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Indiana Partnership for Statewide Education

Tutorial for IPSE grant applicants

NOTE: The IHETS appropriation for the 2005-07 biennium was reduced by 12 percent in the first year and an additional 20 percent in the second year. In addition, the final version of the 2005-07 state budget included language that explicitly prohibited use of the IHETS appropriation to support the course and module development program. Therefore, we are unable to offer the grant program after the 2004-05 fiscal year.

Contents

Introduction
I. Market Analysis
II. Instructional Design and Delivery Plan
III. Institutional Capacity and Commitment
IV. Utilization Potential
V. Marketing Plan
VI. Evaluation Plan

Introduction

Search the Web and you'll find lots of wonderful resources on how to write successful grant proposals. In fact, you can find some of the best resources right here on the IHETS Web site. Rather than duplicate these efforts, this tutorial is intended to supplement them with information and advice specific to the IHETS/IPSE course and module development grant program. We'll focus on the six sections of the project narrative that will be scored by the proposal review team. At the end of each section, you'll find links to proposals that were rated highly for that section.

Before delving into the details of the project narrative, however, here are a few general recommendations that will help strengthen your proposal:

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I. Market analysis

Preparing the market analysis is one of the most challenging aspects of proposal development. Most faculty are not market research specialists, nor do they have the time to conduct extensive primary market research in the form of surveys, focus groups, interviews, etc. Instead, you will probably need to rely primarily on secondary sources, such as published articles and reports, demographic studies, online information resources such as virtual university catalogs, as well as anecdotal evidence. Credible, objective evidence is generally rated more highly by reviewers than anecdotal evidence. The specific types of information you will draw upon will depend, in part, on the nature and subject area of your project and the resource available to you.

The market analysis section of your proposal should answer the following questions:

Useful resources. Most college and university campuses have a department or unit dedicated to distance learning, continuing education, lifelong learning, and similar educational outreach efforts. Before writing the market analysis section of your grant, you may wish to consult with the program development staff in this unit as they are often very knowledgeable about local, regional, and statewide educational needs. Other possible sources of information and expertise are local, state, or federal agencies, businesses or corporations, and professional or service organizations.

Some very useful tools and publications on the topic of market and audience analysis can be found on the Web. You may wish to consult one or more of the following resources before starting the market analysis for your project.

Demonstrating need. There are a variety of ways to show that a particular course or module addresses a particular need. The following are potential indicators of need that may be applicable to your project. Be sure to support your argument with supporting evidence, such as articles, reports, original research, statistical data, expert testimony, or other available documentation.

Potential predictors of demand. Many people confuse the terms need and demand. In the field of economics, demand is defined as the desire to purchase a product or service combined with the ability to pay for it. There may be cases where there is a clear and demonstrable need for a course or module, but no market demand for a specific implementation. Many factors may influence the personal decision to enroll (purchase) including price, reputation, convenience, priorities, marketing strategy, delivery modality, etc. Providing concrete evidence that the target audience will be strongly motivated to enroll in your offering will greatly strengthen your proposal. Here again, the type of evidence available will depend on the focus of your particular project. Possible sources include:

A good place to begin is the online course and program catalog of the Indiana College Network. From there you may wish to expand your research to include the offerings of other statewide and regional virtual universities. A list of links to other virtual universities is available from the Oregon Network for Education.

Broad market trends in online post-secondary education are reflected in the catalogs of the University of Phoenix, Capella University, and other “for-profit” institutions. As a general rule, for-profit schools only offer online courses and programs in high-demand areas where they know they can attract students. Examine their catalogs to find out what's hot and what's not.

Describing your target audience. The analysis of the target audience should include at least these three key components:

  1. Audience profile: A description of any characteristics shared by the target population that are likely to influence their decision to enroll and succeed in the offering. This might include age; gender, ethnicity, educational background; occupation; common needs, values, and interests; geographic distribution; income; work-life situation; computer knowledge access. If there are any secondary audiences, identify them as well. Explain why members of these groups would be motivated to enroll in the course or module. It's also important to demonstrate that there are ways to reach your target audience(s) to let them know that the offering exists (e.g., mailing lists, professional associations, user groups, specialized publications, etc.)

  2. Estimated size of target audience: Once you've established the common characteristics of your audience, provide an estimate of the size of the target population. Unless you plan to market the offering out of state, the estimate should be limited to Indiana. Possible resources for this sort of information are published studies and reports, census data, enrollment data for similar offerings, etc. A very useful resource for demographic and employment information is the STATS Indiana Web page.

  3. Estimated annual enrollments: Provide a realistic (conservative) estimate of the number of students who will enroll in the course/module each year as well as an estimate of the minimum enrollments required to make the course/module financially viable.

