remier Award 2002: Submission

Submission Deadline: Friday, July 12, 2002, 5 p.m. PT

Please contact the NEEDS Project Director, Brandon Muramatsu, at mura@needs.org for more information.

• Submit your courseware to our Digital Library.
  
  

• Notes for the 2002 Premier Award Competition from the NEEDS Premier Award Co-Editors (Added June 1, 2002)
  

  We welcome your submissions for the 2002 Premier Award. The Premier Award competition is open to a wide range of submissions of "high-quality, non-commercial courseware designed to enhance engineering education." In addition to reviewing the eligibility info and submission info below, we would like to point out a few specific items:

  • We strongly suggest that you review past Premier Courseware (especially the submission packets, such as those from Project Links and West Point Bridge Designer). While each year is slightly different, past submissions can provide you a good sense of the types of materials that the judges and the competition value.
  • We also strongly suggest that you take the time to carefully prepare your submissions, these play an important role in the overall evaluation of your courseware because the Premier Award "is about the entire experience and not just the courseware."
  • Lastly, if you submit a course or class website for review, we strongly recommend that you highlight the portions of the website that contain content that can be used in a variety of settings outside of the particular class that you are submitting for review.
  
  
• Provide fifteen (15) copies of your courseware for judging purposes.
  • If your courseware is a WWW site, then we will link to it directly for the judging. The site must available for review from July 12 to September 15, 2002.
  • If your courseware is distributed on CD, or exceeds 100 MB, then you must provide us with fifteen (15) copies of the courseware on either CD-R's or CD-ROM's.
  • If your courseware is reasonably sized (e.g., 5-10 MB) PC or Mac software that is stored as a compressed file on a website or ftp server, please provide the appropriate URL during Cataloging (Step 1 above). We will download your courseware and distribute it to the judges.
  
  
• Provide fifteen (15) copies of your submission packet, with the following items:
  • Cover letter, not to exceed 1 page*, that must include:
    • clear statement that you are authorized to submit this courseware for the competition;
    • full contact information for the submitter;
    • clear statement of who holds the copyright(s) for the courseware and its components;
    • names of all authors and whether they have been contacted regarding this submission;
    • clear statement allowing NEEDS to become a non-exclusive distributor of the courseware, as submitted, for the 2002 Premier Award competition (see also Eligibility Information); and
    • brief, two to four sentence description of the courseware suitable for promotional purposes (e.g., see the text used to describe the Premier Courseware of 1997).
  • Body, not to exceed 10 pages*, including:

    The text in the body should ultimately respond to the evaluation criteria for engineering education courseware. We have provided a draft of the 2002 evaluation criteria based upon the 2000 Premier Award Competition. We strongly encourage you to read it and respond to the various criteria in the body of your submission report. View Adobe Acrobat File of the 2002 Evaluation Criteria. You may also wish to take a look at an example from 2000 - Project Links Submission Packet or West Point Bridge Designer Submission Packet.

    The examples provided in the bullet items below are not intended to be exhaustive, but rather illustrate the types of information you should include.
    

    In the body, you must include:

    • Description of the impact of this courseware. For example, what topic areas are covered in the courseware? How and where has the courseware been used? In a lab or lecture section? At a different institution? In different departments? How many learners have been impacted by the courseware? A single class? An entire department?
    • Description of how the courseware is used by a learner. Description of the support materials used in conjunction with this courseware, including pedagogical objectives, learning goals, lesson plans, instructor's and user's guides, etc.
    • Description of the evaluation and assessment performed to assess improved student learning through use of the courseware. For example, was student learning improved? How was student learning measured? Was some process/product (e.g., report writing, test scores, etc.) measurably improved?
      
    • Letters/Statements of Reference. These letters/statements should be by instructors other than the author(s) that have either adopted or adapted the courseware. Ideally one or more of these instructors will be at a different institution than the author(s). Up to three can be included in the Body, any others may be included in the Appendix. This section is optional but adoption and/or adaptation by others may be viewed as a key measure of your courseware.
  • Appendix, can include:
    • Additional Letters of Reference.
    • Journal or Conference Papers describing the courseware and its use.
    • Learner evaluations, surveys and survey results.
    • Any additional supporting material that may assist the judges in evaluating your courseware.
  • * Page Specifications
    • Paper: US Letter size (8.5" x 11")
    • Three hole punched preferred
    • 1" Margins all around
    • Font:10 to 12 point, Times, Times New Roman, or equivalent
    • Line Spacing: At the discretion of the submitter.

• Submitter and/or graduate students and technical staff must be available Sept. 1-Sept. 25 to work with NEEDS staff. Due to the nature of the judging and production of the Premier Courseware of 2002 CD-ROM this will require rapid response and unfortunately we won't know the exact time that we may need your assistance.

• (Repeated from the Eligibility Information.) Courseware submitted to the 2002 Premier Award competition must be distributable through NEEDS and on a Premier Courseware of 2002 CD-ROM. By submitting to the Premier Award competition the submitter acknowledges that a) they retain sufficient rights to allow NEEDS to become a non-exclusive distributor of the courseware as submitted for the 2002 Premier Award competition, b) they will transmit to NEEDS a full working version of their courseware in early-/mid-September if it is selected as the 2002 Premier Courseware (even if their courseware is web-based), and c) they will work with NEEDS staff to ensure their courseware runs smoothly from a Premier Courseware of 2002 CD-ROM.

• All items (1-3) must be completed and arrive by Friday, July 12, 2002 at 5 P.M. Pacific Time.

  • Send submissions to:
    

    2002 Premier Award
    

    c/o NEEDS
    

    3115 Etcheverry Hall
    

    University of California at Berkeley
    

    Berkeley, CA 94720-1750
    

  • Optional: We encourage you to provide us with the elements of the submission packet electronically as an Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file (should your courseware be selected as the Premier Courseware of 2002, we will require you to send us an Adobe Acrobat file with your submission packet). These may be transmitted electronically as a file attachment to e-mail, or on 3.5" floppy disk (Mac or PC format), CD-R, or CD-ROM. You must, however, still submit fifteen (15) paper copies of the submission packet by the deadline. We will use this electronic version of your materials to supplement your courseware record in the NEEDS Database.

See Also: Eligibility Information

If you'd like more information about the Premier Award or how to become a sponsor, please contact Professor Joe Tront at Virginia Tech via email at jgtront@vt.edu.