Sponsored by the Office of the Provost, CRLT, and the University Library

The Provost's Teaching Innovation Prize differs from Thurnau Professorships and other teaching prizes in that it honors original, specific innovations to improve student learning, not instructor's overall teaching excellence.

Nomination Form

View current and past winning innovations

Goals

1. To recognize faculty who have developed an innovative project, e.g., new approaches to creating inclusive classrooms, new uses of instructional technology, new ways to engage students in the learning process, new approaches to student collaboration, or new methods for replicating the advantages of a small course in a large lecture.
2. To encourage the dissemination of best practices by sharing promising innovations with faculty more broadly.

For the 2025 competition, we encourage innovations in 3 domains:

• Enhancing student success through the use of alternative forms of assessment
• Innovations to create student-centered learning environments that empower students to succeed by narrowing gaps in outcomes 
• Strategies that help students understand the potential uses and limitations of Generative AI tools (e.g., ChatGPT, UM GPT, Dall-E, etc.) and develop skills for a future that includes GenAI

Award

The award will provide $5,000 to five faculty members (or teams) for their innovative projects to improve student learning. (The timing of the funds' disbursement may be delayed in exceptional situations.)

The projects will be recognized each May at the annual campus-wide teaching and instructional technology conference, Enriching Scholarship.

Awardees will be asked to share their innovations with the broader U-M community at Enriching Scholarship, other campus-wide events, and with the academic world more broadly.

Eligibility

The award is open to tenured and tenure-track faculty, clinical instructional faculty, and lecturers who have ongoing teaching appointments on the University's Ann Arbor campus.

Nominations

Nominations from the full range of instructional settings at U-M are encouraged.

All Ann Arbor campus faculty, GSIs, students, chairs, directors, deans, and staff members may nominate individuals for this prize. Faculty self-nominations are also accepted.

All nominations should use the online registration form, which opens on December 2nd. 

Selection Criteria

All innovations should have the following characteristics:

• Originality - new instructional approach/method or novel/creative application of a current instructional approach/method
• Impact - demonstrated significant impact on teaching effectiveness, student learning and/or retention
• Replicability - potential for use of this innovation by other instructors  
• Scalability - potential for widespread use of this innovation

Selection Process

Nominations will be judged by a faculty committee that will recommend winners to the Provost. The application and selection process will involve two steps.

Step One: One-page nomination forms will be reviewed by the selection committee.  Finalists will be invited to submit full applications for Step Two.

Step Two: Finalists from Step One will submit a narrative and support materials that document the effectiveness of their innovation, such as:

• examples of teaching materials (e.g., portfolio, weblinks, and video clips)
• information about the origin of the innovative idea
• evidence of impact on student learning and attitudes, including letters of support from current or past students

The selection committee will recommend winners to the Provost, who will make the final decision.

Competition Timing

December 2	Competition opens
January 31	Nomination deadline
mid-February	Finalists notified
March 11	Finalists materials due
early April	Winners notified
May	Winners recognized at Enriching Scholarship

Questions

For questions about the Prize, see Teaching Innovation Prize FAQs or email [email protected]