Office of Creative Inquiry / QEP

EDGE Honors Colloquia Grants

Honors Colloquia (HON 4013) are one-time, special topics seminars (3cr) that do not duplicate existing courses at Tech.  Faculty teaching Honors colloquia are eligible for special EDGE curriculum grants.  See the Honors Colloquia website for details and examples of Honors Colloquia.

GRANT RECIPIENT EXPECTATIONS

Grant recipients will agree to the following:

• Have students complete an in-class or online EDGE course survey.

• Score your student’s work with the EDGE rubric and submit these scores to the Director of University Assessment, Dr. Theresa Ennis.

PROPOSAL DEADLINE

After a proposed Honors Colloquium is approved by the Honors Council, an application for an EDGE Honors Colloquium grant may then be submitted. Applications are accepted on a rolling basis.

HOW DOES THIS GRANT DIFFER FROM THE EDGE COURSE RE-DESIGN GRANT?

Because Honors Colloquia are one-time courses that are not offered over a five-year period, EDGE Honors Colloquium grants enhance the student experience during a single semester. While all Colloquia should be innovative and interdisciplinary, a good EDGE Honors Colloquium grant proposal should focus on supporting activities and materials that would normally be unavailable to students during the semester.

CREATIVE INQUIRY DEFINITION

We define “creative inquiry” as “The process of exploring issues, objects or works through the collection and analysis of evidence including combining or synthesizing existing ideas, products, or expertise in original ways to answer an open-ended question or achieve a desired goal.”

STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

Creative inquiry learning activities can be incorporated into your course through the EDGE Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs):

1.  Students will effectively use digital information search tools.

2.  Students will formulate a creative inquiry question or problem.

3.  Students will explore a creative inquiry question or problem.

3.1   Choose an appropriate discovery process to address the problem.

3.2   Collect information relevant to the problem.

3.3   Assess collected information in a discipline-appropriate manner.

4.  Students will create an original scholarly or creative project.

4.1   Applying critical thinking skills and/or

4.2   Applying creative thinking skills

5.  Students will communicate their findings/creations/art/inventions in a discipline-appropriate manner.

SLO 1 is aimed at 1020/Connections courses, but Honors Colloquia, like all EDGE courses, may include this student learning outcome. Honors Colloquia must include SLOs 3 through 5. It is up to the discretion of the instructor to include SLO 2. Rather than requiring students to formulate their own questions or problems, the instructor may provide the question or problem to be addressed.

These SLOs are intended to be inclusive to all departments and programs, but an alternative phrasing of any SLO that maintains the intent of that SLO is acceptable.

YOUR APPLICATION

Submit your application to Dr. Rita Barnes. It should include a short (no more than one page) narrative statement that explains why this colloquium has good potential to be a creative inquiry-enriched course, and a separate single-page budget and budget justification. Your proposal will be evaluated by the following criteria:

Creative Inquiry Learning Activities: Describe how you will implement creative inquiry into the course to promote each targeted student learning outcome (SLOs 3 through 5, and possibly 1 and 2, as described above). Make sure to express the degree that the creative inquiry learning activities are student-centered.
The appropriateness of the budget for the activities.
The weight that you are placing on creative inquiry in your course.

TOTAL FUNDING LIMIT

The total funding limit is $5000 per grant, but typical grants are in the range of $1,000 to $2,000.

BUDGET CONSIDERATIONS

Your budget should align with curricular initiatives and should coincide with project and assignment implementation proposed in the application.

Funding for fall classes must be used prior to the last day of the fall semester. Funding for spring classes must be used prior to the last day of the spring semester. Any funds not used are returned to the QEP budget.

Significant changes to any budget must be approved by the QEP Director.

Tennessee Tech QEP will not reimburse students for items purchased directly. All purchases should go through the university and obey all the purchasing rules.

Allowable Expenses

Wages for graduate or undergraduate student assistants to assist in design, teaching or assessment of your colloquium.
Grant-specific materials and supplies, equipment, etc. to support creative inquiry enhanced colloquia. These should be for materials and supplies, equipment, etc., to be used by students in the course.
Marketing materials for your program, if appropriate.
Support for experiential learning and field trips.

Non-Allowable Expenses

Faculty stipends.
Faculty travel to present the results of their scholarly work at professional disciplinary conference.
Student travel to present the results of their scholarly work. Students are instead encouraged to apply for funding through the URECA! Grant Travel Fund.
Food and drink.

Please contact Honors Director Dr. Rita Barnes at ritabarnes@tntech.edu for more information.