THELMA FORDYCE-MACK ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS

The Thelma Fordyce-Mack Achievement Awards recognize significant accomplishments in teaching, research, or academic support. Awards include a certificate of recognition and a monetary award whose funds are generated annually from the Thelma Fordyce-Mack estate. The Faculty Achievement Committee has been given responsibility for overseeing the process, and has made some revisions to the Selection Criteria and the Evaluation Form. Please read the following carefully!

Eligibility

All faculty, residents and teaching staff (full-time) at Palmer College who are actively involved with special projects may apply for a Thelma Fordyce-Mack Award. Those working in clinics, academics, administration, research, and academic support are welcome to apply for the award. Applicants may self-nominate a project or the project may be nominated by a supervisor, peer(s), staff, or student(s). For projects that are nominated by someone other than a project participant, the project participant nominated will be contacted and requested to complete appropriate paperwork if interested in pursuing the award.

Application Deadline

If you intend to nominate a project for which you are not a project participant, please submit that nomination to the Director of the Center for Teaching and Learning on, or before, 4 p.m., March 31, 2008. This will allow ample time for the applicant to be notified and to submit a completed packet before the deadline. Self-nominations may simply follow the Application Format listed below. All completed applications must be submitted to the Director of CTL by 4 p.m., April 11, 2008.

Selection Criteria (PLEASE READ CAREFULLY)

The award is project specific, therefore, all contributors to the project must be clearly identified as outlined in the “Participant” section. The project should represent exemplary work in, or beyond, assigned duties. Projects will be judged on their eligibility for an award based upon the submission meeting all of the following criteria:

1. The work is determined to be exemplary. Exemplary work, by definition:

a. Serves as an example to others

b. Deserves imitation

c. Is commendable because of excellence.

2. The work promotes student learning, furthers understanding of chiropractic, or impacts Palmer College or the chiropractic profession.

3. The work has clear and measurable outcomes (see discussion below) and provides a discussion of whether these outcomes have been met.

4. The project is presented in the appropriate application format (see page 3) and includes correct documentation of sources.

Project Outcomes

In order to be considered for an award, each project must include clear and measurable outcomes, answering these types of questions. These outcomes may be internal or external. The following are intended to be examples only; applicants are encouraged to submit projects in many areas of endeavor:

· Internal outcomes answer the question: “How do you know this project was effective? Did this project change anything? Did it increase student learning? Did it contribute to increasing understanding of chiropractic techniques? Does it contribute to the chiropractic profession?”

· Examples of possible projects:

a. In a course revision project, the instructor obtains pre- and post- evaluations of the effectiveness of the revision in promoting student learning.

b. In a chiropractic research project, clear objectives for the project are set out and results are measured against the objectives.

c. In a study evaluating different teaching methods and their effectiveness in assisting students with different learning styles, an instructor assesses the association between methodology and grades on exams.

· External outcomes answer the question: “What’s next? How will this information be disseminated to others? How might it be useful to Palmer specifically or to the chiropractic profession in general?”

· Examples of possible projects:

a. The author of a case study describes his/her intentions to publish, including details of journals submitted to.

b. The author of a course project includes a detailed description of how it might be used in the new curriculum delivery system at Palmer.

c. The coordinator of a major service project at Palmer includes a discussion of how this type of project might be extended to other Palmer entities (Florida or West, for example).

Other Criteria

For this year’s award, significant work on the project must have taken place from March 2007 to March 2008 (Spring term of 2007 through Fall/Winter term of 2007-08).

Resubmissions

1. Projects that have received this award in the past may not be resubmitted.

2. Projects that have been submitted in the past and were not awarded may be resubmitted IF evidence of improvement on the past submissions is clearly demonstrated.

3. Projects that are being resubmitted with evidence of improvement (as noted above) are required to attach the original submission(s) as an appendix.

Application Review

Approximately twenty (20) faculty reviewers working in teams will evaluate each application for completeness, practical significance, originality, quality, outcomes and exemplary nature according to the worksheet on page five. Members of the Faculty Achievement Committee will serve as committee chairs. The chairs will perform a preliminary evaluation to determine if applications meet the minimum criteria. Each application will be evaluated on its own merit (not in comparison with other submissions) by each group. All applications deemed “outstanding” (receiving an “Overall” average of a “4” or higher) will be considered for an award. The monetary amount of the awards will be determined by dividing the number of recipients by the funds available (maximum $1000 per award).

Application Format

NOTE: Each submission should be completely self-evident; it is incumbent upon the applicant to provide all the information requested below. Committees will not seek further clarification; incomplete or unclear applications will not be considered for an award.

Applications should be formatted accordingly:

¨ Title Page (1 page)

· title of project

· participant list

§ names of each participant

§ percent of contribution for each participant

§ academic rank

§ area of assignment (Classroom, Clinic, Life Sciences, Research)

· date

¨ Project Participant Signature Form

¨ The Participants (Include information about each author) (1 page):

• How does this project relate to the participant’s primary assignment or other responsibility?

• How does this project relate to other responsibilities of your position?

• When was the majority of the work done on this project?

• Is this a continuation of a previously submitted project? If so, what significant improvements have been made to the project since the previous submission?

• Is this project one of several submissions by the same applicant? If so, how is this project significantly different from the other submitted projects?

¨ Abstract

• Provide a brief overview of the project in one page.

¨ Body (5 -10 pages)

• Format: double-spaced, 12-point font, standard page size and margins, running header with abbreviated title and page number

• Completely describe the project using the following format:

a. Background: Why did you decide to do this project? What other work has been done in this area?

b. Methodology (How did you do the project? What measurements did you use to determine the effectiveness of the project?)

c. Project: Provide an overview of the project.

d. Intended outcome (What did you want to learn as a result of this project? What did you want to communicate to others about the results of this project? How did you intend to communicate the results of the project?)

e. Results (What was the result of your measurement? Have you submitted for publication/presentation?)

f. Discussion and Conclusion (Give a brief summary to finalize.)

¨ Timeline of Project (include date of project start, month/year of key accomplishments, completion) that clearly outlines when the project was done.

¨References (optional)

• listed in alphabetical order

¨ Appendix (no page limit)

• append important documents to support the application as needed

• arrange the appended documents in the same order that they are referred to in the body of the application.

Applications will not be accepted if they are incomplete or substantially deviate in format from the criteria detailed above. The application does not have to be professionally bound. However, it should be stapled or substantially compiled to ensure it will stay bound when multiple reviewers are handling the document. Submitted applications will not be returned; applicants are advised to make copies for their own records as appropriate.

Thelma Fordyce-Mack Achievement Awards Evaluation Form

NOTE: Each application will be evaluated on its own merit – not in comparison with other submissions.

I. Applicant’s Name(s)_____________________________________

II. Review committee (circle one): A B C D

Facilitator __________________

Committee members: (1) ________________ (2) _________________

(3)______________ (4) ________________ (5) _________________

III. Worksheet (The members of each review committee should discuss the application and reach a majority decision on the following criteria.):

1. COMPLETENESS (Is the application project specific? Does the application contain all the necessary information to judge the project’s significance? Is documentation adequate?):