Sample Proposal Text:
Online Course Design and Delivery Program
**If you are proposing to develop online courses for high school or college-level students or if you represent an organization, university, or individual school, rather than a district, you will need to modify the text in a number of places; please read and edit carefully!
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Introduction | 9) | Partnerships |
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Overview/Project Summary | 10) | Project Sustainability |
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Project Background | 11) | Timeline |
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Statement of Need | 12) | Budget |
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Goals and Objectives | 13) | Budget Narrative |
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Methodology | 14) | Capability & Capacity Statements |
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Dissemination | 15) | Conclusion |
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Evaluation | 16) | Appendix |
Depending on the context and the grant requirements, your introduction may take the form of a cover letter, rather than an introductory paragraph.
At a minimum, the introduction should include the following:
This project will focus on the use
of online learning to build the capacity of the XXX District to provide quality
professional development to enable administrators and teachers to integrate
technology into the curriculum to meet standards. The No Child Left Behind
Act challenges school districts to improve student achievement through the use
of technology, to raise student technology literacy, and to ensure that teachers
integrate technology into the curriculum effectively. The EdTech
Leaders Online program at
Over the past ## years, the XXX District has developed a powerful technology infrastructure and ## robust programs for preparing teachers to use this technology effectively in their classrooms. The XXX Schools adopted new standards for technology literacy in YY, and a primary goal for the YY-YY school year is to enable all teachers and students to meet this standard.
Include any information here about your district or organization’s past work with professional development, technology, or other related projects. If you have participated in ETLO programs in the past and are applying for funding for additional programs, this is also an appropriate place to outline your district or organization’s past experiences with ETLO and EDC.
As web-based technologies infiltrate every aspect of everyday life, it is imperative that teachers are kept up-to-date, learning the most effective ways to use technology to enhance their instruction and their students’ learning. Nationally, school spending on technology and the number of computers in schools continue to grow, but districts often spend less on the professional development and training needed for teachers to implement this technology in the classroom.
Many of the professional development programs that are currently offered to teachers fail to provide the kind of ongoing support teachers need to make effective use of educational technology, and as a result, few teachers are in a position to integrate new technologies into their classroom practices. Teachers may attend a one-day workshop and return to school the following day not knowing how or having the time to integrate what they learned into their curricula, or they may lack the support from colleagues that is necessary for their attempts to be successful. To be successful in their endeavors to learn and implement new technologies, teachers need hands-on learning rooted in their own curricula that will enable them to translate training into practice.
Like many educators, teachers and administrators in the XXX District juggle a number of diverse and time-consuming responsibilities, and scheduling time for ongoing professional development or productive interaction with colleagues can be extremely difficult. Educators need to be able to participate in professional development courses whenever and wherever it is convenient for them: before or after school, during a free planning period in the classroom, or at home on the weekends, if need be. Moreover, teachers must be able to interact with colleagues in a collaborative, supportive environment and feel that they have a voice in guiding the direction of their training to ensure that the skills are applicable to the disciplines and students they teach.
In addition, educators in District XXX have very specific needs that can be met most successfully by online courses designed and delivered locally. Local teachers and administrators are already extremely invested in the process of improving classroom practice and student achievement, and are well-versed in the needs of their colleagues. They are uniquely suited to identifying and addressing professional development areas not adequately met by the district’s existing programs.
Developing technology competence among all faculty is critical in order to cultivate classrooms in which technology is used to support the curriculum and to meet the individual learning needs of all students. Through participation in courses developed by EdTech Leaders Online, teachers will be able to bring technology-enhanced lessons to their classrooms as they integrate new technologies into their teaching practices. As a capacity-building project focused on quality professional development and technology integration into the curriculum, the EdTech Leaders Online program will have a long-term impact on teaching and learning in the XXX District, and will enable the district to sustain this learning far beyond the grant period. When teachers experience using technology as learners, they are better able to orchestrate its effective use in their classrooms for their own students.
