Teaching Scholar Award for Large Class Teaching
Large-enrollment classes present unique opportunities and challenges for faculty teaching in such contexts. This award is designed to recognize faculty members who have a longstanding record of teaching excellence in large-enrollment courses (which, for the purposes of this award, is defined as 100 or more students per section). Recognizing that teaching excellence may look different depending on the course, discipline, and instructor, the award criteria will be sensitive to these variations, while focusing primarily on 1) impact on student learning and 2) effective, engaging, and/or innovative pedagogy in the large class environment.
The Teaching Scholar Award for Large Class Teaching is given to one faculty member every three years. The next call for nominations will be for the 2025 Teaching Scholar Award for Large Class Teaching.
Award recipients will receive a $500 award, up to $2,000 to cover travel and/or registration at one conference to present their large class teaching work, a plaque, and recognition at the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning’s annual award reception.
Eligibility
To be eligible for the Teaching Scholar Award for Large Class Teaching, nominees must 1) be a full-time or part-time faculty member at Virginia Tech, 2) have teaching as one of their primary responsibilities, and 3) have a record of teaching at least one class section of 100 or more students each academic year for at least the past five years.
Nomination Materials
All nominations will be submitted using an online submission form and must include the items listed below. If you have questions, please email teaching@vt.edu.
Submission Form: The submission form requires 1) the nominator’s name, department, and email address (self-nominations are welcome) and 2) the nominee's name, department, phone number, email address, college, rank, years at Virginia Tech, and area of expertise.
Nomination Packet: The nomination packet will be uploaded to an online submission form, be a single PDF file, and include the items below to meet the award criteria.
- Large-Enrollment Course List: Include a list of the nominee’s large-enrollment course sections (100 or more students per section) for the past five academic years. For each course section, include the course number and title, CRN, enrollment number, and course catalog description. Other pieces of information (e.g., SPOT scores) may also be included but are not required.
- Teaching Philosophy: Include a statement of the nominee’s teaching philosophy, highlighting the nominee’s approach to teaching large classes. (2 pages max.)
- Abbreviate CV: Include an abbreviated version of the nominee’s CV. (2 pages max.)
- Statements of Support: Submit a single document that includes statements of support (or excerpts from letters) from the nominee’s supervisors, colleagues, and/or students, which speak specifically to the nominee’s effectiveness in teaching large classes. (3 pages max.)
- Supporting Materials: Submit at least one and no more than three pieces of supporting material that provides additional evidence of the nominee’s effectiveness in teaching large classes. The supporting materials may include an example of students’ work, course artifacts, media coverage of student experience, and/or published scholarship recognized in the discipline. (3 items max.)