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Writing More Effective Proposals II Defining project goals, objectives, and outcomes

Writing More Effective Proposals II Defining project goals, objectives, and outcomes Articulating your rationale. Project Goals, Objectives, & Outcomes. Defining Goals Broad, overarching statement of intention or ambition Defining Objectives A specific statement of activities Measurable

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Writing More Effective Proposals II Defining project goals, objectives, and outcomes

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  1. Writing More Effective Proposals II Defining project goals, objectives, and outcomes Articulating your rationale

  2. Project Goals, Objectives, & Outcomes • Defining Goals • Broad, overarching statement of intention or ambition • Defining Objectives • A specific statement of activities • Measurable • More focused and specific than a goal • A goal typically leads to several objectives • Defining Outcomes • A specific statement of activities • Measurable with criteria for success • A single objective may lead to more than one outcome

  3. Exercise: Goals, Objectives, & Outcomes Read the following abstract: 1. What do you think the main goal(s) is/are? 2. What do you think the objective(s) is/are? 3. Do you think the goals and objectives are clearly stated? 4. Re-state the goals and objectives to make them clearer and stronger Feedback on #4 from participants

  4. Exercise continued Feedback from program officer: Vague set of goals and objectives Project seems overly ambitious for a Type 1 TUES proposal (two courses, lectures and labs impacted, discovery-based approach, use of technology, and developing new labs – Note: any combination of 2 of the above would be sufficient PI assumes that readers (reviewers) already are knowledgeable about POGIL (a teaching pedagogy)

  5. Exercise continued 1. What are the desired outcomes? 2. Do you think the outcomes can be measured? 3. If yes, what information (often referred to as ‘metrics’) would need to be collected to determine if the desired outcomes are being met (criteria for success)? 4. If no, how would you re-state the desired outcomes so that they are measurable? Feedback from participants on #4

  6. Exercise continued Feedback from program officer: Clearer identification of desired outcome (to engage students to increase their learning) – minus Includes vague terms - minus Implementation of a proven strategy (POGIL) - plus Successful revision of two courses (to incorporate research) – plus/minus Lacks faculty development plan – minus Lacks evaluation plan tied to goals and objectives - very important! - minus

  7. Exercise continued Revised statement of Goals, Objectives and Outcomes Highlight improvements: Overall clearer goal and objectives Specific set of desired outcomes that can be measured – use of terms such as: implement, develop, assess, improve learning…. Note: Your evaluator will work with you to identify appropriate instruments and methods to obtain data to answer #2

  8. Project Rationale: Need and Strategy Rationale is the narrative that makes a compelling case for the need of the project and the strategy or pedagogical approach you propose to use This is the section that usually follows the “Statement of Goals and Outcomes” and comes before the implementation details found in the “Project Plan”

  9. What is included in the project rationale? • Information that helps establish the need for the project • What is known about your approach that suggests that it would be successful (cite from prior NSF projects and the literature)

  10. Exercise: An Effective Rationale Write a list of questions that the Rationale for a TUES proposal should answer using the Abstract you just read (Note: pay particular attention to questions the reviewers would expect to be answered)

  11. Effective Rationale: Program Officer Advice What does the knowledge base say about the approach? What have others done that is related? What has worked previously? What have been the problems/challenges? Why is this problem important? Is it a global or local problem? What are the potential broader impacts? How will it improve the quality of learning?

  12. What is the evidence that the approach will solve the problem? Address the defined outcomes? Improve student learning? What are alternate approaches? Mention other strategies and why you selected the one (or combination) that you did Note: reviewers like to be convinced that you are well aware of what has been tried and why you are picking your particular strategy Program Officer Advice (continued)

  13. What are the potential problems & limitations in your strategy? What can be done about them? Have you done prior work testing the strategy (for example, a pilot effort to determine feasibility)? Do you have any preliminary data and what do they show? Program Officer Advice (continued)

  14. Questions and Answers

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