The ECIU Team Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning is based on the assumption that innovation is multi-faceted and has the most impact for sustainable and transformative teaching innovation if groups and interdisciplinary teams of people are working together. Moreover, in accordance with the ECIU Teaching and Learning Statement, innovations usually involve creative teaching approaches that focus on student learning, are future-focused and foster social entrepreneurship in the service of challenging conventional thinking.
We recognize that innovative teaching requires more than one individual to make sustainable and transformative changes. This ECIU Team Award recognizes the efforts that are necessary by teams to achieve and accomplish such endeavors.
Teaching and learning is a core activity of ECIU members. Member institutions share a commitment to the development of high-quality educational practices, which promote innovation, and the pursuit of excellence in teaching and learning. Therefore, the ECIU Team award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning aims to promote, celebrate and showcase innovations in teaching and learning activities that involve groups and/or interdisciplinary teams, in keeping with ECIU’s mission of “Challenging Conventional Thinking” for tomorrow’s world, today. More specifically, the award is designed to:
When we use the term group and/or interdisciplinary we mean different people and stakeholders bringing different skills and perspectives who contribute and collaborate in achieving teaching and learning innovations. We specifically include students as partners in this aspect.
This year, with regard to the extraordinary situation around the globe due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the significance of online education has proven to be crucial. In addition, virtual student mobility has been recognized as an integral part of CBL within ECIU University. Therefore, the 2020 ECIU Team Award will emphasize online education as well.
There will be a first price: Winner of the ECIU Team Award
and a second: Winner of the Special Highly Recommended Award.
Since the definition of innovation adopted for this award relates to renewal or improvement, with transformation being a consequence of this improvement, the intention is to recognize the results of team-based innovation efforts.
Each application needs to demonstrate how the particular teaching and learning innovation meets a specific set of criteria, given in the appendix. Practical details of the applications can be found on the appendix as well.
All applicants will receive constructive feedback that should enable them to refine future re-applications.
Information about the application process will be available through the ECIU website. Each member university is able to submit one application and one only. It is up to each institution how it will identify its applicant. The applicant is asked to send the application in a PDF file to email address: teamaward@eciu.org. Late applications will not be accepted but ECIU reserves the right to extend the application deadline. The selection panel consists of the ECIU University Expert Group on Education with a minimum of three members and a representative of the award-winning team of the previous year. The selection panel will contact all applicants about the outcome of the evaluation process and the feedback. The selection panel will present to and inform the ECIU University Expert Group on Education about the evaluation. Members of the selection panel cannot be applicants and members of the University Expert Group on Education cannot be part of any of the teams that apply.
This is a prestigious award and should be seen as such amongst ECIU member institutions. The first prize has a value of €2,500 that will be paid to the lead institution for distribution amongst applicants. In addition, 1 member of the successful team will be funded to attend the ECIU fall Board meeting where (s)he will be formally presented with the award on 29 October 2020 in Enschede, the Netherlands. It is an expectation that (s)he will also give a brief presentation on the innovation. Other members of the award-winning team may attend this presentation at their own expense. 2nd place has a value of €1,500. The 2nd place awardees will be presented their awards by the relevant ECIU Board member or designate at their local institution.
The awards should be celebrated and publicized widely within and beyond the ECIU network. An ECIU press release will be issued after the awards have been announced and we encourage opportunities for individual member institutions to recognize awardees during other events celebrating innovations in teaching and learning. Winners will be expected to produce a 2-3 min video about their innovation that can be embedded on the ECIU website. Team recipients of the award and highly commended categories are also expected to make themselves available for photographs publicizing the awards on the ECIU website. Finally, the winning team will be assisted in translating their innovation into a publication in a suitable peer-reviewed journal.
The ECIU Team Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning aims to recognize the role that teams of people play within and/or across universities in successfully developing and implementing educational innovations. In this respect the Award differs from many existing awards, which recognize the efforts of individual teachers. The Award is open to all staff in member institutions but only one application per institution can be submitted each year. The intention of the Award is to promote, celebrate and showcase how the ECIU supports sustainable and transformative innovations in teaching and learning, especially in terms of challenging conventional thinking.