The Great VCU Bike Race Book FAQ
1. What is this course?
UNIV 291: Special Topics (The Great VCU Bike Race Book). One credit, pass/fail, largely informal, fully online, probably at a reduced tuition rate (to cover course costs).
2. Why do such a project?
There are at least three primary reasons. 1) To provide a purposeful, enjoyable learning experience during the Bike Race week, especially for residential students who would otherwise not have any academic work to occupy them. 2) To give VCU students an opportunity to participate in an innovative online course that aligns with the QEP’s goals of integrative learning by means of digital fluency. 3) To provide a unique faculty development experience that will advance VCU faculty’s involvement in distinctive online education aiming at deeper learning and high engagement that fosters student success. Additionally, the design of this learning experience aligns with the QEP focus on integrative thinking by means of digital fluency; including what the Mozilla foundation calls “web literacy” (see http://mozilla.github.io/webmaker-whitepaper/).
3. What are faculty and students expected to do?
Before the race
In Spring, 2015, faculty members will propose “tracks” from which students can select areas of interest. Tracks will focus on areas of creativity and/or inquiry that will be organized around disciplinary or cross-disciplinary themes—for example, bicycles and biomedical engineering; the history of bicycling in the US; bicycling and sports medicine; bicycle brands and marketing; bicycle events in the media, etc. During April, with the assistance of ALT Lab, lead faculty will create track websites with ideas and examples of student activities during the race and the learning products that might result. Students will be able to register for the course and affiliate themselves with tracks in July and August, 2015. Faculty will have rosters of their track members by the end of the add period in the fall term.
During the week of the race
During the race itself, students will produce various kinds of work related to the bike race, e.g., blogs, tweets, photographs, audio, video (YouTube, Vine, Instagram, Imgur, etc.). Also during the race, these learning products, categorized by tracks and identified by tags, will be aggregated in more-or-less real time onto a learning engagement “dashboard” page created and maintained by ALT Lab. In short, turning the bike race week VCU students will be creators, researchers, and “citizen journalists,” making the academic vitality, creativity, and diversity of our students visible to the world in an exciting, innovative way.
In the weeks following the race
After race week, lead faculty and their student teams will work with ALT Lab to curate the best works into a “Great VCU Bike Race Book” that would live online and possibly be published in print depending on resources. Faculty members are invited to propose a track theme. The faculty group will determine the course requirements and materials that would be housed on a central website developed through ALT Lab. Given the nature of the course, each track could accommodate many students, perhaps as many as 100 or more per track depending on the activities and design.
4. Are there incentives to encourage faculty participation?
Yes! As they do for other online learning development experiences, faculty would receive professional development funds from Online Academic Programs for spring and fall planning and development meetings as well as for their participation in the course—$3000.00 in professional development support for track development and $3000.00 in professional development support for course participation before, during, and after the race week in the Fall, 2015 term.
5. Why call this project a “book”?
“Book” is a metaphor suggesting a collection that is organized and curated. The aggregated materials during the bike race week will be an initial instance of the “book.” Materials selected for the online showcase of the “best of the race” will make up the next instance of the “book.” Depending on time, resources, and interest, the “best of the best” might well be published as a print volume.
6. How do I propose a track theme?
Using the form below, track theme proposals should be submitted to Dr. Cathy Howard at by March 20. Proposals will be selected by April 1. For further information, please contact Dr. Gardner Campbell at .
This one-credit, pass-fail special topics course (UNIV 291: The Great VCU Bike Race Book) is intended to be associated with the Richmond 2015 UCI Road World Championships. Please complete the following proposal form and return to Cathy Howard at by March 20. Proposals will be selected by April 1. Faculty whose proposals are accepted will receive $3000.00 in professional development money (department transfer) for their work in four spring ALT Lab faculty development workshops as well as follow-up activities, meetings, etc. prior to the race. Faculty will receive an additional $3000.00 in professional development money upon successful completion of their “track” in Fall, 2015. Please see attached FAQ for more details.
College/School: / Contact/Instructor:Department: / Email:
Box No: / Phone:
Track Title (30 character limit – be descriptive of track focus)
Track Proposal (Briefly describe the theme of your track in a few sentences that can be used in promotional venues for students. In addition, what are the primary learning objectives? In what way is the course connected to the bike race? What products or assignments will be evaluated?):
Maximum Enrollment (a minimum of 20 is expected):
Will classroom space be needed during the week of the race?
If yes, what are the classroom equipment needs?
Do you anticipate students needing physical access to the library building during the week of the bike race?
Other elements needed to offer this course:
Department Chair Signature Date
Dean Signature Date
Approved by Reviewers: