The eligibility information listed here is preliminary and is based upon the 2004 Premier Award. Please check back for updated info. Please contact NEEDS Project Director, Brandon Muramatsu, at mura@needs.org for more information.
The Premier Award was developed to recognize "high-quality, non-commercial courseware designed to enhance engineering education."
The official language of the 2004 Premier Award competition is English.
Authors are invited to resubmit courseware from the 1997-2003 competitions for the 2004 competition, provided they meet all eligibility guidelines, follow the submission procedures and provide the additional documentation specified in the submission procedures.
Premier Courseware of 1997-2003 are ineligible to submit for the 2004 Premier Award competition.
Administrative personnel (e.g., Coalition Directors, Department Chairs, Deans) in positions of authority over judges and/or facilitators are ineligible to submit to the 2004 Premier Award.
Courseware submitted to the 2004 Premier Award competition must be distributable through NEEDS and on a Premier Courseware of 2004 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 2004 Premier Award competition, b) they will transmit to NEEDS a full working version of their courseware (in some cases previews or demos of the courseware may be acceptable) in August 1 - September 30, 2004 if it is selected as the 2004 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 2004 CD-ROM.
The judging panel may include NEEDS Premier Award Editors, one representative from each sponsoring organization, at-large content-area expert(s), and at-large instructional designers. All judges will abide by standard National Science Foundation conflict-of-interest guidelines for proposal review. If the situation arises judges may recuse themselves, or be recused by the judging panel if any perceived conflict of interest occurs. Facilitators will be present to clarify questions regarding the intent of the criteria and procedural matters as well as arbitrate any conflict-of-interest problems.
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.
