Grants and Awards

The CFC coordinates the monthly awarding of the Microgrants program for travel to conferences that will benefit teaching and the annual Provost's Instructional Improvement Grants.

The Center also coordinates the process for the selection of awards connected with teaching excellence: Board of Governors' Award, Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award, and the Jay M. Robinson Teaching Award for eLearning.

Microgrants
Established in 1981 to promote quality teaching by providing funds to support travel, subsistence, and registration/tuition expense associated with workshop attendance, short course participation, mini-internships, and other off-campus activities related to teaching improvement. Max.award: $700

Provost's Instructional Improvement Grant
Established in 1975 to provide modest support for innovative projects aimed at improving the quality and effectiveness of instruction within a single course or group of related courses. Individual faculty members or groups of faculty may apply. Typical award: $1,500

Board of Governors Award for Excellence in Teaching
The Board of Governors' Award for Excellence in Teaching at Western Carolina University includes earned tenure and employment at Western Carolina for at least seven years; demonstrated excellence in teaching for a sustained period; teaching in the academic year selected; and can only recieve the Board of Governors' Award once in his/her lifetime. Award Amount: $7,500 per year.

Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award
The Chancellor's Distinguished Teaching Award encourages, recognizes, and rewards superior teaching and meritorious performance. Teaching faculty in their third year of service at WCU are eligible for nomination if they have not recieved this award in the preceding five years. The award amount is $2,000 per year and is given out annually.

Excellence in Teaching Liberal Studies Award
This award recognizes a faculty member for excellence in promoting significant student learning in teaching liberal studies courses on a regular basis. This award is coordinated by the office of the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Undergraduate Studies at ext.7495.

Scholarship of Teaching & Learning Award
This award encourages and recognizes a faculty member engaging in scholarship that focuses upon teaching and learning (SoTL) and then applying the results of that scholarship to courses taught so that students experience significant learning in those courses. The award emphasizes the integration of research about teaching and learning and the practical application of that research to teaching itself. Evidence of the learning outcomes with students of the applications of SoTL findings is needed.

Jay M. Robinson Teaching Award for E-Learning

This award honors outstanding work in e-learning. The Jay M. Robinson Teaching Award for E-learning was awarded for the first time in the 2006-2007 academic year, and will be supported annually for five academic years at a level of $1000 from the Jay M. Robinson (JMR) endowment. This award is given each academic year to one WCU instructor who teaches a 100% computer-networked online course. Courses distributed primarily via ITV are not eligible for this award.  Tenured, untenured, full-time, part-time, tenure track and adjunct instructors are eligible, provided that any nominee has taught at least two three-credit graduate and/or undergraduate courses fully online during the year of the award and/or the year immediately preceding, and provided that s/he neither serves nor has served as an e-learning faculty fellow.