January 21, 2015
MEMORANDUM
TO:
Deans, Associate Deans, Department Chairs, and Faculty
FROM:
Patrick Pluscht, Associate Vice Provost for Learning Enhancement
SUBJECT:
2015 Online Program Initiative RFP
The Online Program Initiative (OPI) is a competitive award program administered by the Center
for Learning Enhancement, Assessment, and Redesign (CLEAR) and funded by the Office of the
Provost. Eligibility, funding levels, requirements, and instructions for submitting a proposal are
provided in the Request for Proposal that follows.
Questions regarding this internal award program may be directed to Jane Himmel at
940.369.8137 or jane.himmel@unt.edu.
The deadline for submitting a proposal for this program is February 20, 2015.
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2015 Online Program Initiative Request for Proposals
Center for Learning Enhancement, Assessment, and Redesign
2015 Online Program Initiative
Request for Proposals
Application Deadline: February 20, 2015
Through the Online Program Initiative (OPI), the Center for Learning Enhancement,
Assessment, and Redesign (CLEAR) seeks to support online course development projects that
result in significantly advancing a department’s progress toward offering a fully online degree
program. Academic departments with a goal of offering a new online program are invited to
submit proposals to develop up to five new online courses that significantly advance progress
toward that goal.
The Online Program Initiative application deadline is February 20, 2015.
Eligibility
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Degree programs must be in the current UNT academic degree program inventory.
Courses must be in the current UNT academic course inventory.
Projects must result in the development of courses to be delivered at least 50% or more
online by the Fall 2015, Spring 2016, or Summer 2016 semesters.
Project Funding Levels

Applicants are eligible to apply for a total award amount up to $12,500 with a maximum of
$2,500 allocated to one course. Funds will be available beginning on April 1, 2015 and must
be spent by August 31, 2015.
How Funds May Be Used

Award monies may be used to pay faculty summer salaries, graduate and undergraduate
student wages, or for stipends paid to external contract employees hired to design, develop,
or review courses. Funds may also be used for project-related expenses if approved in
advance. Such expenses should be included in the project proposal budget.
Funding Restrictions
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Funds may only be used for course design and development and may not be used for teaching
or assistance with teaching activities.
Funds must be spent by August 31, 2015 and cannot roll over to the next fiscal year.
Because the award accounts are locally funded, fringes for salary payments must also be
taken out of the award amount.
Online Program Initiative Participation Requirements

Faculty course developers must work with a CLEAR Instructional Consultant and complete
the following modules, which will prepare them for designing, developing and teaching
online:
o Designing Your Online Course workshop (CLEAR)
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2015 Online Program Initiative Request for Proposals
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o Teaching Resources for Engaged Educators (TREE) modules Online Teaching
(Levels I-III)
All program courses must be reviewed and meet minimum standards for online course design
as defined in CLEAR’s Course Approval Rubric – Basic and Standard Criteria (attached).
If the program has not already been approved for online delivery, a proposal for approval will
be submitted. (See https://clear.unt.edu/online-program-approval.)
Program includes an evaluation and assessment plan that aligns with the Evaluation and
Assessment standards within the Online Learning Consortium’s Quality Scorecard: Criteria
for Excellence in the Administration of Online Programs (attached).
Grant Application Review Process
An evaluation committee composed of members appointed by the chair of the CLEAR Steering
Committee will review proposals and recommend award recipients to the Associate Vice Provost
for Learning Enhancement.
Evaluation Criteria
Projects will be evaluated based on:
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Alignment with university, college, department and program goals
Quality of proposal (e.g., Is it complete? Is it free of spelling or grammatical errors? Does
it clearly explain the project so someone outside the applicant’s field can understand
what’s being proposed?)
Alignment of project with Online Program Initiative goals and requirements
Application Instructions
Proposal applications should be completed by department chair or program coordinated and
submitted electronically by 5:00 p.m., February 20, 2015.
After completing the form:
1. When you have completed the application, please save it and send it as an
attachment to jane.himmel@unt.edu no later than February 20, 2015.
2. Within 24 hours you will receive email notification from Adobe EchoSign requesting
digital signature on your application. Follow the instructions provided in the email to sign
the document electronically.
Questions regarding the grant program may be directed to Jane Himmel at 940.369.8137 or
jane.himmel@unt.edu.
Notification of awards will be made no later than March 27, 2015.
Note: Proposals submitted become public information and the information in them may be
published in various UNT documents, including publishing abstracts and/or the complete text of
proposals on UNT's website. If the author of the proposal considers the information contained in
the submission proprietary or sensitive, a request not to publish the proposal must accompany the
proposal form.
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