty members complete each learning module (noted below). Other expected outcomes require data collection from the institution. How will the institution measure the key outcomes listed below? (maximum 500 words)
- Changes in faculty members’ attitudes about their teaching, their knowledge of evidence-based practices, and their teaching practices*
- Changes in career guidance practices by faculty members*
- Improved student attitudes about their courses and learning**
- Improved student course completion
- Improved student learning
- Improved student persistence
- Improved student degree completion**
- Increased student placement in internships
- Improved student placement in jobs or graduate school***
  
  *Collected through assessments and questionnaires within ACUE’s course
  **ACUE offers a validated student survey that institutions can use.
  ***For students graduating in 2020, assuming these are among the students impacted by the program.
How will the institution ensure that faculty members complete the ACUE course? (maximum 250 words)

Incentives to consider:
- Condition of employment (new/renewed faculty contracts);
- Preferential hiring/re-hiring (for contingent faculty members);
- Recognition (for example, teaching excellence awards);
- Released time;
- Stipends (CIC will provide $500 stipends for each of up to a total of 500 participating faculty members and $3,000 stipends for each of up to a total of 25 course facilitators assigned by Consortium institutions.);
- Salary increases;
- Consideration for promotion; and
- Research opportunities (for example, papers on the scholarship of teaching and learning).
What plans does the institution have beyond the grant period (that is, after the 2018–2019 academic year) to expand the program and/or build upon positive outcomes? (maximum 350 words)

Describe preliminary ideas about further use of the ACUE course to improve student learning, persistence, degree completion, and placement outcomes. Please include possible sources of funding for this sustaining work.
What additional costs of implementation, not provided by CIC, do you anticipate and have sufficient funds to cover? (maximum 250 words)

Costs to consider:
- Faculty incentives (beyond the $500 stipend for program “seats” covered by CIC); and
- Program fees (above and beyond the total 500 program “seats” allocated by CIC across consortium institutions, for those institutions that seek to credential additional faculty members; cost structure available upon request).

Contact Information

Please contact David Brailow, vice president for development, at dbrailow@cic.nche.edu or (202) 466-7230 with any additional questions about the Consortium for Instructional Excellence and Career Guidance and application process.