Duke’s Office of Undergraduate Education and Office of Interdisciplinary Studies, in partnership with Duke Learning Innovation, are offering Summer Course Development Grants (SCDG) to schools, departments and other units that offer undergraduate curricula. These grants seek to foster the development or redesign of summer session courses that:
- Align with the curricular priorities of the school, department or other unit
- Have a good chance of attracting significant student interest from year to year
- Incorporate innovative pedagogical approaches, which may include creation of digital learning assets to supplement or deliver instruction and/or enhance student engagement; such resources can be asynchronous components as part of an in-person class experience, or the development of hybrid courses
- Will be taught by one or more Ph.D. students on a regular basis, beginning the following summer.
The summers of 2021 and 2022 demonstrated significant demand by Duke students and undergraduates from other institutions for summer courses that enable them to make progress on their educational plans. We want to capitalize on that interest while allowing departments and programs to expand and improve their undergraduate curricula and provide Ph.D. students with opportunities to receive summer funding and gain experience as effective teachers.
This grant program provides schools, departments and other units that offer majors, minors or certificates the opportunity to develop or redesign a regular summer course that fulfills a critical curricular niche and will likely attract strong student interest. The data from Duke’s summer sessions indicate that broadly based courses, particularly those fulfilling widely needed curricular requirements, are most likely to attract significant enrollment. More specialized offerings that dovetail closely with doctoral research topics, by contrast, typically under-enroll and risk cancellation.
One challenge for many Ph.D. students who teach in the summer has been the development of course materials. Through this funding opportunity, we hope to generate departmental or program resources that instructors of record can build on from year to year, lowering the time summer instructors must invest to get a course up and running. Those resources might include asynchronous elements (e.g., recorded lectures, interviews or conversations) and guidelines for assignments, such as guided research, data analysis, primary source analysis, group projects and ongoing partnerships with Durham- or Triangle-based organizations.
Deadline: Nov. 30, 2022
- Any school, department or other unit that offers an undergraduate major, minor or certificate is eligible for the grant.
- Applications should be submitted by the relevant director of undergraduate studies.
- Two or more units may submit a joint application for a course that is or will be cross-listed.
- International Ph.D. students who are included in the application as the graduate assistant should consult with Duke Visa Services for assistance with any visa-related requirements.
Departments or other units that are awarded a Summer Course Development Grant will receive a funding package for one Ph.D. student in the summer (a half-stipend of $4,207.50, including fringe, coverage of the full summer health fee, and tuition) to work as a graduate assistant developing course materials in partnership with one faculty member. Departments or other units must commit to providing the remaining Ph.D. student stipend ($4,207.50, including fringe). The faculty member overseeing the graduate assistantship will receive $3,000 in research funding; applications with more than one faculty member will receive up to $5,000 in shared research funding.