
Excellence and Innovation in Teaching 21st-Century Skills
The Office of the Provost recognizes a small number of faculty who have demonstrated innovation, excellence, and effectiveness teaching the 21st-century skills identified by the faculty as described in the Academic Vision and Harvest our Treasures Strategic Plan: creativity, empathy, critical thinking, information/data literacy, communication skills, resilience, and lifelong learning.
Requirements
Each college may nominate one full-time professor for the award for Excellence and Innovation in Teaching 21st-Century Skills. The Deans' Office should provide the following nominating material
in addition to the material listed in "General Eligibility":
- Highlights of teaching assignments;
- Examples of teaching innovations and engagement in student learning outcomes assessment;
- Examples of teaching evaluations and analysis thereof. Teaching evaluation documentation is mandatory for the nomination package. Available comparison information should also be provided. The nominator should note if (and why) there is no available documentation on student evaluations and is free to provide a framework if there is a belief that the scores do not fully capture the candidate’s teaching excellence;
- Justification for nomination.
- Nominators should arrange for between two and four student letters from students taught by the nominee. At least one letter should be from a current student, and letters should represent at least two different courses. Students should also be encouraged to highlight innovations in the teaching approach of their nominee.
Aside from evaluations and student letters, any artifacts of teaching innovations, syllabi, teaching evaluations and the like should be limited to five pages and should be included as a single attachment (Word or PDF) with the nomination.

