Excellence in Online Education Mini-Grants
Support for CGS faculty who are ready to strengthen, redesign, or reimagine an online course in partnership with our instructional design team.
Bring Your Course to the Next Level
The CGS Excellence in Online Education Mini-Grant Program provides faculty with funding and dedicated instructional design support to develop or substantially improve an online course.
Through a cohort-based development experience, faculty work alongside the CGS Online Learning team to apply effective online teaching and course design practices, strengthen the student learning experience, and create a course that is ready to teach.
What the Mini-Grant Provides
$500 Mini-Grant
Receive a $500 stipend for your participation in the course development process and redevelopment work.
Instructional Design Partnership
Work directly with a CGS instructional designer to plan, develop, review, and strengthen your online course.
Cohort Experience
Work alongside faculty from across CGS, share ideas, receive feedback, and learn from others developing online courses.
A Course Ready to Teach
Complete the redevelopment process with a stronger, more engaging, accessible, and intentionally designed online course.
How the Development Experience Works
Faculty who receive a mini-grant participate in a structured course development and review experience with the CGS Online Learning team. The process combines individual instructional design consultation, cohort learning, milestones, and course review.
Plan
Identify course goals, priorities, and opportunities for improvement.
Develop
Work with instructional design to substantially revise course components.
Review
Review the course against CGS online course design standards and refine the experience.
Launch
Finalize the course and prepare it for an effective online teaching experience.
Who Is This Opportunity For?
The mini-grant is intended for CGS faculty who are ready to make meaningful improvements to an online course and engage actively in the development process.
- Faculty teaching a web asynchronous or hybrid course for CGS in the semester following the development experience.
- Faculty substantially revising an existing course.
- Faculty interested in strengthening course organization, learning activities, assessment, accessibility, or student engagement.
- Faculty who can commit to the cohort sessions and course development milestones.
Priority may be given to courses that address identified program or CGS needs and faculty who have not received CGS course development funding within the past two years.
Learn More About the Experience
The mini-grant is part of CGS's broader approach to online course development and quality. Before applying, explore the cohort experience and the standards that guide our work with faculty.
Development Cohort
Learn how faculty work with the CGS Online Learning team through our course development and review cohort.
Explore the Cohort Experience →Online Course Standards
Review the standards CGS Online Learning uses to guide course design and foundational online course review.
Review Our Standards →Ready to Take the Next Step?
Interested in developing or substantially revising an online course? Review the development process and submit your application for consideration.
Application deadline: September 2, 2026