Proposals with strong market analysis sections

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II. Instructional design and delivery plan

This part of the project narrative, which focuses on the teaching methodology and nature of materials to be developed, is the most heavily weighted of the eight required sections. Logically then, you will probably want to devote more time, thought, and words to this section of the proposal than any other. Try to paint a vivid and detailed picture of the educational experience you hope to create for your students. Explain the various choices you've made regarding delivery technologies, instructional strategies, and the nature of the learning materials and activities you plan to produce, and describe the role each plays in supporting and achieving the instructional goals of the course or module.

If your campus has an instructional support unit with professional instructional designers (instructional design professionals are often employed in centers for teaching and learning [or teaching excellence] and in instructional computing units), you may wish to consult with them while writing your proposal and, if the project is funded, to collaborate with them on the project itself.

Best practices. When evaluating this section of your proposal, the review team will consider the degree your instructional approach reflects commonly-accepted guiding principles and best practices in online instruction, including:

If this is the first time you've developed an online course or you are unfamiliar with the practices and principles listed above, there are many books and Web sites that describe their theory and application in great detail. Here are a few resources to get you started:

Proposals with strong instructional design sections

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III. Institutional capacity and commitment

The review committee wants to be sure that the projects funded through this program have a long and successful life. In additional to the time and resources you personally will devote to the project, the committee will look for evidence that your department, college, and institution will stand solidly behind your effort and has the capacity to deliver.

Institutional capacity is the ability to develop and deliver the proposed course along with all of primary and ancillary services required by the target audience. The following are potential indicators of institutional capacity:

Evidence of institutional commitment can take many forms. Of course, the one of the most obvious is financial support. Your institution must provide at least a 50 percent match of the requested grant amount, but institutional matches above the minimum requirement are a good indicator of institutional commitment. Other potential indicators of institutional commitment are:


Proposals with strong institutional capacity and commitment sections

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IV. Utilization potential

One of the ways the IHETS/IPSE grant program hopes to leverage its investment is by supporting the development of educational content that can be used in multiple contexts and serve multiple audiences. Use this section of the proposal to describe your ideas and/or specific plans for sharing the content you develop with other faculty and/or repurposing the content for use in other contexts. Here are a few suggestions for how you can increase the utilization potential of your project:

Proposals with strong utilization potential sections

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V. Marketing plan

Hopefully by now you've identified a need and your target audience. It's time to think about how you are going to promote your offering to your audience. If your project is a regular on-campus course that gets high enrollments every semester, you probably don't need to worry much about marketing. But, if you are creating something entirely new or hoping to attract new students to a traditional offering, you'll need get the word out. The project marketing plan should answer the following questions:

Before getting started with your plan, find out if the continuing/lifelong education division of your institution has a marketing specialist who can provide advice and assistance with marketing strategies. Since your marketing budget will undoubtedly be modest, try to get your course or module listed in general promotional materials developed by your department or campus in addition to those prepared specifically for your project. Also, be sure to contact the Indiana College Network (ICN) representative at your institution to find out how to get your course or module listed in the ICN online catalog.

Proposals with strong marketing plans

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VI. Evaluation plan


Every project funded through the IHETS/IPSE grant program must include a formal evaluation. The purpose of the evaluation is to help you, the developer/instructor, better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the course or module with the ultimate goal of improving the quality and effectiveness of subsequent offerings. The evaluation can be conducted by the course instructor or by a third party, such as an evaluation and measurement specialist (check with your local center for teaching and learning) or other recognized experts. Grant funds may be used to pay service fees or honoraria paid to the evaluators.

The evaluation plan provides a framework for conducting research on the effectiveness of your course or module and should answer two key questions:

  1. What aspects of the course or module do you plan to evaluate? It's not practical to conduct a systematic evaluation of each and every detail of the course, so you'll need to decide which areas will yield the most useful information. Here's a list of the more commonly studied characteristics of online courses:
    • Quantity and quality of interaction
    • Quality of instruction
    • Overall student satisfaction
    • Satisfaction relative to F2F instruction or another online course
    • Interface usability
    • Relevance of the course content
    • Satisfaction with instructional pacing
    • Clarity of directions provided by the instructor
    • Effectiveness of specific online learning activities and materials (online discussion, lecture, homework assignments, etc.)
    • Satisfaction with group/collaborative assignments
    • Receptiveness to the technology used in the course

  2. What method(s) will you use to gather, analyze, and interpret data for the evaluation? The specific methods you choose will depend, in part, on what you hope to evaluate. Possible data collection methods include:
    • Student questionnaires (formative and/or summative)
    • Focus groups
    • Interviews
    • Observations
    • Standardized testing
    • Reviews by experts

For additional information on developing an evaluation strategy, consult these excellent online resources:


Proposals with strong evaluation plans

 

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Last updated: December 19, 2006