Proposal deadline: March 31, 2026
Number of Awards & Amount: Four (4), each $5,000, teaching awards will be given to faculty (individual or faculty team) who are developing or implementing innovative, creative, and/or effective approaches to undergraduate education at UTSA, including new methodologies and/or best-practices.
Eligibility: All T/TT and FTT (at least 75% FTE) faculty are eligible to apply.
**Previous awardees, staff (including ADTS and Academic Innovation members), and Instructors with Assistantship titles are ineligible for the incentive.**
Grant Description
The Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars (ADTS) and Academic Innovation are pleased to announce the Strategies for Teaching, Assessment & Retention (STAR) awards program for AY 2026-2027. The program seeks proposals to develop and implement innovative, creative, and/or effective pedagogy, digital literacy, experiential learning, evidence-based research and practices, or the use of technology to enhance accessibility and undergraduate student success. Proposals should describe how their teaching practices promote student success while enhancing student engagement and retention.
Key Dates
- Proposal Deadline: March 31, 2026
- Award Period: September 1, 2026 - August 31, 2027
- Full Report due: August 31, 2027
Proposal Instructions
Proposals should be no more than three (3) pages in length and must contain the following components:
- Project description and goals, explaining the innovation or improvement to a particular course(s) you teach or plan to develop
- Anticipated outcomes and impact to students
- Plan to evaluate the project success, specifying metrics and evidence
- Plan to disseminate the results
Incomplete application will not be reviewed. You are encouraged to use the STAR Proposal Template to guide your proposal preparation.
The following addendum should be attached:
- Course outline or proposed syllabus
- List of courses taught in the last two (2) years with enrollments
- Planned schedule of future teaching of the enhanced class(es)
If your proposal is resubmission of the proposal previously submitted to this call but unawarded, you need to provide a brief summary of what changes/updates have been made from the previous one.
Time Commitment and Completion Requirements
By August 31, 2027, awardees should provide a project report that includes:
- a final syllabus;
- course assessment, including student evaluations of the new approach; and
- project evaluation and future plans based on the findings.
Awardees are required to present their results at a meeting of ADTS and/or Academic Innovation, in a workshop promoted by ADTS and/or Academic Innovation (such as Teaching Showcase) to interested faculty, and/or in faculty news articles, record an audio or video testimonial, write a blog post(s) or in other ways to share details of the project.
Support
Please direct questions to:
- Dr. Aaron Cassill, STAR Award Co-Chair, Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars
- Dr. David Han, STAR Award Co-Chair, Academy of Distinguished Teaching Scholars
Apply
- Application Form (coming soon)
- Download Proposal Template