Fourteen courses were selected to participate in the Institute for Distance and Distributed Learning’s Provost Course Development Fund during the spring 2013 semester.

This fund provides financial support to develop new online courses or provide significant updates to an existing online course.

“I applied for the Provost Course Development Fund because I had no previous experience teaching or learning in the online environment,” shares Hannah Scherer, assistant professor in the Department of Agricultural and Extension Education in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. “It is important that I offer my course online to reach working professionals across the commonwealth and I wanted to deliver a quality course.” Working with the institute’s instructional designers has been an invaluable experience and my course is much better because of their guidance.”

The online versions of the 14 courses currently in development include

Applications are now being accepted for the fall 2013 Provost Course Development Fund through June 30. The funding schedule and application materials are available on the institute’s website.

Awarding of funds for online course development is determined after the evaluation of a grant application and proposal agreement submitted by faculty and endorsed by the program and department head.  The application is reviewed for approval and priority for funding is given to those courses that are a part of or in the process of applying to the university’s Enterprise Fund program. Second priority is given to developing online undergraduate Curriculum for Liberal Education courses and online upper-division courses required for any given major or minor.

Priority is also given to courses in underrepresented departments, service classes, classes with large enrollments, and classes with lab components. When those priorities have been satisfied, support will be given to the development of undergraduate general electives. Additionally, the course must also be offered a minimum of three times over the next three years in order for funding to be granted.

Dedicated to its motto, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), Virginia Tech takes a hands-on, engaging approach to education, preparing scholars to be leaders in their fields and communities. As the commonwealth’s most comprehensive university and its leading research institution, Virginia Tech offers 240 undergraduate and graduate degree programs to more than 31,000 students and manages a research portfolio of $513 million. The university fulfills its land-grant mission of transforming knowledge to practice through technological leadership and by fueling economic growth and job creation locally, regionally, and across Virginia.

Written by Makaravine Duong.
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