As a result of this project, a core team of educators will be trained as online course designers who can design and deliver a rigorous program of standards-based technology-enhanced online courses to colleagues across subject areas and grade levels. Because they are conducted entirely online, these workshops will provide the flexibility needed to accommodate the varied schedules and professional development needs of teachers. In addition, teachers will be trained to assess and evaluate online learning and its impact on student achievement. This ongoing access to quality professional development will enable busy teachers to participate on their own schedule as they learn to [list course goals]. It will also build an online network of district teachers and administrators who can collaborate as they implement new teaching practices.
Participation in the ETLO program will help the XXX District achieve the following goals:
If your school district has overarching goals guiding district programs, this is a logical place to insert these goals and the ways in which this project will meet them.
Through a partnership with the EdTech Leaders Online program at the Education Development Center, Inc.(EDC), this project will train a team of ## teachers and administrators in the Online Course Design and Delivery Program over the course of ## months/years, adding a new level to current professional development offerings in the district. These facilitators will then deliver a program of ## online workshops developed by EDC to up to ## educators in the district. This team will design and deliver a carefully-crafted program of ## courses based on the specific district needs and goals. Courses to be developed will include [list course topics, if known].
Beginning in MONTH YY and throughout the YY-YY school year, teachers and administrators [or the appropriate target audience] will have the opportunity to participate in the courses created and facilitated by these trained specialists. Online courses may include readings, activities, and participation in an online discussion, and most will culminate in a final curricular project for classroom use. [or the appropriate final product] The following courses will be designed:
Title + course description for all courses to be designed, if known.
This is a good place to describe in full any plans to offer course credit, stipends, new or upgraded hardware, or software to course and workshop participants. You should also outline any concrete plans to select online professional development specialists, schedule face-to-face meetings for course participants or for program evaluation, market the program, or manage technical issues.
Upon completion of the training course, the district team will join colleagues from across the country in an ongoing national forum developed by EdTech Leaders Online. Within this forum, trained facilitators and designers from all of the ETLO programs will share ideas and tips and collaborate on local and national projects.
As teachers experience using technology as learners, they are better able to orchestrate its effective use in their classrooms for their own students. As a result of the EdTech Leaders Online workshops, teachers will be able to bring technology-enhanced lessons to their classrooms as they integrate new technologies into their teaching practices and begin to move curricula online.
As part of District XXX’s involvement in the ETLO program, lessons learned about online learning and professional development will be disseminated broadly throughout the XXX District and beyond. Teachers who participate in this project will be expected to share their new curriculum materials with other colleagues across the district. Project participants will also pursue opportunities to share ideas and projects with colleagues in neighboring school districts, across the state and in state-wide and national conferences where this work can be presented.
In addition, ETLO’s unique online forum for trained Online Professional Specialists enables the XXX participants to share resources and lessons developed in the courses they design and facilitate with other schools, districts, and organizations across the country. This forum will serve as an effective means of making District XXX’s work known on a national level.
Outline any specific plans your district has to share your lessons and data with other schools in your area, neighboring districts, or other states and organizations. For instance, if you plan to attend a state or national conference, you may want to bring along information about your online experiences. You may also plan to offer spots in your workshops to other local teachers, or you may plan to submit the final products from your district’s courses to one of the many national archives of lesson plans.
Please note that your district or organization may not use all or any of these evaluation tools; be sure to craft your proposal to fit your own means and objectives.
Ongoing evaluation is a key component
of this program. The
Teachers and administrators participating in the ETLO training will be assessed before, during, and after the Online Course Design and Delivery training course, and they will be evaluated by ETLO staff upon completion of the training to ensure that they have met all course requirements. On a local level, project participants will meet in person on a regular basis to reflect on their experiences and to learn from and improve the program as it progresses.
As the trained facilitators complete development of and begin to offer their courses to colleagues, they will administer surveys to participants before and after the courses. Data from these surveys will be analyzed to inform future course design and online professional development in the district. Guided by ETLO’s rubrics for online course participation and by the specific goals and requirements of the district, course designers will also be expected to assess the performance of each of their course participants. In addition, final products will be collected from educators who complete these online courses, and the district’s trained course designers will have the opportunity to confer with other ETLO participants across the country as they assess these products and evaluate the overall district online learning program.
