Our students and faculty want greater flexibility in the online, remote, and hybrid modalities offered by academic units. The further integration of these modalities and technologies is a vehicle for helping us to become a dynamic, creative learning community that allows educators the flexibility to use the right modality for their subject for both resident and distance students, further supporting student success. The Pilot for In-Load Online Teaching (PILOT) is a two-year program that aims to improve student success by supporting academic units in creating a transformational change for online, remote, and hybrid teaching and learning at CU Boulder. PILOT seeks to leverage online, remote, and hybrid modalities to create sustainable change that aligns with pedagogical excellence, research-based practices, and course and program objectives, while at the same time providing options for the academic unit, college, or university to conceptualize and evaluate these modalities as part of overall teaching excellence. Teams will meet initially for the PILOT Institute to frame their project at the start of the semester. Teams will continue to meet on their own to continue and progress on their project as well as meet with their PILOT mentors. Each semester, teams will engage in the PILOT Coalition to discuss and share their progress.聽

The following teams have been selected to participate:

English Department

Led by Teresa Nugent and Thora Brylowe

The Writing in the Age of AI certificate is designed to address the technical and critical thinking skills necessary to succeed in professional environments that are rapidly embracing time-saving AI practices. This certificate, being developed by Department of English, will be open to all undergraduates at the University of Colorado Boulder. Courses for this certificate will be offered in various modalities: asynchronous online, in person, and hybrid, with a path to complete entirely online. The English Department is ideally positioned to create a Writing in the Age of AI Certificate. To earn the certificate, students need to successfully complete three one-credit fundamental skills courses (from a list of six or more), a mandatory, three-credit course, 鈥淲riting in the Age of AI,鈥� and six credits of electives from a selection of pre-approved, upper-division courses on subjects including advanced syntax, prosody, literature and data science, and AI in society.

Women and Gender Studies Department

Led by Maisam Alomar and Leila G贸mez

This team will modify undergraduate WGST core courses to integrate universal learning for learning (UDL) and develop the courses in the online modality. As a department that already prioritizes questions of equity and diversity in their course content across the board, they are well-positioned to be at the forefront of thinking through the implementation of these ideas in course design. The team will start with two core classes: WGST 2000, Introduction to US Gender, Race, and Sexuality Studies and WGST 2600, Introduction to Global Gender, Race, and Sexuality Studies. Through the emphasis of UDL in course design, along with other best practices, promotes inclusive learning environments in which students feel that their contributions and perspectives are equally valued and respected.

The Pilot for In-Load Online Teaching (PILOT) is a two-year program that aims to improve student success by supporting academic units in creating a transformational change for online, remote, and hybrid teaching and learning at CU Boulder. PILOT seeks to leverage online, remote, and hybrid modalities to create sustainable change that aligns with pedagogical excellence, research-based practices, and course and program objectives, while at the same time providing options for the academic unit, college, or university to conceptualize and evaluate these modalities as part of overall teaching excellence. PILOT supports our university鈥檚 common vision of teaching excellence independent of modality, and advances the recommendations for online and distance education from Academic Futures.聽

Our students want greater flexibility in the online, remote, and hybrid modalities offered by academic units. This can be accomplished through innovations such as the transformation of sections of a highly-enrolled lower-division course into online, remote, or hybrid modality, developing an undergraduate or graduate certificate in an online modality, or redesigning key courses to enhance student success and retention into an online format that can be utilized by the entire department. Many of our faculty and units desire to experiment with technology-enhanced learning across the spectrum of teaching modalities, from using various kinds of technology to support hybrid learning to developing fully online courses and programs. The further integration of these modalities and technologies is a vehicle for helping us to become a dynamic, creative learning community that allows educators the flexibility to use the right modality for their subject for both resident and distance students, further supporting student success.

PILOT is not promoting online, remote, and hybrid learning for technology鈥檚 sake, but instead seeks to support the development of courses and programs in these modalities or other online initiatives that serve clear pedagogical purposes, advance/further course and program objectives, and support student success.

We seek participation from academic units that are interested in implementing firmly grounded research-based practices to create flexible academic structures, including, for example, stackable credentials, the ability of students to mix-and-match online and face-to-face classes, and programs integrated with industry.

PILOT Initiative Teams will be led by a team-identified manager. Teams will work together for two years to plan and integrate an online, remote, or hybrid initiative that supports student success; identify and adopt course design best practices that align instruction, assignments, learning activities, and assessments with course learning outcomes; and develop a way to assess the initiative. The PILOT support group will assist initiative teams with strategic planning, program management development, alignment with university and college structures and goals, instructional design, and cross-campus collaboration.

  • Develop an undergraduate minor or certificate in an online modality
  • Create a new interdisciplinary certificate in an online modality
  • Transform sections of a highly-enrolled lower-division course into online or hybrid modality
  • Develop an online master course or templated design for key or foundational course(s) taught predominantly by tenure-track faculty, GPTIs or other temporary faculty
  • Redesign a key course into an online format that can be utilized by the entire department聽
  • Develop an online master鈥檚 degree program or graduate certificate
  • Create an online certificate or credential in which the academic unit is partnered with government or industry
  • Develop academic unit procedures and structures that empower faculty to flexibly use the right modality for their course, program, or student audience
  • Train an academic unit online manager who is able to support the end-to-end process for online and hybrid modalities from developing structures and procedures to instructional design to program launch
  • Develop online modality microcredentials that enhance the undergraduate experience
  • Create a certificate offered on the Coursera platform at the undergraduate or graduate level
  • Develop sharable practices for peer evaluation of online, remote, and/or hybrid teaching

Proposal Development Consultations

Location: Zoom:聽

Please reach out to Karen Gebhardt and Kalpana Gupta, if you would like to meet in person.