At the end of each semester and project year, project staff will review the survey data and the teacher and student products to evaluate the successes and the challenges of the program. The results of this evaluation will be incorporated into the planning for the next round of training and course design and delivery.
The XXX District has selected the EdTech Leaders Online (ETLO) project at Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC) as its primary partner in this project, in order to gain access to its comprehensive training program for online facilitators and designers, and to the EdTech Leaders Online catalogue of exemplary online workshops. EdTech Leaders Online (http://www.edteachleaders.org) is a nationally-recognized nonprofit online professional development program designed to develop effective uses of educational technology for standards-based classroom instruction in school districts. It includes two complementary semester-long training programs, the K–12 Technology Integration Program, which prepares local teams to be online course facilitators for technology integration workshops developed by EDC in consultation with nationally recognized experts in integrating technology, and the Online Course Design and Delivery program, which trains local teams to develop online workshops based on an assessment of the local needs and the XXX state curriculum frameworks. The EdTech Leaders Online project will provide the necessary infrastructure and the critical training and support for XXX staff as they establish the XXXX Public Schools’ online professional development program. This program will complement the ongoing program of high-quality face-to-face professional development for administrators and teachers, and the high-quality curriculum for students currently offered in the district.
The XXX District has developed a number of plans to sustain and build on this program after the end of the initial grant period. Because the EdTech Leaders Online program is capacity-building in nature, the district will continue to expand and expand online professional development. Once trained, online course designers can continue to offer the their online courses or design new ones for a small fee.
The following hypothetical timeline is designed for an 18-month program beginning in September; you should adjust the schedule based on when your own training begins. In addition, you will probably want to add specific dates and numbers where possible.
Summer
Late Summer
Fall
Winter
Spring
Summer
Fall
Winter
How detailed your budget is will depend largely upon the requirements and parameters of your grant.
For each budget item, include:
Remember to include:
The budget narrative should include descriptive prose adding detail as necessary to the various budget components.
Background/Capability and Capacity Statements
Include capability statements or background information for all of the organizations your proposal will involve. This should include EDC and ETLO in addition to any local partners you may have; you will also want to provide staff biographies for the local project directors and supervisors for the grant.
Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC)
Established in 1958, Education Development Center, Inc. (EDC), an international nonprofit research and development organization, has long been a leader in educational improvement, research, curriculum development, professional development, and educational technology. With headquarters inCenter for Online Professional Development (COPE) and EdTech Leaders Online (ETLO)
EDC’s Center for Online Professional Education,
established in 1998 to explore innovative approaches to professional development,
has a track record of providing the highest quality online training programs
for educators. The EdTech Leaders Online (ETLO) program
grows out of prior work conducted by EDC, including the Leadership and the New
Technologies project, an AT&T-funded collaboration with the Harvard Graduate
School of Education; the Northeast Regional Technology in Education Consortium,
funded by the U.S. Department of Education; and the America 2000 U.S. Department
of Education Technology Innovation Challenge Grant, a collaboration with school
districts in Louisiana. The program now includes over 40 participating organizations
in 19 states and the
The EdTech Leaders Online program uses cost-effective online distance learning to build capacity for integrating technology into the curriculum and to improve student and faculty technology literacy.
The ETLO staff includes Barbara Treacy (Ed.M., Harvard), Senior Project Director, who has extensive experience designing, facilitating and assessing online courses for school districts across the country and Kirsten Peterson (Ed.M., Harvard), Associate Project Director, who has developed numerous technology integration workshops for K–12 teachers and administrators. For more information about the ETLO team or more complete bios, please see the ETLO website. (http://www.edtechleaders.org/who/staff.htm)
Depending on the format of your proposal, a formal conclusion may not be necessary. However, this is a good place to summarize the major points in your argument, and to emphasize the importance of your work one final time.
Use the appendix to include other information, data, bibliography or research that you feel will help the grantmaking organization understand your needs and proposal. This would include letters of support from stakeholders, partners, or other key educators who are familiar with your work and relevant to the funder, materials developed in your district that illustrate the basis for or structure of your program, etc.