  • Thursday, May 25, 2-4
  • Friday, June 9, 12-2
  • Friday, June 16, 12-2
  • Thursday, June 29, 2-4

  • Transform how the academic unit/college/university conceptualizes online, remote, and/or hybrid teaching and learning as part of their overall teaching excellence.聽
  • Be grounded in student success.
  • Create sustainable structures.
  • Share knowledge gained with the campus community.

A coalition of partners from across campus will support initiative teams in each step of the process, from initial questions through implementation, assessment, and sustainability planning throughout the two-year program period.

Please note that Fall 2023 will be a pivotal planning semester because of the need to work with university structures and timelines (e.g., new course proposals and new program proposals must be finalized and submitted to the university by January 2024).

To support the work, each initiative will receive up to $15,000 per year for two years. A maximum of three initiatives will be funded for the Fall 2023 cohort.聽

Applications for the Fall 2023 cohort must be received by Friday, June 30, 2023, by 5:00 pm. Please see the application information.

Pilot for In-Load Online Teaching (PILOT) aims to promote communication and collaboration among campus partners to support each funded team鈥檚 goals. PILOT will employ the following strategies:

  1. Initiative Team composition may include academic unit faculty, staff, leadership, graduate part-time instructors or teaching assistants, and undergraduate student representatives, and, if applicable, staff and faculty from other offices or academic units. Each team will identify a Team Manager who will provide leadership, organizational support, and communication among team members and with the PILOT support group. Teams will meet frequently to create, implement, evaluate, and revise the team action plan (meet approximately every 2 weeks throughout the academic year). Initiative teams will commit to work together for the duration of the two-year program period (student members will change as needed).
  2. PILOT Institute (9am-3pm will meet during the week before classes start, date TBD) will be the launch event for the program. Teams will participate in guided sessions with聽 facilitators who will inspire and support participants in the initial thinking about their initiative goals. Campus experts will facilitate engaging sessions on key topics. Teams will meet with the PILOT support group to create team action plans.聽
  3. PILOT Check-ins will connect Teams and Team Managers with the PILOT support group approximately every two weeks throughout the academic year to provide support and overcome roadblocks to success.聽聽
  4. The Assessment Support Team consists of CTL and ODA assessment experts who will work with the initiative teams to create and carry out feasible assessment plans, including data collection, analyses, and interpretation of results.聽
  5. PILOT Coalition (meets once per semester) comprises the team managers, applicable team members, and the PILOT support group. The coalition will convene each semester to share progress on plans, learn new strategies, discuss challenges, and address needs for support.

Timeline:

  • Friday, June 30, 2023, by 5pm: Applications for the Fall 2023 cohort due
  • Friday, July 14, 2023: Recipients announced.
  • Week before school starts: PILOT Institute
  • Every two weeks for the academic year:

Initiative Team meetings

PILOT Check-ins

  • Friday, October 6, 2023: Each team鈥檚 action plan finalized.
  • Fall semester, 2023: Attendance and presentation at PILOT Coalition
  • Friday, December 1, 2023: New course or program paperwork finalized at the academic unit level, if applicable.
  • January 5, 2024: New course or program paperwork submitted to university, if applicable.
  • Spring and fall semesters 2024: Continuation of initiative work.
  • Spring and fall semesters 2024, spring semester 2025: Attendance and presentation at PILOT Coalition
  • Spring semester 2025: Finalization of initiative

Funded Expenses

To support the work, each initiative will receive up to $15,000 per year for two years. A maximum of three initiatives will be funded for the Fall 2023 cohort.聽

Allowable Expenses

  • Initiative funds will support typically allowable expenses, which may include but are not limited to:
    • Faculty course release
    • Hourly wages
    • Materials, books, or supplies used in the initiative
    • 聽Registration fees for group training webinars
    • Software licenses to collect or analyze data
    • Travel expenses to conferences or other trainings the support the initiative

Non-allowable Expenses

  • Pay or travel expenses for professional consultants or outside speakers

Participants in Initiative Teams agree to:

  • Be active participants in the team to plan, implement, assess, and reflect on the initiative;
  • Attend the PILOT Institute the week before the fall 2023 semester; and
  • Prepare a summary report (2-3 pages) to share annually with the PILOT Coalition.

Team Managers agree to:

  • Coordinate initiative activities for their own team;
  • Communicate with the PILOT support group and the Assessment Support Team at the designated intervals;
  • Attend the PILOT Institute the week before the fall 2023 semester; and
  • Participate in PILOT Coalition work sessions once each semester.

  • Teams will receive an annual initiative fund of up to $15,000 for design and implementation needs. Teams will decide how the funds will be used to support initiative activities. A team鈥檚 budget might include a course release for the team manager, but this may not be necessary for all teams.
  • Initiative teams will receive ongoing support from initiative partners such the Center for Teaching & Learning (CTL), Office of Information Technology (OIT), Office of Undergraduate Education, Office of Academic and Learning Innovation (ALI), and Office of Data Analytics (ODA).
  • Individual participants will receive an annual formal letter documenting their participation, which may contribute to teaching and/or service expectations and can be included in a dossier.

Application Information

Further reading & resources:

AY 2022鈥�23 Academic Instruction: Guidance for Instructional Personnel and for Colleges, Schools, Departments, and Programs